INTRODUCTION - WOMEN'S HEALTH INITIATIVE

The office's research agenda encompasses the full spectrum of diseases and conditions that affect women from birth and childhood through menopause and the later years of life and also focuses on determining what constitutes normal growth and development in women. The agenda addresses not only conditions unique to women and their reproductive system, but also diseases and conditions that may affect both men and women and for which interventions have been defined using men as the research model. Another important element of the office's agenda requires ensuring that women are adequately represented as participants in all NIH-supported clinical research. This policy was given the force of law in the NIH Revitalization Act of 1993. And lastly, the office's mandate includes increasing the opportunities for women's participation and advancement in biomedical careers.

The efforts of the Office of Research on Women's Health are complemented by the NIH's Women's Health Initiative (WHI). The Women's Health Initiative, the largest preventive study ever undertaken in the United States, is a 15-year clinical study of the prevention of the major diseases and conditions that affect the health of women during their postmenopausal years: cardiovascular diseases, breast and colorectal cancers and osteoporosis.

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