Following a outcry by scientists and experts, federal officials said on Thursday that they will restore the funding of the women’s health initiative, one of the largest and largest studies on the health of women ever carried out.
The findings of WHI and its randomized controlled tests have changed medical practices and have helped to form clinical guidelines, preventing hundreds of thousands of cardiovascular disease and breast cancer.
“These studies represent critical contributions to a better understanding of women’s health,” said Emily G. Hilliard, a spokesman for the Ministry of Health and Human Services.
“We are now working to fully restore funding to these basic research efforts,” he added. The National Institutes of Health “remain profoundly committed to promoting public health through strict gold research and take immediate action to ensure the continuation of these studies”.
Whi, which began in the 1990s, when few women were included in clinical research, were recorded over 160,000 participants throughout the nation. She continues to follow about 42,000 women, watching data on cardiovascular disease and aging, as well as weakness, vision loss and mental health.
Researchers were hoping to use the findings to learn more about how to maintain mobility and cognitive function and slow memory loss, cancer detection earlier and predicting the risk of other diseases.
HHS has informed the leaders of the research team that it would end the Whi regional centers in September, although the Coordination Center, based at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center in Seattle, will be funded at least in January 2026.
Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat of Washington, said the interruption of the trial would be “a catastrophic loss for women’s health investigation”.
Not only did the initiative have led to major developments in women’s health, “it has prepared the way for a generation of researchers who focused on women’s health – which has been overlooked and has not been overwhelmed for a long time,” Murray said.
WHI included a series of randomized controlled tests and contributed to more than 2,000 research documents. But it is probably known for a study of hormone replacement therapy that stopped abruptly in 2002, after the researchers found that elderly women who received an estrogen and progestin have had a slight but significant increase in the risk of breast cancer.
Until then, hormone replacement therapy is widely believed to protect women from cardiovascular disease. But the test found that although the combination of hormones reduced colon cancer and hip fractures, women put women at a higher risk for heart attacks, strokes and blood clots.
Dr. Joann Manson, one of the long -term study by the study and a medical professor at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, called on the announcement of “heart” funding cuts.
The initial decision to reduce funding, he said, were embarrassed, as the statements of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Minister of Health of the Nation, on the importance of reducing chronic disease in America.
“There is no better example of the scientific impact of the research on the prevention of chronic diseases than whi,” Dr. Manson said.
The lessons drawn from the study of hormones have led to huge savings in healthcare costs, the researchers have found – about $ 35 billion between 2003 and 2012, according to one study, due to the number of cases of cancer and cardiovascular disease. For every dollar spent on WHI, $ 140 saved.
A randomized test conducted by WHI examined the effect of a low fat, high fruit and vegetable diet. Although the researchers initially found a decrease only in ovarian cancer, long -term follow -up showed that diet also reduced breast cancer deaths.
Another study of calcium and vitamin D found that supplements provided a moderate benefit for maintaining bone mass and preventing hip fractures to older women, but did not prevent other colon fractures or cancer.
The findings have influenced medical guidelines, which are currently not recommended that all women usually take supplements.
Participants in the initiative are now 78 to 108 years old and some scientists have admitted that there could be an argument for clearing the trial. But careful design is usually given to close such a large and wide study.
“There is still so much that we need to learn,” said Garnet Anderson, senior vice -president and director of the Fred Hutch Cancer Center at the Fred Hutch Center and the primary researcher of the initiative.
“No one has ever studied 13,000 women over the age of 90 to know: What are their health needs? He said.” We would like to know the secrets of success for healthy aging. “
One reason why the study began in the 1990s was that there was a lack of information and research on women’s health and minimal data on basic clinical recommendations, said Marian Neuhouser, who heads of the Fred Hutch Center Cancer Prevention Program and is Chairman of the Committee of the Directorate.
“Women are half of the population,” Dr. Neuhouser said, “but they were not included in the survey.
