Trump signs executive order to establish NIH women’s health division

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order alongside first lady Melania Trump directing the federal government to strengthen women’s health research and improve how findings are used in clinical care and policy.

A new women’s health division will sit within the National Institutes of Health (NIH), while the White House task force will be led by chief of staff Susie Wiles and health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Under the order, the division must be established within an appropriate NIH institute or centre within 90 days.

It will work alongside the existing Office of Research on Women’s Health, established in 1990, rather than replace it.

The White House said the initiative would extend the government’s approach beyond research, focusing on improving prevention, diagnosis and treatment across different stages of women’s lives.

President Trump said: “The executive order I’ll sign in just a moment will ​direct the Department of Health and Human Services to establish a new women’s health division within the National Institute of ⁠Health.

“That’s a big deal. They’ve been after it for a long time,” he said. “Who the hell wouldn’t have a woman’s ​health division? Melania said they don’t have it.”

The division will study conditions that uniquely or disproportionately affect women, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, autoimmune and inflammatory conditions, chronic pain, endometriosis, fibroids, infertility, menopause, Alzheimer’s disease and osteoporosis.

It will also seek to increase the inclusion of women and girls in clinical trials and hold research grant recipients accountable for considering sex as a biological variable.

This means accounting for biological differences associated with sex that may affect health and treatment outcomes.

The administration said it wants to speed up diagnosis and improve treatment for women’s health conditions that remain understudied.

The task force was due to hold its first meeting on Monday, during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Wiles recently completed treatment for breast cancer and announced that she is cancer-free.

Trump credited Melania Trump with conceiving the initiative.

The first lady said the effort should “ensure that medical breakthroughs are accessible and affordable to women, regardless of their financial circumstances” and “replace generations of silence with open conversation, education and compassion.”

The order also revokes former President Joe Biden’s March 2024 executive order advancing women’s health research, championed by former first lady Jill Biden, and a November 2023 memorandum establishing a White House initiative on women’s health.