On September 4, 2026, NOTUS (published under The Washington Sun masthead) reported that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Minority Health had abruptly terminated more than half of its active grants, telling recipients in letters dated August 25 that their work no longer advanced "current agency priorities." The new priorities, spelled out in the letters obtained by NOTUS, are "reducing overmedicalization in health care by addressing the root causes of infertility" — a list that explicitly names hormonal imbalances, endometriosis, uterine fibroids, low sperm count, low testosterone levels and erectile dysfunction — plus programs promoting "regular physical activity and exercise."

Why It Matters

This is the first time a U.S. federal health agency has explicitly re-pointed a discretionary grant portfolio toward erectile dysfunction and testosterone as named priority conditions. For the male sexual health sector — Hims, Ro, BlueChew, the TRT telehealth cohort, and device makers like Eddie by Giddy — that is an extraordinary and double-edged signal. Federal framing of ED and low testosterone as public-health "root causes" rather than lifestyle-adjacent conveniences is the destigmatization argument the industry has been making for a decade, and it could eventually unlock research dollars, reimbursement conversations and the FDA's ongoing rethink of testosterone scheduling. The problem is the framing it arrived in. Positioning men's sexual function against postpartum nursing visits and cervical cancer screening is the worst possible political packaging for a category that has spent years trying to shed its punchline status — and it hands critics a ready-made caricature. Expect this to complicate, not smooth, the sector's lobbying posture heading into 2027 appropriations. It also raises a practical question for anyone modeling federal tailwinds in men's health: priorities set by letter can be un-set by letter, and a portfolio pivot executed through mid-grant terminations is not a durable policy foundation to build a business case on.

Sixteen county, state and nonprofit grantees received termination letters, according to NOTUS, covering $38 million over four years. All had already banked the first two years of four-year awards. The cancelled work includes cancer screenings, postpartum home nursing visits, first-responder suicide prevention and obesity reduction among Native American youth. The letters were signed by Eric West, acting chief grants officer at the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, and Mahyar Mofidi, deputy assistant secretary for minority health. To grantees working on maternal health, the agency wrote that while "maternal and infant health are important issues," their work "does not advance minority health with regards to OMH's current priority areas."

The reaction was immediate and unflattering. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colorado), ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee, wrote to Brian Christine, assistant secretary for health, that "it is shocking that OMH under any leadership would prioritize erectile dysfunction over the health and wellbeing of infants and new mothers, yet that is precisely what you are doing." Jillian Fabricius, co-executive director of Denver-based Illuminate Colorado — which sends nurses into the homes of minority women in the days after birth — told NOTUS "it was news to us that maternal and infant fatality prevention wasn't a priority." The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences said its program to reduce infant and maternal mortality among Black families in the Arkansas Delta will likely end without the grant. HHS did not respond to NOTUS's request for comment.

The office itself has been a standing target. Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tried to eliminate the Office of Minority Health outright last year during a reorganization that shed roughly 20,000 department employees; Congress declined to go along. Its website now lists only two funding opportunities for fiscal 2026 — one for lupus research, one for chronic disease among Native Americans. Beyond the 16 cancellations, NOTUS found 13 additional grants funded last year that appear unfunded this year, and the administration's fiscal 2027 budget proposes eliminating the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, zeroing out the Minority HIV/AIDS office and cutting OMH funding by 40%.

Sources

Update — 2026-09-10

Initial entry — story first created.