Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)

I welcome the motion brought forward by Sinn Féin. I also welcome the visitors in the Public Gallery. Aontú has done quite a lot of work on this issue. It is really important that the lived experiences of so many women across Ireland are brought to the floor of the Dáil and put in front of the Minister. The fact is endometriosis is not a minority condition. It affects one in ten women. There are more women with endometriosis in this country than there are people with diabetes and yet many of these women suffer in silence. Many women have endometriosis for several years and it goes undiagnosed.

I will raise the story of Holly Barr. Holly Barr is a young woman from Kildare whose harrowing journey and endometriosis experience are worth raising here today. For Holly, the delay nearly cost her life. Misdiagnosed for over a year, she was told she had anxiety and depression despite having all of the symptoms, pain, vomiting and digestive issues. At 26 years of age, her bowel perforated due to undiagnosed bowel endometriosis and she needed surgery as a result. Had she not had that surgery, she would have died. This is how significant this is. The idea that Holly and hundreds of other women across this country were told "it's in your head" is deeply wrong. This is the lived experience of so many women across the country. They suffer in silence, they go to their GP, they go to accident and emergency and they go to the consultant in many cases and in some cases, they are told "it's in your head".

That is why we have actively worked on this issue and have raised the national framework with the Minister on so many occasions. The national framework is a key piece - guidelines that will provide a pathway for women and a referral pathway for GPs that is critically important. I would like the Minister to make a statement on this in her reply. My understanding is that there is great difficulty with regard to the HSE and GPs regarding bringing that framework to the next level. My understanding is that the GPs have yet to engage with the HSE on this. It is critical that this is introduced and I would like the Minister to make a statement on where that framework is now and what the next steps to bring that to fruition are.

I also commend the work of my colleague in Aontú, Melissa Byrne, from Kildare South who has done tremendous work on this. We hosted the Endometriosis Association of Ireland recently in the audiovisual room in Leinster House. When we met the association, I was struck by the number of constituents who contacted me with really harrowing experiences. Many mothers contacted me as well. What is very concerning is that so many women present with difficulties and pain and in some cases the pill is prescribed. That obviously has a benefit in terms of the pain but it also has a masking effect and, as a result, there is a significant delay in diagnosis and, therefore, treatment. This needs to be looked at seriously by the framework. It is totally unfair that women have to wait ten years in many cases to get the diagnosis they deserve and it is only at that point that they can get the treatment they need. I appreciate that this is a very difficult condition to diagnose but simply putting girls and young women on the pill cannot be the answer.

In some cases, women only realise they have this disease when they are in their 30s and are trying to have children. In many cases, this is a significant problem.

A significant number of women who undergo IVF realise they have endometriosis. There is obviously a very significant impact on day-to-day life, including the work experience, for many women. Since I raised this in Leinster House, I have had hundreds of women contact me who stated it was incredibly difficult to go about their lives during particular times of the month.

We very much welcome and support this motion, but it is really important that the Government does not just table an amendment. I hope the Minister gets a chance to meet the women who are here and listen to their experience. It is too important an issue to simply move an amendment on and forget about. I want to see the Minister address this issue with urgency. I want to see her tell the women who are here, before the Dáil, what is happening with the national framework, whether the GPs are engaging in that forum and if not, then why not. I want to see her say what she has done as Minister to bring the GPs to the forum to make sure the national framework moves to the next stage. This is what the women who are here with us want to know. This is what the future women and girls want to know. It is critical that we progress this national framework and get to a situation where women are no longer suffering in silence.

Women should not have to wait ten to 15 years for a diagnosis. I urge the Minister to engage proactively with the Endometriosis Association of Ireland to bring the framework to the next stage. The women of Ireland deserve it. This is not a minority condition. It affects one in ten women, which is more than the number of people in Ireland who suffer from diabetes, yet there is so little information. There is a vacuum of information. When one speaks to women across the country, there is significant variation in what their treatment pathways look like. I am keen for us to progress the national framework so that we have a standardised system and get to the bottom of this for women across Ireland.

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