President Trump Signs Historic Executive Order to Advance Women’s Health, Championed by First Lady Melania Trump

WASHINGTON, D.C.-OCTOBER 19, 2026-President Donald J. Trump, with the leadership and support of First Lady Melania Trump, today signed an executive order, Advancing Women's Health to Improve Outcomes in All Phases of Life, which directs the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish a new Women's Health Division within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to strengthen scientific research, accelerate medical breakthroughs, and improve health outcomes for American women and girls.

The executive order directs HHS, through NIH, to establish the new division within 90 days. Working with the NIH Office of Research on Women's Health, the division will advance research into conditions that uniquely or disproportionately affect women, strengthen accountability in federally funded research, and accelerate the translation of scientific discoveries into prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and clinical care.

Reflecting the First Lady's commitment to improving the lives of women and girls, the order also establishes the first White House Women's Health Task Force, co-chaired by Secretary Kennedy and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, to coordinate federal efforts to improve women's health from infancy and adolescence through the reproductive years, midlife, menopause, and healthy aging.

"President Trump is transforming how our nation approaches women's health by making it a priority across every stage of life. First Lady Melania Trump's leadership was instrumental in making this executive order a reality, with strong support from my co-chair, Susie Wiles," said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. "For generations, women have faced unanswered questions about conditions that uniquely or disproportionately affect them. This new NIH division will confront those questions with gold-standard science, accelerate research into prevention and treatment, and turn medical discoveries into better care for women and girls across America."

The new NIH Women's Health Division will advance research into cardiovascular disease, cancer, autoimmune and inflammatory conditions, chronic pain, endometriosis, fibroids, polyendocrine metabolic ovary syndrome (PMOS), infertility, maternal health, menopause, Alzheimer's disease, osteoporosis, and other conditions affecting women throughout their lives. The division will increase scientific review of understudied women's health conditions; promote advanced research technologies and personalized medicine; strengthen interdisciplinary research; improve understanding of sex-specific health outcomes; increase inclusion of women and girls in clinical trials; reinforce NIH requirements to account for sex as a biological variable; and translate scientific discoveries into clinical practice.

"Women deserve strong research that helps them and their doctors answer key health questions they face at every stage of life," said NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya. "This new division will help close lingering evidence gaps, expand and maximize the impact of our research investments, and bring discoveries closer to patients."

"Today, we're ensuring women's needs, experiences, and voices guide the care they receive at every stage of life," said Dr. Erica Schwartz, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "This executive order will help us put proven interventions into practice, diagnose conditions earlier, expand treatment options, and prevent disease."

Building on Historic Action for Women's Health

President Trump's executive order builds on HHS actions since January 2025 to transform women's healthcare from treating conditions in isolation toward a whole-person approach grounded in prevention, root causes, rigorous science, and informed decision-making.

Among these actions, HHS has:

• Expanded women's health research at NIH, including initiatives focused on midlife health, maternal health, autoimmune disease, endometriosis, infertility, sex differences, hormone health, and other conditions affecting women.
• Modernized menopause care, with FDA initiating removal of broad boxed warnings from hormone replacement therapy products and HHS partnering with the American Urological Association to promote evidence-based use of local estrogen therapy for postmenopausal women.
• Approved two new drugs to expand treatment options for menopausal symptoms. The first was the approval of a generic version of Premarin (conjugated estrogens), the first such approval in more than 30 years. The new generic product is expected to improve affordability and access while maintaining the same quality, safety, and effectiveness as the brand-name drug. The second approval was for a non-hormonal treatment for moderate to severe vasomotor symptoms, such as hot flashes, associated with menopause.
• Launched the Breast Cancer Screening and Diagnostic Follow-up Initiative, a Breast Cancer Screening Collaborative and a national breast cancer analysis that uses nationally representative inpatient and outpatient data on screening patterns, diagnostic follow up, modality use, timeliness, and outcomes among midlife and menopausal women. Together, these activities aim to strengthen breast cancer screening and follow up nationwide.
• Launched the Infertility Initiative to analyze nationally representative health data and convene a quality improvement collaborative to track how infertility, related conditions, and treatments affect linked maternal-infant health.
• Strengthened fertility and reproductive health, including launching the first national training center focused on infertility education and technical assistance and establishing a new reproductive health Center of Excellence.
• Proposed a first-of-its-kind pathway for fertility benefits with the Departments of Labor and Treasury focused on prevention, underlying causes of infertility, fertility education, medical management, non-IVF treatments, and male-factor infertility.
• Strengthened maternal and preventive health, including launching Moms.gov, advancing the HHS Perinatal Improvement Collaborative, investing more than $525 million in evidence-based home visiting services, and proposing updated cervical cancer screening guidelines that include a self-collection option.

HHS also convened the first National Conference on Women's Health in March 2026, bringing together researchers, clinicians, policymakers, and advocates to identify practical solutions to longstanding gaps in research and care.

Together, these actions represent a comprehensive effort by the Trump Administration and build on First Lady Melania Trump's commitment to advancing women's health across the lifespan - building the evidence base, translating research into clinical practice, preventing disease where possible, and giving women and their clinicians better information to make informed decisions.

Under President Trump's leadership and with First Lady Melania Trump's continued commitment to improving the health and well-being of women, HHS is advancing gold-standard science and working to Make America Healthy Again by ensuring American women benefit from the best research, innovation, prevention, and healthcare in the world.