Periods: Health Services
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help improve the (a) information and (b) resources on menstrual health conditions provided to primary healthcare professionals to help (i) diagnosis and (ii) referrals to specialist treatment.
Answered by Karin Smyth
A range of information and resources are available to help primary care professionals to diagnose and treat menstrual health conditions, and where needed refer to secondary care.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published Women’s and reproductive health guidelines, which cover a range of menstrual health conditions including heavy menstrual bleeding, endometriosis, and menopause. The NICE has also published several clinical knowledge summaries focused on menstrual health conditions. The guidelines and clinical knowledge summaries are available, respectively, at the following two links:
https://www.nice.org.uk/hub/indevelopment/gid-hub10001
https://cks.nice.org.uk/specialities/womens-health/
The Royal College of General Practitioners has developed a Women’s Health Library, drawing together educational resources and guidelines on women’s health so primary healthcare professionals have the most up-to-date information for their patients.
NHS England has developed a shared decision tool to help women and general practitioners (GPs) make decisions about the best treatments for heavy menstrual bleeding, which is available at the following link:
NHS England is developing a set of responses to common questions asked by GPs to help manage menstrual health and other common women’s health conditions, which will soon be available.
The Department has invested £25 million over 2023/24 and 2024/25 to support the establishment of at least one pilot women’s health hub in every integrated care system. These provide more specialist care for women in the community, and many of them also act as a point of training and support for their local GP community.
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