A Donegal County Councillor with personal experience of endometriosis has called for improved access to care for thousands of women affected across the state.
Cllr Dakota Nic Mheanman, who was first elected to the council last year, has been living with symptoms of endometriosis since she was a teenager.
As Sinn Féin moved a Dáil motion yesterday calling for a state-of-the-art centre of excellence for endometriosis care, Cllr Nic Mheanman said women should no longer be forced to fight for their own healthcare.
The Sinn Féin motion is due to be voted on today.
Cllr Nic Mheanman is calling for backing for the Sinn Féin motion, which also highlights the current failures in diagnosis and treatment.
The Ballybofey councillor spoke at a meeting on endometriosis care held in Ballybofey in March, which was one of nine that took place nationwide.
Cllr Nic Mheanman said it’s clear from the meetings that “endometriosis care in Ireland has failed thousands of women”.
“No one should be forced to fight to be believed, to be diagnosed and to receive treatment,” Cllr Nic Mheanman said.
“Endometriosis is not rare, it affects at least one in ten women in Ireland, with recent global research suggesting that nearly one in six may have symptoms indicative of the condition.
“Sinn Féin conducted an online survey over recent weeks in which we received 1,420 responses and over 700 personal stories of delayed diagnosis, suffering and trauma. 95% of participants missed education or work commitments due to symptoms; 58% of participants have suffered symptoms for more than 10 years; 49% waited more than 12 months for a consultation with a gynaecologist.
“The ongoing neglect of Endometriosis care in Ireland is emblematic of broader systemic failures in women’s healthcare, and the response from the government has been a disjointed stop gap approach with women being prescribed outdated treatments that only prolong suffering.
“This is exemplified by the fact that it currently takes an average of nine years for patients to receive a formal diagnosis, resulting in prolonged suffering, permanent organ damage, and increased risk of infertility.
“The reason we don’t hear about it enough is because women often feel they have no option but to suffer in silence.”
Speaking in the Dáíl last night, Donegal Deputy Pearse Doherty told an account of a Donegal woman who endured a nine-year struggle to receive an endometriosis diagnosis, facing dismissal, misdiagnosis, and immense personal cost in Ireland before finally being diagnosed and treated abroad in Romania and Greece.
Four years ago, the woman was “prescribed anti-depressants and told it was all in her head”, Deputy Doherty said.
“We need to start listening and believing our sisters, mothers, aunties, nieces and daughters. The care they deserve has to be put in place,” he said.
Cllr Nic Mheanman said that women deserve the gold standard of surgical management for this excruciating condition.
She added: “Our message to women across Ireland living with this condition is that you are not alone. Sinn Féin will fight with you and for you. We will keep this campaign going until you have the treatment, services and healthcare you deserve here in this country.”
Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, who put forward a countermotion last night, said that it is “wonderful to see so many different parties and so many different voices, male and female, articulate the female health experience”.
The Minister stated that the government is opting for a different policy approach, choosing to establish regional centres for endometriosis care instead of a single centre of excellence. This aims to reduce travel burdens for patients.
“I have no interest in politics with regard to this. I am only interested in service delivery,” the Minister said.
“What I am interested in is service delivery and the quickest possible way of ameliorating, fixing and making good the sheer lack of service delivery for women’s health that has gone on for so long.”
Tags: