Sponsor
Hillary Scholten
Representative · D-MI
Representative · D-MI
The bill aims to produce clearer, standardized guidance and a prioritized research agenda for perimenopause hormone testing, but those benefits may be delayed, limited if evidence is weak, and impose administrative burdens on federal research reviewers.
Women and clinicians will likely receive clearer, more standardized guidance on whether baseline hormone testing meaningfully informs perimenopause diagnosis and management, reducing clinician uncertainty about testing.
Researchers, federal funders, and health systems will get an identified set of evidence gaps and research priorities that can steer NIH and other federal research funding toward better perimenopause screening and care.
Women and clinicians may still lack definitive testing guidance if the joint review finds current evidence weak or inconclusive, leaving practice uncertainty unchanged.
Women and healthcare providers will face delays (reports/reviews may take up to 18 months) before any new guidance is available, postponing improvements in near-term care.
NIH and USPSTF staff and related research administrators may need to allocate time to study and reporting requirements, diverting resources from other research or review projects.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires NIH and USPSTF to review existing evidence on pre-symptom hormone variability and baseline hormone testing for perimenopause and submit a joint report with recommendations within 18 months.
Official title: To direct the Director of the National Institutes of Health and the Secretary of Health and Human Services to evaluate hormone variability and hormone testing, respectively, in women with respect to perimenopause.
Introduced May 29, 2026 by Hillary Scholten · Last progress May 29, 2026
Directs NIH and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) to review existing published evidence about hormone level variability in women before they show perimenopause symptoms and to assess whether baseline hormone testing before symptoms helps diagnose or manage perimenopause. NIH and USPSTF must produce a joint report for relevant congressional committees describing findings, research gaps, and recommendations within 18 months of enactment.