The early 1990s were a time of great change for women’s health. In 1990, the Office of Women’s Health Research was established within the National Institutes of Health to ensure women’s participation in medical research. A year later, the Office of Women’s Health was established within the Department of Health and Human Services to coordinate research, education, and resources. The Women’s Health Initiative, one of the largest studies on women’s health, has been launched. And in 1994, the Food and Drug Administration created its own Office of Women’s Health to test the safety of FDA-approved drugs, but until then there were no special requirements for including women in research.
From increasing the availability of mammogram screening to conducting research that led to the Violence Against Women Act, the impact these programs have on women’s health cannot be overstated, yet funding and research disparities persist. Significant NIH funding was not specifically allocated to women’s health research until 2024.
No one knows this more than men’s health advocates. “The Office of Women’s Health has done great things for women on so many levels,” said Paul Turek, director of the Turek Clinic and a longtime men’s health advocate. “We have a template to follow that has been incredibly successful,” said Hossein Sadeghi Nejad, who oversees men’s health and urology at New York University Langone and has long pushed for a men’s health division within HHS.
This might finally be their moment.
Admiral Brian Christine, HHS Assistant Secretary for Health, is a urologist and men’s health expert. He has made public comments about his efforts to make men’s health a priority on MAHA’s agenda, including when introducing an expert committee on testosterone therapy late last year.
In February, a bipartisan bill was introduced in the House of Representatives, sponsored by Louisiana Democrat Carter Troy and co-sponsored by Michigan Republican Gregory Murphy. The Men’s Health Act, assigned to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, calls for a report on men’s health and the establishment of a dedicated office.
For men, should a semen test be a Pap smear? Some men’s health experts say yes
“The most important thing is to create an office within the Department of Health and Human Services, because they have no idea how to address men’s health,” said Ronald Henry, founder and president of the nonprofit Men’s Health Network, which helped draft and promote legislation requiring the federal government to “start addressing men’s health.”
Similar bills have been introduced in every Congress since 2000, but the 119th may be an attractive one. The bill has four sponsors so far, but unlike in the past, it is split evenly between the political parties. Congressional staffers told STAT they are excited about the bill’s chances of moving forward. Not only did the American Urological Association draft the bill, but the American Medical Association also endorsed it for the first time. Adding to the men’s health momentum, AMA president-elect Willie Underwood is a urologist and men’s health expert.
“This position will be the captain who will help steer the ship of men’s health into the next century,” Turek said. “We are very excited that now is the time.”
Federal Office of Men’s Health Lawsuit
The classic example of a men’s health agency, supporters say, is exemplified by the last lawmaker to introduce it, Democratic Rep. Donald Payne Jr. of New Jersey. During his tenure, he proposed several bills related to men’s health, including the Men’s Health Awareness Act of 2021 and several attempts to establish National Men’s Health Week. No one gained traction.
Payne died in 2024 at the age of 66 due to complications from diabetes. It was exactly the kind of problem Mr. Payne wanted his office to address. The majority of people with diabetes in the United States are men, and men are as likely to die from diabetes as from other chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease.
At an average life expectancy of 75.8 years, American men live 5.3 years less than women and far less than men in other wealthy countries. Women are more likely to die from cancer and four times as likely to die from suicide than women (because women attempt more suicide but have less access to guns). Overall, men in the United States have worse health outcomes than women across all socioeconomic and racial groups, and are estimated to have higher mortality and morbidity rates, costing federal and local governments more than $140 billion and nearly $160 billion in private costs.
“Governments around the world are increasingly recognizing the need for a collaborative approach to improving health outcomes for men,” said Oakey Enya, a health policy researcher and consultant focused on health equity. He said Australia, the United Kingdom and Ireland recently passed initiatives on men’s health, and Canada is working on one as well. In the United States, Mr. Payne’s efforts were limited to supporting Democrats just five years ago, but now they are gaining bipartisan attention, reflecting a broader movement.
Men’s health is a big part of the zeitgeist, and even politicians are paying attention. Podcasters and influencers have millions of people listening to discussions about men’s health, the business of testosterone therapy is booming, lookmaxers seem to be the person of the year, and Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is communicating the newfound centrality of men’s health (and a kind of “man up” approach to health). At the same time, institutional changes are occurring. In particular, the American Nursing Association recently established men’s health as a specialty.
“This is not about politics. This is about what is good for society,” Sadeghi-Nejad said. He is excited about the bipartisan nature of this bill and is encouraged to see genuine excitement among members of Congress and their staff.
“This is the first time we’ve had this much support from some of the largest institutional investors,” said Henry, chairman of Men’s Health Network.
Why men flock to shady online clinics for testosterone treatment
While it may be instinctive to see a dichotomy between men’s health and women’s health, the agency’s supporters strongly reject the idea that increased focus on men’s health comes at the expense of women’s health.
As an example, the bill provides that funding for men’s health initiatives should not come from resources allocated to women’s health programs or offices. Henry said a top priority is to review the resources already available for men’s health programs. “No additional funding is required,” he added.
Improving men’s health from a conceptual perspective as well and Women’s health is “absolutely an important part of a comprehensive public health strategy,” said Helen Barney, director of men’s reproductive health and professor of urology at Indiana University. “Public health is not a zero-sum conversation. While we have made and are making important strides in addressing women’s health, there are still many gaps,” she said. “But at the same time, men also experience significant disparities in life expectancy and access to preventive health care, so addressing both will ultimately strengthen the health of American families and communities.”
Focus on preventive care
Although experts differ on priorities in the men’s health care sector, most agree on the importance of focusing on preventive care. “Many diseases that particularly affect men, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and certain cancers, can be prevented or better managed through early detection,” Enya said. “But men are significantly less likely than women to receive regular medical care.”
Burney said the agency could “lead national efforts on preventive testing, cardiovascular risk detection, mental health awareness and early detection of metabolic disease,” adding: “If we can get men into the health care system earlier and more consistently, we can dramatically improve outcomes.” Sadeghi-Nejad said she would also like to see a focus on disseminating information and education.
Dominic Shattuck, a Johns Hopkins University researcher and men’s health fellow at the National Institute for Boys and Men, said the agency should work to “bring men into the health care system earlier, in late adolescence and early adulthood, when many young people are lost in the health care system.” He stressed that this should include efforts to promote mental health screening and community engagement, with the goal of reducing suicide.
How testosterone fell out of favor in medicine and how it’s come back
For Adrian Dobbs, an endocrinologist and professor of medicine and oncology at Johns Hopkins University, a top priority is studying why men die earlier and are more susceptible to disease than women. “This has never been looked at systematically enough before,” she said, pointing to the need to identify the diagnoses most likely to increase deaths and why they affect men more than women. She would like to see more data to better understand the factors that put young men at increased risk for suicide and accidents, and to promote programs to reduce their occurrence.
How to evaluate the performance of the Men’s Health Bureau is another area of debate. Turek suggested tracking “lives selected” as a measure of awareness and engagement, and “lives saved” as the ultimate measure of intervention success. Some agreed that in the long term, mortality rates would provide the most important feedback on whether the office and its programs were effective.
However, Enyia cautions that evaluations need to be made through disaggregated data, both to design policies and to measure their success. “Improving average outcomes may mask persistent disparities that affect particular groups,” he said. “Measuring progress across race, socioeconomic status, geography, and other factors will help ensure that improvements in men’s health are widely shared.”
The move to create a dedicated men’s health department comes as the Trump administration has gone to great lengths to establish gender as a binary and seeks to end gender-affirming health opportunities for transgender people. During the swearing-in ceremony, Christine spoke about her gender identity and emphasized that her leadership is different from her predecessor, Rachel Levine, a trans woman. “I submit to you today that there is no more visible sign of that change than this: I stand before you a man in a man’s uniform,” he said.
Experts STAT spoke to said it was important for the Secretariat to be inclusive, but cautioned against letting this issue undermine the agency’s fundamental goals. Additionally, many noted the need for specific research to identify the health needs of trans men.
Although they differ on what to prioritize, how to proceed, and how to measure progress, experts agree that building a firm is a top priority and caution against pursuing narrow interests that could delay a goal that finally seems within reach.
Sadeghi-Nejad said it was important to “take care to avoid division and fragmentation” so that “we can work together and coordinate our efforts.”
STAT’s coverage of health issues facing men and boys is supported by Rise Together. Rise Together is a donor-advised fund sponsored and managed by the National Philanthropic Trust and established by Richard Reeves, founding president of the American Association of Boys and Men. and by the Boston Foundation. Our financial supporters have no input into any decisions about our journalism.
