White House Hosts Its First-Ever Conference on Women’s Health Research

WASHINGTON — It may have been raining outside, but the atmosphere was charged with positivity in the East Room on Wednesday as President Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden hosted the first-ever White House Conference on Women’s Health Research.

The event, a collaboration between the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research and the Milken Institute, brought together stakeholders ranging from business and philanthropic leaders to academic researchers and women’s health advocates.

While it was inevitable that the conference celebrated the Bidens’ leadership to advance women’s health research, attendees also held serious discussions about how to continue making progress during and after the upcoming change in administrations.

In his State of the Union address last March, Biden laid out a vision for transforming this area of health care.

Among other things, he called on Congress to allocate $12 billion to create a fund for women’s health research at the National Institutes of Health to advance a cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research agenda and to establish a new nationwide network of research centers of excellence and innovation in women’s health.

Days later, he signed an executive order intended to ensure that women’s health issues continue to be integrated and prioritized across the federal research portfolio and budget.

In doing so, the president said that such bold actions were needed to close gaps in a vital area of research that has been historically underfunded and understudied.

“Today we are saying to women everywhere we hear you and we will get you the answers you need,” said First Lady Jill Biden as she rose to address the attendees.

As she continued to speak, Biden mentioned a number of surprising statistics – for instance, that the U.S. economy loses $1.8 billion in working time every year to menopause symptoms – and stressed the importance of including woman subjects in government-funded research “so we can create treatments specifically for women.”

She also told those gathered for Wednesday’s event that the end of the Biden administration “isn’t the finish line.”

“iIt’s the starting point,” she said. “We, all of us, have built the momentum … Now it’s up to all of us to make it unstoppable.

“My work doesn’t stop in January when Joe and I leave this house,” she said. “I will keep building alliances like the ones that brought us here today, and I will keep pushing for funding for innovative research.”

Following her to the podium, President Biden said he’s always believed that the nation is at its best when it opens up new possibilities “for our women and girls – and that includes their health.”

“Women make up half our population, and yet, to state the obvious, they are sorely underrepresented when it comes to health research,” he said. “That’s why we launched the first-time White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research. 

“Our goal was to fundamentally change and improve how we approach and invest in women’s health issues, and to pioneer the next generation of scientific research and discussion that are going to improve care for women all across the country because, the fact is, the health of our moms and grandmothers and sisters and daughters, friends and colleagues, affects not just women, but the prosperity of the entire nation,” the president said.

Biden said the additional funding the National Institutes of Health have gotten as a result of the initiative have helped it to “break down silos” and make more progress, more quickly.

“But there’s still so much to do,” he said. “For instance, we know that heart disease is the leading cause of death for women, but we don’t know enough about how menopause may affect heart disease. That’s going to change.”

The president also noted that the Department of Defense has dedicated funding to research women’s health issues like arthritis, cancer, and chronic fatigue.

“It’s looking, of course, about how these conditions affect them in the military, but the research is going to benefit all women,” he said.

Reflecting on his executive order, Biden proudly said “there’s literally never been more of an effort from the federal government to spur innovation in women’s health research – never in our history.

“And this initiative lays the groundwork for discoveries and research for generations to come,” he said. 

“Mark my words, and the benefits we gain tomorrow will happen because we made the decision to do something about them today. Now all of you in this room are leading the way,” Biden said.

White House officials said they hoped Wednesday’s conference would continue to build awareness of the issues surrounding women’s health and that this continues to be an area of research that has historically not gotten the attention or the funding dollars it deserves.

“There are still so many questions,” said Elizabeth Alexander, deputy assistant to the president and communications director to the first lady, during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program Wednesday.

“This is especially true as it relates to women in midlife and beyond,” Alexander said. “Why is menopause still such a mystery? Why do women face Alzheimer’s disease more than men? Why do women get MS more than men? Why do they have more autoimmune disorders? Why do they have more chronic pain?

“These are questions that we have and that we don’t have answers to because we don’t have the research,” she said. “We need more research and that’s what the president and the first lady have been talking about.”

As for the future, despite fears that funding in this area may be significantly curtailed once Trump takes office, the Biden administration’s stance is that this is “a completely nonpartisan issue,” Alexander said.

“Women are 50% of the population, and research into our health has never gotten the attention or the funding it deserves. We’ve had a lot of bipartisan support for these efforts on the Hill over the past four years, and we hope those efforts continue,” she said.

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