Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin (Wicklow-Wexford, Sinn Fein)

Cuirim fáilte roimh mhná na hÉireann atá thuas san Áiléar Poiblí anocht. Tá céad míle fáilte rompu. Like most men, I knew very little about the silent problem of endometriosis until we held a meeting in Arklow recently for the Wicklow-Wexford constituency. It certainly was an eye-opener for me. I am sure it would be for most men, and for many women as well. We heard so many heartbreaking stories one after the other of women not only having to battle with chronic excruciating pain, but also having to endure the trauma of having to fight for a diagnosis in the first place, to be listened to and to get adequate treatment. That is simply not good enough in 2025. No one should be forced to fight to be believed, to be diagnosed or to receive proper care.

The Arklow meeting was full of harrowing accounts from women who had been suffering in silence. We heard stories from three generations in one family, a mother, daughter and granddaughter. One such story came from the political assistant in my office, Nicola, who is from County Wicklow. She spoke about her symptoms from her early teens and her first surgery at the age of 16. After five surgeries to laser off the endometriosis, she was told to have a child at the age of 22 because that might help. However, she ended up losing her ovary to endometriosis in her early thirties. Nicola’s mother, Phil, suffered constant pain as a young women. Like many other women, she was told that it was only women’s problems and to get on with it. At 34 years of age, she had a full hysterectomy after being diagnosed with endometriosis. It was that bad that when they opened her up, they could not find her womb. The endometriosis covered her bowels as well. She is now aged 69 and still suffering because of endometriosis, which is this unspoken disease that we are supposed to believe is non-existent.

Sadly, little or nothing has changed in 40 years. My personal assistant's daughter, Sarah, also suffers severe pain, bleeding three weeks every month, yet “the experts” did not listen to her or her mother despite knowing their history. At the age of 18, she got off the DART, went to the accident and emergency department and sat there until she was listened to. She was diagnosed with endometriosis, had a tilted womb and also a sister condition, adenomyosis. When she went back at the age of 25 because she was still having problems, she was told recently that she does not have that either.

At the meeting, we heard many similar stories from County Wexford about maltreatment and young women who had been rendered infertile from it. It is time to end the suffering and silence, to stop exporting this problem and instead to build our own centre of excellence because endometriosis is affecting one in ten women. This is the least they deserve.

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