US Department Health and Human Services is considering launching a federal men’s health initiative, an agency source tells WIRED.
Brian Krystynawho will be sworn in on December 12 as deputy secretary of health at HHS and head of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, called for such efforts Wednesday during a meeting of the Food and Drug Administration plate on testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) for men. An HHS spokesman declined to comment on the matter.
“We have a men’s health crisis in this country. Now we need a national strategy,” Christine said, as part of a call for the creation of so-called Men’s Health Centers of Excellence across the country to collaborate, share information and generate data for 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 pharmaceutical company TRT – expressed support for expanding TRT eligibility criteria 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 menopausal women announced in November that this will remove the black box warning from medications.
The Trump administration has aggressively canceled gender equity and transgender initiatives across the government and made cuts hundreds of millions of dollars in funding research on women’s and LGBTQ health.
During the panel discussion, Christine drew attention to men’s health more broadly, pointing to the widening gender gap in life expectancy in the U.S. and the fact that 44 percent men 2023 respondents did not receive an annual physical. Although rates of depression are similar among men and women, men are much less likely to seek treatment, even though the suicide rate in the U.S. is much higher among men. Substance abuse compounds the problem, he said, with most opioid overdoses occurring in men.
“There are fewer federal programs focusing on men’s health issues than women’s,” Christine said. “None of this is to suggest that we should back away from our commitment to women’s health. Not – ever. But we need a parallel path for men’s health in this country.”
Christine also identified men’s health issues, especially obesity, as a matter of national security. “Men’s health issues really impact defense readiness, defense readiness and the security of this country from our enemies,” he said, adding that obesity is a barrier to military service.