OPINION: International Women’s Day : ‘We have a much longer journey towards equality’

International Women’s Day provides an opportunity to consider how much progress we as women have made in terms of creating a more equal society – but also how much further we need to go. When it comes to women’s health care, we have a much longer journey before we achieve equality.
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I get lots of complaints about the treatment women receive, or don’t receive, within the health system. My guess is that as a female MLA – still the minority – many women contact me because they feel more comfortable raising their concerns with a woman, especially when these involve gynaecological illnesses.

Specialist positions in the NHS related to sexual and reproductive health often remain unfilled for years. One complaint I get repeatedly is about contraception services – though this should not be a concern only for women. Couples and women face a long wait for a consultation, by which time the woman may be pregnant. The lack of access to abortion – despite the legislation passed in Westminster – is an additional serious problem, especially here in Derry. Many women still face difficult and upsetting journeys to obtain services they require. HPV primary screening for cervical cancer is another service that women want, demand and deserve, yet is not readily available.

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These issues are not unique to the North of Ireland. A recent House of Lords report was entitled ‘Women’s health outcomes: Is there a Gender Gap?’. The answer is yes. Nowhere is this more evident and more painful than with endometriosis. As a woman who suffered badly from endometriosis I can tell you this is a crippling disorder. A woman in Co. Tyrone wrote to me recently saying she can’t care for her daughter, can’t drive, can’t leave the house and is always told to take more pain killers. She asks: “Who can I turn to for someone to listen?” This experience is far too common. One in ten women suffers from endometriosis. That is as common as asthma. Yet there is just one endometriosis consultant in Northern Ireland. No wonder many women say if men suffered from endometriosis it would have been taken seriously years ago. Sterilisation remains the only solution for many women with endometriosis, which is unacceptable.

SDLP  Foyle MLA Sinéad McLaughlin.SDLP  Foyle MLA Sinéad McLaughlin.
SDLP Foyle MLA Sinéad McLaughlin.

Meanwhile, the waiting times for hysterectomies are scandalously long. This is having a severe impact on women in coping with their everyday lives. Many women are constantly bleeding: being told they must wait five years before they can get an operation to address this is unacceptable. The result is damage to their family lives and relationships, for their careers and to their mental health. It is a failure of our healthcare system that we do not have the consultants that women need, nor is the necessary research conducted to develop treatment and support for gynaecological disorders.

In the South, a Women’s Health Taskforce was established two years ago by the Department of Health to improve women’s health outcomes and their experiences of healthcare. This is addressing many of the issues I have outlined above. We should be open to learning from good practice elsewhere, in this case from across the border. We all know that in the North our health service is in crisis – and the absence of an agreed three year budget means that the necessary reforms are yet again on hold. But as the reforms are one day put into place the specific needs of women must be addressed and rectified.