Hansard

I am grateful to Kenneth Gibson for bringing this debate to Parliament so that we can highlight endometriosis awareness week. I am pleased that the key theme of this year’s awareness week is focused on encouraging women to talk about their periods, particularly those who experience painful, heavy, difficult or irregular periods, which can be a sign of the condition.

It seems clear that the shameful lack of awareness and understanding about endometriosis are most likely attributable to an enduring taboo around menstruation itself, and the reluctance we can have to talk about it openly. Encouraging women of all ages, backgrounds and ethnicities to talk more openly about our health, our bodies and our experience of menstruation is an important step in empowering them to make informed choices about their healthcare.

Menstruation is a natural, normal bodily function, which is experienced by the vast majority of women of reproductive age, every month of their lives, yet the cult of silence that so often seems to exist around periods means that those who suffer from endometriosis find it difficult to get diagnosed and face a poor public understanding of their condition and how it affects their everyday lives. Brushing off period pain as inconvenient “women’s troubles” makes it all the more difficult for women with endometriosis to get the help that they need to deal with a painful condition that can seriously disrupt their lives.

I was shocked to discover that the condition affects more than 1.5 million women across the United Kingdom. As Alison Harris pointed out, that means that the number of women who are affected is comparable with the number of people who are affected by diabetes—and yet awareness of endometriosis remains woefully poor.

Endometriosis is much more than just having a painful period. It is a serious gynaecological health condition, which can seriously impact a woman’s life. Like Alison Harris, I was struck by the experience of Lyndsey, a co-leader of an Edinburgh-based support group, who has written about her condition. Lyndsey’s story about how her work and relationships have been affected, and the stories of other women like her, underline just how important it is that policy makers and members of this Parliament ensure that we work together to raise awareness about endometriosis, to ensure that women can be diagnosed earlier, and to invest in further research about how to improve treatment for those who are affected.

The debilitating nature of endometriosis and the irregular bleeding that many women who have it experience throughout their lives highlight another point about how we as a society talk about and cater for menstruation and women’s rights to be healthy. In Scotland today, the affordability and accessibility of sanitary products remain a pressing problem for far too many women. That is an issue on which I have been campaigning, and it is something that I have raised with the Government numerous times in this chamber, including during my members’ business debate on sanitary products, in September last year. [Interruption.] Like Stewart Stevenson, I normally like to talk, but my cough means that I am having difficulty doing that.

Women can be unable to access sanitary products for a number of reasons. It might be due to a restriction in or lack of income. It might be due to irregular periods, which catch women unawares. Access can also be a problem for young women, teenagers and girls who are in education and have little or no income of their own. I have been pushing the Government to keep looking at the issue and to consider what can be done in Scotland to alleviate that gendered inequality.

The issue to do with availability and cost of sanitary products is especially acute for the 10 per cent of women of reproductive age who suffer from endometriosis. Perhaps the minister will elaborate on the matter in her closing speech and set out plans on how the Government can alleviate that burden for women who have the condition.