Health: Women and Pain

Baroness Pidgeon Excerpts

Monday 9th November 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

My noble friend’s observations are quite right. We have already updated NICE guidance and introduced courses in order to strengthen professional education across a range of conditions. We have introduced targeted initiatives, including the Getting It Right First Time chronic pain workstream. Our introduction of Jess’s rule and Martha’s rule will mean that women can challenge when symptoms persist or they feel that they are not being listened to. We are developing a new multiprofessional capability framework for women’s healthcare in community settings, and that will address a pattern of women’s symptoms being dismissed or normalised.

[Baroness Pidgeon (LD)]

My Lords, the Government’s women’s health strategy pledges to eliminate the diagnostic issues for women with endometriosis. In the light of Emma Barnett’s recent BBC documentary and Endometriosis UK’s finding that women wait an average of nine years and four months for a diagnosis, will the Minister support the charity’s call for diagnosis times to be reduced to one year or less by 2030, and commit to publishing national data to track progress?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

Women are waiting far too long, which is the reason for the renewal of the women’s health strategy. We have, through the National Institute for Health and Care Research, commissioned a number of studies which are very much focused on the points that the noble Baroness is raising, which are endometriosis diagnosis, treatment and, importantly, experience. We have committed over £4.3 million for new research projects, including a trial to evaluate the effectiveness of pain management programmes, and the noble Baroness will be aware of our commitment for waiting times to be reduced in order that patients, including those with endometriosis, can know exactly what to expect.