Women wait an average of more than 14.5 years for an endometriosis diagnosis in the Twenty-Six Counties, with over 90% waiting at least five years.
The debilitating condition, believed to affect more than one in seven women, seriously disrupts daily life and has long-term effects on health and fertility. Despite its prevalence, there has been little urgency from government or wider society. Women have often been dismissed as overreacting or delusional and routinely report misdiagnosis and treatment for less serious conditions.
Almost 90% of those with symptoms saw at least three doctors before diagnosis, while nearly one in five visited more than ten. During these delays, the disease can spread to other parts of the body, causing gastrointestinal problems, breathing difficulties and sharp pain.
More than 80% of survey respondents sought private treatment because of public-system delays, and hundreds travelled abroad. Endometriosis is also causing significant financial hardship, with more than a fifth spending over €3,000 a year.
These systemic delays are not unique to the Twenty-Six Counties. In the Six-County state, diagnosis takes almost ten years on average and the wait is rising, while nearly half of patients visit their GP at least ten times before diagnosis.
The treatment of this condition reflects a fundamental failure in women’s healthcare and in society’s treatment of women more generally. Women’s pain is accepted and normalised in a way men’s is not.
Unless these attitudes change quickly, the health and economic inequalities already disproportionately affecting women will continue to worsen.
