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USDA 'Transgender Study': How Research on Hygiene Products Got Misrepresented

Headlines claimed the USDA canceled a wasteful "transgender study" — but the $600,000 grant actually funded feminine-hygiene product safety research, and "transgender men" appeared in just one sentence of the proposal.

FALSE ✕

FILED OCT 15, 2026 · UPDATED OCT 15, 2026 · 4 SOURCES

The Misleading Claim

In March 2025, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the USDA had canceled a $600,000 grant because it funded a study of "menstrual cycles in transgender men" [1].

The claim, traced to a tip from the American Principles Project, was amplified on social media as an example of wasteful "woke" government spending [2].

What the Grant Actually Funded

The grant, awarded in 2024 through the USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture, funded Southern University's "Farm to Feminine Hygiene" project to develop menstrual products from natural fibers such as cotton, wool, and hemp [2].

The lead researcher said she pursued the project after a 2022 study found heavy metals like lead and arsenic in commercial hygiene products [2].

The project also planned menstrual-health education for young women and girls, plus a fiber-processing center for Louisiana farmers [2][3].

Where "Transgender" Came From

The word "transgender" appeared exactly once in the project summary, in a sentence noting that "transgender men and people with masculine gender identities...may also menstruate" [3].

Southern University said the project never prioritized or studied transgender men, and the USDA produced no evidence to the contrary when fact-checkers asked for support [3][4].

PolitiFact and FactCheck.org both found the grant's education materials focused on women and girls, with no indication transgender men were a research focus [1][4].

Conclusion

The claim that the USDA funded a "transgender study" is False. The $600,000 grant funded feminine-hygiene product safety research aimed at women and girls; "transgender men" appeared in a single sentence of the proposal, and neither the USDA nor the claim's original source produced evidence otherwise [1][2][3][4].

SOURCES · 4

  1. [1]PolitiFact: Canceled USDA Grant — politifact.com

    90/100 · politifact.com

  2. [2]Metro Weekly: Feminine Hygiene Grant Revoked — metroweekly.com

    72/100 · metroweekly.com

  3. [3]The Advocate: USDA Scraps Study Over Trans Mention — advocate.com

    72/100 · advocate.com

  4. [4]FactCheck.org: Study Focused on Feminine Hygiene Products — factcheck.org

    92/100 · factcheck.org

MEBRO · DISINFO DESK · mebro.app

Investigative report — not a user-submitted fact-check.

AI-built, source-verified. Every claim here was checked against the sources cited above before publishing — but don't just trust us: follow any citation to its source and confirm it yourself. That's the whole point.