Hansard

It has been a pleasure to listen to the debate so far. I congratulate Rachael Hamilton on securing it and attracting so many members to take part.

I was struck by Emma Roddick’s observation that it is good to have this debate outwith endo awareness month. We have to continue to do that. If anyone is listening who has an interest because they live with endo, whether or not it is diagnosed, it is important that they do not just feel encouraged but see that we are determined to take action.

Like other members, I welcome the women’s health plan, which is a positive development in Scotland that I hope will represent a real breakthrough. My party campaigned for such a plan. We now need to consider how we will achieve the important ambition of reducing the waiting time for diagnosis from around eight and a half years to 12 months by the end of this parliamentary session.

When the minister responds, I hope that she will be able to give us a little more detail and reassurance in that regard, because none of us wants to build up people’s hopes and expectations, only for them to continue to be disappointed throughout their lives. That is key.

I have been reflecting on some of the things that I was involved with during endo awareness month in March last year. Evelyn Tweed shared a personal story about being told as a young woman—a teenager—just to get pregnant. That reminded me that I tweeted that it is appalling that women are still being told to get pregnant as a way of treating their endometriosis, after hearing, on BBC Radio Scotland, young women in their 20s share their experience of that happening.

It is good that Dr Sandesh Gulhane is taking part in the debate. He will probably want to share what he has heard tonight with general practitioner and clinician colleagues. We have first-class endometriosis specialists and clinicians in Scotland, but we are not cascading the knowledge and good practice enough and, too often, women and other people who experience endometriosis, including trans and non-binary people, are just not believed.

That brings me to a point that other members made about menstrual health and wellbeing education. I know from correspondence that I had with Jeane Freeman and others in Government that the Government takes the view that it cannot mandate things on the curriculum. However, we have to get serious about working with schools to ensure that young people have all the information and tools that they need at an early age.

I join Rachael Hamilton in paying tribute to Sir David Amess for all that he did in Parliament to shine a light on endometriosis. The all-party parliamentary group does important work. I am the chair of the Scottish Parliament’s cross-party group on women’s health, and I hope that we can continue to work together. It was Kenny Gibson—who gave us a pocket history of previous debates in this Parliament—who encouraged me to set up the cross-party group on women’s health, and I thank him. I hope that more men will get involved.

We should focus on the things that we get right in Scotland. Tomorrow marks the first anniversary of the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act 2021 receiving royal assent and making it on to the statute book. I thank everyone who lives with endometriosis for sharing their experience in the context of the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Bill, which was about not just ensuring that we improve access to period products, but sharing people’s stories so that we can get it right in the workplace, in education settings and here, in the Parliament.

I encourage my MSP colleagues to become endometriosis-friendly employees, as I have done. It is really easy to do and they can take this important conversation into their constituencies or regions. They can get in touch with Endometriosis UK, which will tell them how to sign up.

I again thank Rachael Hamilton. It is great that everyone has taken part in tonight’s debate. I hope that we will hear from the minister that there is a plan to put these important ambitions into practice.