RFK Jr.’s Department of Health is reviewing the National Men’s Health Initiative
US Ministry The Department of Health and Human Services is considering launching a federal plan for men’s health, a source at the agency told WIRED.
Brian Christian, who will be sworn in Dec. 12 as assistant secretary of health at HHS and head of the US Public Health Service, called for such an effort Wednesday during an FDA panel on testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) for men. An HHS spokeswoman declined to comment.
“We have a men’s health crisis in this country. We need a national strategy now,” said Christian, part of a call to create so-called men’s health centers of excellence across the country that would collaborate, share information and generate data to inform men’s health policies and programs.
Participants on Wednesday’s FDA panel — which included federal health officials, urologists, men’s sexual health experts and the CEO of a TRT pharmaceutical company — supported expanding the eligibility criteria for TRT and removing testosterone from the FDA’s list of controlled substances. Earlier this year, the FDA held a similar panel on hormone replacement therapy for postmenopausal women and announced in November that it would remove the black box warning from the drugs.
The Trump administration has severely rescinded equality and transgender initiatives across the government and cut hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for research into women’s and LGBTQ health.
During the panel discussion, Christian focused on men’s health more broadly and noted the widening gender gap in life expectancy in the United States, noting that 44 percent of men surveyed were not physically healthy in 2023. While rates of depression are similar among men and women, men are less likely to seek treatment, despite the fact that the suicide rate in the United States is much higher for men. Substance abuse causes problems, he said, because most opioid overdoses occur in men.
“There are fewer federal programs that target men’s health concerns than women,” Christian said. “None of this suggests that we should abandon our commitment to women’s health. No — never. But we need a parallel track for men’s health in this country.”
Christian also raised men’s health concerns, particularly obesity, as a national security issue. “Men’s health concerns really affect the defense readiness, the defense readiness and the safety of this country against our enemies,” he said, adding that obesity is a disincentive to serve in the military.
