Equality Act 2010 Guidance: Gynaecological Conditions

Joy Morrissey Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd November 2026 Westminster Hall

[Joy Morrissey (Beaconsfield) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Jardine. I am grateful to everyone here today and welcome the opportunity to discuss this important issue. I thank all Members for their contributions and the campaigners here today for raising it. I also thank the ladies in the Gallery who are studying public health at University College London; that is wonderful. We need more women bringing these issues to the forefront of our public health agenda.

This subject is close to my heart. I have suffered from a gynaecological condition, and I suffered in silence for a very long time. Oftentimes, we are told that it is just a ladies’ problem and that we can just carry on—“Take a paracetamol and you’ll be fine.” But that is not the case. The condition is debilitating, and one often needs surgery or multiple surgeries. It is a difficult thing to explain to employers or even a spouse, or whoever someone is with. Someone can carry on as a normal human being with the condition, but on some days it completely debilitates their everyday existence. I am very sympathetic to this debate and the need for women’s gynaecological issues to be brought to the forefront of public health.

It is a particularly warm and welcome development that the NHS is recognising biological sex. It is important to acknowledge that biological females with endometriosis and particular ovarian issues—all the things that specifically biological females suffer from—have been neglected over the years.

I do not know whether this is just my experience, but I found things to be very difficult on the NHS. There was a very long waiting list, and I was told that I perhaps did not have endometriosis and needed to go back to just taking some paracetamol to get over what was wrong with me. I did have endometriosis, but that was not found out until I had surgery. So many women suffering from the exact same thing are being told, “Just wait—you’ll be fine”, “It’s just your own personal issue,” or, “Take a paracetamol and you’ll feel better soon.” But it gets worse and worse over time.

I want to make sure that women have access to the same public health resources as everyone else. Those things have fallen through the cracks over the years, which is why I want to raise them in this debate. The reality is that women have to endure debilitating pain, uncertainty or discrimination simply because of a condition that is too often misunderstood or dismissed. It is a reality where overall waiting times for appointments with a gynaecological specialist are higher than they were the month before, the year before and since the last general election.

Women are waiting a very long time just to see a gynaecologist and have basic things checked, and then the referral process takes years and years. It is debilitating, and many women just give up. Many across the House have tried to change the reality of the wait that women face in the NHS. I pay tribute to David Amess for starting the APPG on endometriosis and raising this important issue for the House.

Endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome and heavy menstrual bleeding can have a profound impact on women’s lives. They can affect their ability to work, their education, their relationships and their mental wellbeing. Just recently, I heard a powerful story from a brave young woman called Sophia, who shared with me that she is suffering from extreme pain that can affect her ability to attend secondary school. It took a lot of courage for her to talk to me about this. Again and again, she faces the refrain of, “You’ll be fine—it’s just period pain.” Too many young women hear that phrase when it comes to conditions such as endometriosis because our NHS has been too distracted by other realities to put women’s health at the forefront of care and prioritisation.

For women with endometriosis, the average wait for a diagnosis is around nine years—nine years of uncertainty, pain and, in many cases, being told that their symptoms are simply part of being a woman. I hope that we can work together today to bring forward a solution that will help put women’s health at the forefront of care.