This section includes information on menopause-related programs and initiatives across federal government agencies. Programs and initiatives include studies, special programs, and research networks in a wide range of disease areas and scientific fields, including menopause.

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)

eCare Plan
The eCare Plan is being developed, piloted, and disseminated to support longitudinal comprehensive care planning for people living with multiple chronic conditions, in partnership with the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund, which is administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation.

Improving Nonsurgical Treatment of Urinary Incontinence among Women in Primary Care (INTUIT-PC)
This project uses the EvidenceNOW Model to provide external support to primary care practices in disseminating and implementing findings from patient-centered outcomes research on nonsurgical treatments for urinary incontinence to improve diagnosis, management, and outcomes of care.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

The National Center for Health Statistics’ Division of Health Interview Statistics (DHIS)

• National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)
  • DHIS is collaborating with the National Institutes of Health Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) to add five menopause-related questions to the NHIS in 2025 to look at the health of women during the menopausal transition.
  • On a rotating basis, the NHIS includes questions about cancer screening (breast, cancer, and colorectal) and cardiovascular health (blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood glucose testing).

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS)

Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute
NCATS funds this institute at the University of California, San Diego. The center supports investigation across the lifespan and in special populations, provides assistance for including special populations in research, organizes seminars and training courses, and studies the best ways to transition care from childhood to adulthood.

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)

Women’s Health Initiative (WHI)
This project is a long-term national health study that focuses on strategies for preventing heart disease, breast and colorectal cancers, and osteoporosis in postmenopausal women. In May 2024, WHI published an article in JAMA describing new findings in hormone therapy and menopause, calcium and vitamin D supplements and bone fractures, and low-fat diets and cancer.

WHI Strong and Healthy (WHISH)
This clinical trial is testing whether physical activity can reduce the incidences of heart disease and stroke in older women.

National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB)

Cerebrovascular Reserve Imaging with Simultaneous PET/MRI Using Arterial Spin Labeling and Deep Learning
This project aims to improve cerebrovascular reserve (CVR) assessment. The arterial spin labeling–based methodology to be developed will be tested to determine whether it can show that premenopausal women have significantly higher CVR than age-matched men.

Novel Biosensors based on Mining Bacterial Transcription Factors
This project aims to develop a hormone biosensor to enable fundamentally new approaches to fertility planning and the management of endocrine disorders.

Continuous Monitoring and Management of Vaginal Health via Multifunctional OCT/OCTA Endoscopy
This project aims to develop a point-of-care multifunctional intravaginal endoscope that can obtain simultaneous information on structural, vascular, and biomechanical changes before and during a vaginal laser procedure and assess and differentiate between expected vaginal epithelial thickness and blood vessel density among different patient cohorts based on menopausal status (premenopausal, perimenopausal, or postmenopausal).

Metasurface enhanced and machine learning aided spectrochemical liquid biopsy
This project aims to develop novel metasurface-enhanced mid-infrared on-chip spectroscopy (MEMOS) for sensitive and specific spectrochemical analysis of biofluids and spectrometer-less on-chip chemical fingerprinting. To validate the MEMOS platform, blood serum samples from untreated ovarian cancer patients, females with benign pelvic diseases, and healthy postmenopausal females will be tested.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

Primary Ovarian Insufficiency: Etiology and Comorbid Disease
This study will seek to determine the diseases that are inherited along with primary ovarian insufficiency (POI) in families and the gene mutations underlying POI and associated inherited diseases to help identify causes of morbidity and early mortality in women who present with infertility in the form of POI.

Dynamic Regulation of the Ovarian Reserve
This study will seek to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of TAF4B in the regulation of the establishment of the ovarian follicle reserve in mice to increase the fundamental understanding of the mechanisms that regulate the establishment and maintenance of the human ovarian reserve, thereby increasing understanding of POI in women and perhaps finding ways to better manage it.

Dietary Intervention Strategies to Support Methyl Group Metabolism in Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
This study aims to see whether dietary interventions can help women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) mitigate their risks and whether these types of interventions have implications for menopausal women.

Letrozole for Treatment of Uterine Fibroids: A randomized, placebo-controlled trial
This study aims to investigate whether letrozole will decrease fibroid volume and improve symptoms in women with uterine fibroids and could advance care for women with other conditions and severe menopausal symptoms who want to avoid hormonal treatments.

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)

The impact of the postmenopausal hormonal milieu on brown fat activity and energy expenditure
This study seeks to identify mechanisms that increase the propensity for fat gain during menopause to inform more effective therapeutic strategies for addressing obesity in postmenopausal women.

Influence of menopause on adipose tissue accumulation and function
This study seeks to identify novel depot-specific adipose tissue (AT) pathways in estrogen-depleted women to explain the accumulation in abdominal adiposity that occurs with menopause and to inform more targeted approaches for interventions that prevent abdominal AT accumulation in women.

Skeletal Effects of Type 1 Diabetes
This study seeks to contribute knowledge pertinent to the cause of excess risk of osteoporotic fractures in patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus to encourage the performance of the clinical trials needed to provide agents that reduce fracture risk in people with diabetes.

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)

The Sister Study
This study investigates the causes of breast cancer by studying women whose sisters have had breast cancer to identify risk factors, with the goal of finding ways to prevent breast cancer.

Circulating levels of Persistent Organic Pollutants and Subclinical Atherosclerosis progression in Postmenopausal women
This study investigates the long-term associations of persistent organic pollutant (POP) concentrations in plasma and atherosclerosis progression in postmenopausal women in a unique cohort.

Environmental Chemical Body Burden and Prospective Breast Cancer Risk in the Cancer Prevention Study-3 Cohort
This study will focus on the chemical body burden of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and the concomitant risk of developing invasive breast cancer during the menopausal transition.

Integrated exposome profiling to identify environmental risk factors of metabolic disease in mid- and late-life
This is an exposome- and metabolome-wide association study of incident Type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome in the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN) to understand the underlying biological mechanisms linking environmental chemicals to Type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

Maintain and Enrich Resource Infrastructure for Project Viva: a pre-birth cohort with follow up into adolescence
This study investigates numerous environmental exposures and health outcomes beginning in early pregnancy in 1999–2002. The almost two decades of data thus traverse numerous sensitive periods of the life course—from gestation through adolescence for index participants and from pregnancy into the perimenopausal period for their mothers.

Environmental Pollutants and AHR pathway in Uterine Leiomyoma
This study aims to determine the role of the tryptophan–kynurenine–aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) pathway, which is activated by genetic and environmental factors in tumorigenesis, to better understand uterine leiomyoma. The researchers hope their study leads to new treatments for this understudied disease.

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Women’s Mental Health Research Program
This program coordinates with NIMH divisions to promote research on women’s mental health; works with the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health and other NIH institutes, centers, and offices to facilitate joint funding opportunities; serves as a point of contact for topics related to women’s mental health; and serves as a liaison between NIH and external stakeholders on research issues relevant to women’s mental health.

Behavioral Endocrinology Branch
This branch is working to identify the causes of, treatments for, and predictors of risk for reproductive endocrine-related mood disorders, including perimenopausal depression.

Office of AIDS Research (OAR)

HIV and Women
This signature program aims to advance the NIH vision for women’s health. As part of the program, the HIV and Women Working Group, with representation from across NIH, is charged with identifying gaps and priorities at the intersection of HIV and women’s health. Menopause among women with HIV is within the scope of this program.

HIV and Aging
This signature program aims to meet increasing public health needs as people with HIV age and to catalyze interdisciplinary research and training at the intersection of HIV and aging. As part of this program, a working group endeavors to promote discussions among NIH staff members, people aging with HIV and their community advocates, researchers, and relevant U.S. government agency partners to foster collaboration, identify research gaps and opportunities, facilitate integrative research and training, and promote faster implementation of research results. Menopause among women with HIV is within the scope of this program.

Multiple NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices

Menopause Strategies: Finding Lasting Answers for Symptoms and Health (MsFLASH) trials
In the MsFLASH research network, women’s health experts have done research at world-renowned institutions and shared their findings to improve the quality of life for menopausal women.

Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN)
This study examines the physical, biological, psychological, and social changes during midlife to help scientists, health care providers, and women learn how experiences in this transitional period affect health and quality of life during aging.

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

Women’s Health Research Network
This network is a special initiative to systematically transform the VA’s capacity to examine and reduce gender disparities in health and health care and use research to increase the delivery of evidence-based care tailored to women veterans’ needs. The network includes the Menopause Research Work Group and the Women and Aging Research Work Group.