First lady Jill Biden shines a light on vast funding and research disparities on women’s health

By Betsy Klein, CNN

(CNN) — First lady Jill Biden is looking to a post-White House future building on work she began while in office to shine a light on women’s health, a chronically underfunded and under-researched space – and one impacting half the population.

At a White House event Wednesday, geneticist Dr. Marlena Fejzo shared her own experience researching women’s health, saying, “We have been able to walk on the moon for decades. Yet women are still dying from nausea and vomiting of pregnancy,” a condition that, she said, impacts 70% of all pregnancies and leads to an average of 23 days of missed work, costing the US economy roughly $2.2 billion per year.

Experiencing severe nausea and vomiting during her own pregnancy, Fejzo said she was told by her doctor “that I was exaggerating my symptoms for attention.” She spent the next two decades researching the cause and recently published her findings linking a specific hormone, GDF15, to the condition, known in its most severe form as hyperemesis gravidarum. Still, there is not a cure or strategy to prevent it.

Wednesday’s event marked the White House’s first-ever conference on the subject, bringing together public and private sector leaders, researchers like Fejzo, activists, and investors to discuss the challenges, progress, and business opportunities of women’s health research during what advocate Maria Shriver described as a moment of “seismic transformation.”

“Today, we are saying to women everywhere: We hear you, and we will get you the answers you need,” Biden said as she addressed attendees.

The Biden administration has been a part of that transformation, driving $810 million in investments across federal government agencies. It’s funding projects to develop at-home tests to diagnose HPV, human papillomavirus, which causes cervical cancer, as well as preeclampsia, a pregnancy complication. It’s funding research toward the possibility of a therapeutic treatment that could help delay menopause. It’s funding efforts to better understand how gender affects brain health.

That money is relatively safe from being rolled back by the incoming Trump administration: Some projects have been fully paid for, and others are being funded on a rolling basis.

Still, with 40 days until President-elect Donald Trump takes office, President Joe Biden acknowledged the reality that prioritizing the issue may not continue under the next administration.

“The fact is: The health of our moms and grandmothers, sisters and daughters, friends and colleagues affects not just women’s well-being, but the prosperity of the entire nation. And that’s a fact. We haven’t gotten that through to the other team yet,” Biden, the only male speaker at the conference, said in remarks from the East Room.

Officials point to bipartisan support driven by female senators on Capitol Hill for legislation on advancing menopause care and mid-life women’s health – as well as a recognition in the private sector that there is a significant untapped market for treatments for conditions like osteoporosis and Alzheimer’s disease – as evidence that momentum will continue at pace.

Women at the forefront of the efforts detailed some of the obstacles they have encountered, underscoring the need for innovation: misdiagnoses of perimenopause, symptoms ignored and lack of access to care.

Dr. Elizabeth Comen, an oncologist specializing in breast cancer, told a heartbreaking story of stigma as she described a patient on her deathbed who apologized for sweating. Peloton instructor Robin Arzon lamented the lack of data around pregnant athletes. And Dr. Lisa Mosconi, director of the Weill Cornell Women’s Brain Initiative, noted that some research has shown there may be a connection between Alzheimer’s, menopause and hormone therapy – which could impact the millions American women who use some kind of hormones, including birth control, per Mosconi.

“We have never been able to directly measure the effect of these therapies in the brain. Never. This needs to change,” Mosconi said.

Jill Biden, who has traveled the country and the globe promoting the administration’s efforts on the matter, has indicated that this work will be a major piece of how she uses her influence and platform after leaving the White House.

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

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.