Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce the average waiting time for an endometriosis diagnosis.

Endometriosis manifests itself in a variety of ways and shares symptoms with other conditions. As a consequence, diagnosis can be difficult and is sometimes delayed.

There are currently no plans to reduce the average waiting time for an endometriosis diagnosis.

Given the highly invasive nature of the diagnostic procedure and the varying degree to which women experience symptoms, it can be more appropriate to treat mild symptoms on clinical grounds and reserve a laparoscopy with its inherent risks for women with more significant symptoms.