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 increase funding for (a) research into and (b) treatment of endometriosis.
The Department, through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), has invested £8.4 million into research in endometriosis since 2013. It is not usual practice to ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions, including allocating funding for future financial years. However, the NIHR’s funding is available through open competition for endometriosis research and we encourage researchers to submit applications in this area.
At present, there are no plans to increase funding for treatment of endometriosis. A call for evidence was launched to inform the priorities, content and actions of the Women’s Health Strategy which included questions on gynaecological conditions, such as endometriosis. Following analysis of the responses, we will detail our commitments on endometriosis within the Strategy.