We went to Parliament!🎉 Me and the amazing @meekkeishafounder of National Endometriosis Sisters and a sufferer herself of this awful condition that afflicts so many women, went to meet the Minister for Mental Health and other MPs to discuss the burden of this disease and its effects on women and their partners as well as long term consequences. There is a desperate need for re education around painful and heavy periods that needs to start in school, so that no girl or woman is ever made to feel she can’t discuss this or feel she may be discriminated against by an employer. The change has started with the introduction of relationship and period teaching in schools but more needs to be done to prevent the serious mental health effects that gynaecological conditions can impose, even leading some women to attempt to take their own lives. So far over 100 women in the UK have committed suicide due to this, since the start of the year.
No one should suffer so dreadfully and the fact that on average it takes 10 years to diagnose endometriosis means that the current system is just not good enough. We need to listen and hear when girls and women present with symptoms and also change how we approach management by introducing lifestyle measures that are simple yet effective, such as dietary changes and fitness, which will help women manage this condition and give them a sense of control over their disease. Why do we not educate on this and instead resort to medical or even more drastic operative measures so quickly? Aside from which symptoms after surgery are likely to recur which can then mean more surgery, which can ultimately lead to a serious decline in a woman’s ovarian reserve, leading to infertility. Meaning that the treatment that was supposed to help and fix things can end up creating more problems. We need to be using lifestyle medicine alongside conventional medical approaches and allowing women to have more power and dialogue over what is done to their bodies, hopefully reducing the need for fertility treatment later in life.
It was so great to see male MPs in the room support this cause. Thank you for having us Westminster, and watch this space.