Results of the Women’s Health Strategy call for evidence – written responses from organisations and experts (13 April 2022)

Summary

This report represents the views of organisations and experts who responded to the Department of Health & Social Care's call for evidence on its Women's Health Strategy. The call for evidence was released in March 2021.

This report focuses on submissions received from 436 organisations and individuals with expertise in women’s health, including the charity sector (34%), academia (22%), industry (10%), clinicians (7%), professional bodies (7%), pressure groups (7%), NHS organisations (3%), parliamentary groups (2%), royal colleges (1%), local government (1%), think tanks (1%) and others (6%).

Content

Key themes raised in the evidence include:

• Menstrual health and gynaecological conditions, including period poverty and the impact of menstruation on everyday life, whether or not it is painful and heavy.
• Sexual health and contraception, including barriers to accessing information for particular groups of women and geographical variation in the commissioning of services.
• Fertility, pregnancy, pregnancy loss and maternal health, including lack of information about factors affecting fertility and options for treatment.  Variations in access to IVF were also raised, as well as the issues of disparities in maternal and neonatal outcomes and women not feeling heard during and after pregnancy.
• The menopause, including gaps in training and guidance for healthcare professionals and the impact of menopause symptoms on women's employment and opportunities.
• Gynaecological and other cancers, including a lack of high-quality, up-to-date information on risk factors and symptoms of female cancers, misdiagnosis and lack of personalised care. Some responses also raised the issue of trauma associated with cervical screening and other gynaecological procedures as a result of previous sexual assault or trauma.
• Mental health, including how women's health conditions can interact with and affect mental wellbeing across the life course, and lack of access to appropriate mental health support at the point of need.
• Healthy ageing and other conditions, including a lack of focus on the needs and concerns of older women, such as incontinence and osteoporosis. Some responses also raised the issue of a lack of understanding and recognition of how women may experience health conditions in different ways to men.
• Violence against women and girls, including the impact of and complications associated with procedures such as hymenoplasty that are still prevalent amongst some cultural groups. Some responses also raised the fact that women who have been subject to abuse and violence face significant additional barriers to accessing healthcare.

A wide range of recommendations to improve women’s health outcomes and service provision were shared in the responses. Some key themes of these recommendations include:

• Increase public awareness of women’s health topics and improve access to high-quality information in digital and non-digital formats.
• Introduce and update legislation to better protect women and improve service quality.
• Ensure national guidelines are fully and consistently implemented, and extended where necessary to address important gaps.
• Improve healthcare professionals’ education and continuous development to better listen to and support women.
• Prioritise integrated, holistic, and user-centred care models to respond to the varying needs of women across the life course.
• Increase funding to improve women’s health services and address disparities between men and women, and different groups of women.
• Increase funding to improve women’s health services and address disparities between men and women, and different groups of women.

Related reading

Patient Safety Learning: Women’s Health Strategy Consultation Response
Medicines, research and female hormones: a dangerous knowledge gap
Dangerous exclusions: The risk to patient safety of sex and gender bias (Patient Safety Learning, March 2021)