Abena Oppong-Asare MP: speeches

Speeches

• 18 Mar 2026 · Menstrual and Gynaecological Health · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to make provision about the teaching of menstrual and gynaecological health in certain educational settings; to provide for training, guidance and resources to support such teaching; to provide that training includes content about awareness of racial discrimination in menstrual and gynaecological health; to require the Secretary of State to take steps to increase public understanding of menstrual and gynaecological health, including measures to counter inaccurate or misleading information online relating to menstrual and gynaecological health; and for connected purposes. In this Bill, I am addressing one aspect of women’s health: menstrual health. Menstrual health is surrounded by misinformation, fear and a failure to support millions of women and girls. For women who menstruate, their experience of asking for advice or even medical treatment is routinely dismal—ask any woman from their school days onwards. It is a nightmare of stigma, shame and a failure of the NHS to help. The recent Women and Equalities Committee report states: “Stigma around menstruation, sex, fertility and childlessness is a barrier to discussion of reproductive ill health. It contributes to delays in diagnosis and treatment, and can lead women and girls to turn to online forums to self-diagnose or to avoid seeking treatment altogether.” That self-diagnosis can be misguided and dangerous, fed by dubious online claims and fake cures. The internet is not a safe place for clear expert advice for girls and women wanting to know about their periods and menstrual health. A poll commissioned by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists found that more than half—53%—of women in the UK who had experienced symptoms of pelvic floor dysfunction did not seek help from a healthcare professional. One in five—21%—felt too embarrassed to seek support. In 2018, a YouGov poll found that period shaming happens at home, in the workplace and at school in the UK. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists further noted: “There is an immense societal pressure on women and girls to conceal their periods due to beliefs that menstruation is unhygienic or unclean, and talking openly about periods is often not considered as a social norm.” We live in a modern-day society with an openness to addressing all manner of health issues, including mental health, yet talking about menstrual health remains stigmatised, shrouded in shame, embarrassment and the frankly medieval attitudes held by many. In the call for evidence for the women’s health strategy, 29% of respondents said that they did not feel comfortable talking to healthcare professionals about gynaecological conditions. For teenage girls aged 16 and 17, that figure rose to 40%. Those shocking figures show that this stigma has real-world consequences for women’s health. Women and girls get the wrong advice, dangerous advice or no advice. Their shame means that their conditions and diseases are not diagnosed. Sadly, conditions such as endometriosis, adenomyosis, fibroids, polycystic ovary syndrome, pelvic inflammatory disease, pelvic organ prolapse and ovarian cysts are far too often missed, leaving many women to endure years of unnecessary pain. The time to receive a diagnosis of endometriosis has actually gone up, not down, with women waiting on average nine years and four months. For women of colour and women from other ethnic minority backgrounds, the average wait for diagnosis is 11 years. We might wonder, “Why are women of colour waiting longer?” Well, I am afraid to say that we suffer discrimination in the health system. Our pain is dismissed and our concerns are ignored. Well-documented bias is embedded in the NHS when it comes to black women’s health, leading to poorer outcomes and terrible experiences for so many women. We must address the cultural assumptions in some communities that tell girls that periods are a punishment, dirty, something to be ashamed of or something to be kept as a secret. A dangerous cocktail of misogyny, misinformation and myth is leading to girls and women being misinformed, mistreated and misdiagnosed. My Bill aims to tackle that stigma and get society talking about periods and menstrual health. Let us smash the stigma, starting in schools, with teachers being well-equipped to support their pupils. No schoolgirl should suffer in silence. Let us use the roll-out of more diagnostic hubs and the shift to more community-based preventive care to raise awareness about menstrual health. We need more public awareness campaigns, on the same scale as the NHS sepsis campaign, for not just the public, but medical professionals from the very start of their careers. Every doctor needs proper training in menstrual health to spot endometriosis, fibroids and other gynaecological conditions early; to give proper advice to their patients; to debunk online myths and misinformation; and to be aware of and tackle racial bias in the healthcare system. We need every employer to be aware of menstrual health, to have proper systems of support in place in the workplace, to have period products available for free, and to recognise that if a woman needs time off because of their blinding pain, they are not making it up. I welcome the work of the TUC and the trade unions in this area. We also need to have more difficult conversations. We need more men squirming in their seats as we discuss our periods, our bleeding and our pain, and we need to stop talking in euphemisms—all those silly little terms about periods that disguise the reality and stop an open conversation. We need not only more women’s voices to be heard, but women to be actively leading the design and delivery of the healthcare system. The NHS must no longer be male by default. I speak to so many women and girls who have been let down and whose mental and physical health have been damaged. This must stop. The upcoming women’s health strategy must be more than a document; it must be a manifesto for revolutionary change—what is the point of it otherwise? There must be no more girls crying in changing rooms, no more workers hiding in toilets, and no more shame. Question put and agreed to. Ordered, That Ms Abena Oppong-Asare, Marsha De Cordova, Olly Glover, Paulette Hamilton, Carolyn Harris, Christine Jardine, Tulip Siddiq, Valerie Vaz, Gill Furniss, Kirsteen Sullivan, Simon Hoare and Sir Alec Shelbrooke present the Bill. Ms Abena Oppong-Asare accordingly presented the Bill. Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 17 April, and to be printed (Bill 409).

• 5 Mar 2026 · Women’s Health Strategy: Endometriosis and Fibroids · Hansard source

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  It is nice to have a male ally in the Chamber—in fact, a few male allies. I think the issue is even wider than that. The Government are looking to publish the women’s health strategy quite soon. I will talk about this in more detail, but the data on the delays is already out there. We need to recognise the signs and make sure that people get the help they need. I will talk in detail about some of the work I have done, particularly in my constituency, to highlight the issue. It has been often said, though it is worth repeating, that if these conditions were suffered by one in 10 men, there would be research into a cure, fast diagnosis, effective treatment, time off work, and a sympathetic, understanding reaction from all other men. If only women got the same reaction at work, or in the health system. Endometriosis UK found that 39% of its respondents had to visit the GP 10 or more times before endometriosis was suspected, and 46% were sent home from hospital without treatment. That is simply outrageous. To respond to what the hon. Member for Didcot and Wantage (Olly Glover) said, people are visiting GPs repeatedly before the condition is recognised. When I surveyed my constituents, one told me: “I had to go to my GP three times and leave an utterly desperate comment begging for help until they took me seriously.” Another said: “It was a condition I had never even heard of until it started to affect me.” And another said the “pain was so excruciating that it felt worse than birth pain”. That is just so common. That is the experience of millions of women down the decades. Women of colour suffer the double whammy of facing misogyny in the NHS, as well as the racism that tells us that we have a higher pain threshold, or that “black women can handle it.” The recent interim report on maternity services by Baroness Amos last week highlighted the structural racism in the NHS, which leads to worse health outcomes for women of colour. The Endometriosis UK report says that for women of colour, the average wait for diagnosis is now 11 years. That is a grave injustice. This is not just a question of equitable health provision, but a question of social justice for women. It of course makes no sense for the NHS, with stretched resources and overworked staff, to have millions of women who repeatedly present with their symptoms being sent away, returning in pain, and making complaints for years on end. Getting it right first time matters. I welcome the new NHS Online, a virtual hospital in England due to launch in 2027. Menstrual health conditions, including endometriosis, will be one of the priority areas. The NHS Online hospital will use the NHS app to triage patients and provide fast access to specialist clinicians online. Where needed, specialists will be able to arrange local testing for women. I invite the Minister to comment further on how NHS Online will help women with these conditions. The forthcoming women’s health strategy affords us a huge opportunity to move forward. I know the Minister will not be divulging its contents to the House today, and that we have to wait to read the strategy in full, but both the Minister and her ministerial colleague in the other place, who is responsible for women’s health, get it. She knows that a range of conditions affecting so many millions must be front and centre in the strategy. The strategy must address early diagnosis and faster, effective treatment. It must tackle the stigma and taboos. Most of all, it must address the way that doctors are trained, so that endometriosis, fibroids and similar conditions are identified fast. We have made great progress in the early identification of sepsis, for example. We must do the same for endometriosis and fibroids. Will the Minister give us an assurance that training for doctors will form a key part of the strategy? Will she work with the Royal College of GPs and NHS training providers to ensure that these conditions are central to the syllabus, and that every newly qualified doctor has the knowledge to identify endometriosis when a woman presents with the symptoms? Early diagnosis means early treatment, and that saves a huge amount of pain, dismay and taxpayers’ cash down the line. It really is a common-sense approach, given the huge number of women involved. I long for the day when we have a cure. With proper medical research, which the hon. Member for Didcot and Wantage alluded to, I am sure that day will come. In the meantime, does the Minister agree that women should not be waiting for years in unnecessary pain, and that the women’s health strategy can and must offer women in pain a real sense of hope?

• 5 Mar 2026 · Women’s Health Strategy: Endometriosis and Fibroids · Hansard source

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  Endometriosis, fibroids and related gynaecological conditions ruin the lives of millions of women, yet these conditions remain undiagnosed, misdiagnosed, dismissed or mistreated within the health system. Women are told to shut up and stop complaining. We are fobbed off. We experience shameful delays. We are left in pain. My argument today is simple. We need the forthcoming women’s health strategy to address these conditions head-on, listen to women, tackle the taboos, and create timely and effective treatment. One in 10 women suffer from endometriosis. It is a painful, debilitating condition, found in every community, workplace and family. That statistic means that at least 20 women Members in this current Parliament could be suffering from endometriosis. Despite being widespread, it remains misunderstood and dismissed, yet it ruins women’s ability to learn, earn, have sex, have children and live a normal, healthy life. It destroys mental health. In recent years, there has been greater awareness and a wider discussion of the impact of the condition, led by public figures such as the BBC’s Emma Barnett, and sparked by this year’s BAFTA-winning short film, “This Is Endometriosis”, which I hope to host a screening of in Parliament soon. In this House, I commend the great work of the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on endometriosis, my hon. Friend the Member for Bathgate and Linlithgow (Kirsteen Sullivan), and the Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee, my hon. Friend the Member for Luton North (Sarah Owen). Millions of women, however, are still being failed by the NHS and wider society. There is still a lack of appreciation of the true nature of the disease, a lack of suitable support throughout the worlds of education and work, and stigma associated with the symptoms, which include heavy bleeding and intense, blinding pain. The average wait for diagnosis is nine years and four months, according to the latest report, launched this week, by the charity Endometriosis UK. The report highlights that diagnosis times are getting worse, not better. March is Endometriosis Action Month. It is vital that we use this opportunity to act now for the benefit of those suffering today, and those who will suffer long into the future. Sadly, even with a diagnosis, there is no cure—just pain management.

• 28 Jan 2026 · Health Inequalities: Women · Hansard source

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  I support Valerie Amos’s report on maternity services. I am very keen to hear how the Government are ensuring that black voices, particularly black women’s voices, are key during this investigation, so that their voices are heard and their experiences taken into consideration.

• 19 Jan 2026 · Sale of Fireworks · Hansard source

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  Before this debate, I was contacted by more than 100 constituents who raised concerns about animals. One constituent also raised concerns about the impact on her mental health. Does the hon. Member agree that, while a lot of people use fireworks responsibly, there are concerns about the impact of fireworks on people’s mental health and wellbeing, as well as their impact on animals?

• 26 Nov 2025 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  I welcome the Chancellor’s Budget and its message of strong foundations and a secure future. It delivers on the priorities that matter most to my constituency: economic growth, lower cost of living, investment in families, and a stronger NHS. I also fully welcome the Chancellor’s commitment to the docklands light railway extension to Thamesmead, set out on page 65 of the Budget document. It is a game-changing moment for residents who have waited decades for proper transport links.