National Women’s Health Week draws to a close on May 18, but the Endocrine Society’s commitment to advance women’s health continues through our research advocacy. Currently, we are following and influencing several initiatives that aim to improve women’s health through research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and throughout the federal government. These activities include the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, the NASEM Committee on Assessing Women’s Health Research at NIH, and efforts within NIH to advance women’s health research through the intramural program and extramural grants. This week, NIH announced the 2024-2028 iteration of the NIH-Wide Strategic Plan for Research on the Health of Women, which identified strategic goals and cross-cutting themes to guide research investments across NIH.
The Endocrine Society provided comments to the Office of Research on Women’s health in the development of the strategy, and we are pleased to see many of our priorities reflected in the final plan. For example, the plan notes the “complex intersection of social and environmental exposures with individual-level biological factors affects the health status, disease presentation, treatment response, resilience, and quality of life for women” including hormones and exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). We are also encouraged that the plan recognizes the need for “studies on health outcomes that span the life course—including, childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, midlife, and late adulthood.” Specific life stages or inflection points relevant to women’s health, such as menarche, pregnancy, and menopause were given special attention, and this week NIH convened a roundtable on Future Directions in Menopause Research: Optimizing Midlife Health of Women.” During the roundtable, NIH announced a new Research, Condition, and Disease Categorization (RCDC) category for menopause for FY 2023, which estimated that $56 million was invested in menopause research for FY 2023.
The NIH Office of Disease Prevention also shared plans for a new Pathways 2 Prevention workshop series in late 2025 centered on the management of menopausal symptoms. The goal of the workshop series will be to help identify additional areas of research that are needed to help women and their healthcare providers navigate menopause. We will continue to advocate for the important role of endocrinology in women’s health research and position our members as leaders in this important field.
This week, the Endocrine Society met with Dr. Robert Califf, the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), to discuss several topics of importance to the Society. During the meeting, the Commissioner discussed the agency’s recently launched initiative to develop a front-of-package nutrition labeling system which would provide context for nutritional information. This initiative was one of the goals of the White House’s Conference and National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition and Health. The goal of the conference is to develop a national strategy to end hunger and increase healthy eating and physical activity. The Society supports these efforts and provided comments to the White House on the Initiative, highlighting the efficacy of the CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion and the Special Diabetes Program. During the meeting, the Society also asked the Commissioner about access to GLP-1 medications. We have encouraged the FDA to do more to address the ongoing shortages of these medications which have continued to cause significant access issues across the country. We will continue to urge the FDA to do more to address this serious issue.
The Endocrine Society will host the second annual Endocrinology Mentor Day (eMD) at ENDO 2024 in Boston. The event will take place on Sunday, June 2. During the event, medical students and residents will be paired with an Endocrine Society member as their “mentor” for the day. Mentors will guide attendees around ENDO and introduce them to ENDO’s signature programs, including poster presentations, interesting case studies, and a plenary session. The event at ENDO 2023 in Chicago last year was a big success, due in large part to our terrific mentors. If you are interested in joining us for this program as a mentor, or would like to learn more about the event, please email Ellie Cliff at [email protected].
We rely on your voice to advocate for our policy priorities. Join us to show our strength as a community that cares about endocrinology. Contact your U.S representatives or European Members of Parliament through our online platform. Take action and make a difference today.