Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Today marks the beginning of endometriosis awareness month. This is a month-long campaign in which we highlight and draw attention to the challenges faced by one in ten Irish women and one in ten women globally who experience this chronic disease. Endometriosis is a condition where tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows around the womb and the vital organs in that area, causing many difficulties for women. As I said, it affects one in ten women and there is no cure. The symptoms include chronic pain, chronic fatigue, pain during sex, fertility issues, heavy bleeding, irritable bowel syndrome, IBS, severe impact on quality of life and impacts on mental health, with many women reporting suicidal tendencies. It is a severely debilitating disease and I reiterate that one in ten Irish women have it.

The problem is that it takes, on average, between seven and 12 years to get a diagnosis in this country. Diagnosis takes so long because the condition is often misdiagnosed or under-diagnosed, with many women reporting that they have been told repeatedly that the problem is all in their head, is a normal part of menstruation or related to anxiety, stress or mental health. Many of these women have been prescribed mental health medication rather than being properly tested.

The only way to diagnose endometriosis properly is through a laparoscopy procedure. Women must often push and fight to get this very simple and basic diagnostic treatment. Ultrasound will not detect endometriosis. There are no clinical guidelines for GPs on this. Many GPs do not know or recognise the symptoms and signs of endometriosis in women, which leads to it taking many years to making a diagnosis. The longer the disease is left unchecked and unmonitored, the more damage it does internally.

We also need education for young girls in this country. Women should know, from a young age, what is a normal period and which pain is normal and which is not normal. They should not have to miss days from school or be bedridden every month because of this condition but that is what happens to many women here.

Endometriosis has varying degrees of severity, ranging from stage 1, the mildest level, to stage 4, the most severe level. The symptoms I outlined are among the main symptoms but every woman is different and has a different experience.

What action is needed now? We need to reduce the diagnosis time to a maximum of one or two years. We need to have a clear clinical pathway for treatment. When they finally get their much-needed diagnosis, many women are simply left to their own devices with no access to proper consultative care or after-care. We need clinical guidelines for GPs in order that they can detect and diagnose the disease early on. We need proper menstrual education for young women in schools. We need wraparound services in pain management and mental health services. We also need training and increased specialisation to provide the proper, gold-plated standard of excision surgery as opposed to ablation.I commend the hard work of the Endometriosis Association of Ireland, which is a voluntary association working with little resources and funding to highlight this. I ask that colleagues would share on their social media that it is the beginning of endometriosis awareness month and that we must take action to address the clear deficit in women's healthcare for this disease.