Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

I will do everything I can do try to drive clinical trials and research. I am launching the clinical trials oversight group this evening. This is an obvious space. It is under-researched more broadly though there is an opportunity for us in France that I might to talk to the Deputy about separately. It is really important that she mentioned fertility. Fertility is inextricably linked to the experience of endometriosis. Many women have not been able to have children, have had to postpone fertility to try to receive endometriosis treatment and there are women trying to work out that intersection. This is why awareness is so important. I have met teenage girls who have had it suggested to them by professionals in the medical system that they have a baby because that would release the symptoms of endometriosis. If it was a once-off case, I would not say it in the Dáil. I have listened to women of different ages, including teenagers, who have been told, go and have a baby; that will fix it. Of course, it will not. I have spoken to women who have had children and it does not necessarily fix it-----

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