The story
- The Department of Health and Social Care relaunched England's Women's Health Strategy on April 14, 2026 — putting sharper teeth on a 2022 plan that listed the right problems but produced modest change.
- The headline commitment is a new national standard of care for pain relief during invasive gynaecological procedures — IUD insertions, hysteroscopies, and similar — addressing what the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has called a culture of unmedicated pain.
- Patients will be directed through a single referral point for endometriosis, fibroids, and severe menstrual pain, instead of being passed from GP to specialist to diagnostic. Average wait for an endometriosis diagnosis is now 9 years 4 months — rising to 11 years for diverse ethnic communities.
- Gynaecology waiting lists have already fallen by more than 30,000 since June 2024 — but more than 565,000 women remain on them.
- The most experimental piece is a trial linking part of hospital funding to patient feedback — specifically, to whether women report feeling heard. £1m is going to a menstrual education programme, £5m to community hubs for joint and muscle problems, and a new national standard is being produced for womb examinations.
- Endometriosis UK welcomed the announcement and immediately added the obvious caveat: commitments without a delivery roadmap tend not to survive contact with reality. The 2022 strategy did not have one. Whether this one does is the question.
"
We inherited a broken NHS, which was particularly felt by women, who have for so long been let down by a healthcare system that too often gaslights women, treating their pain as an inconvenience and their symptoms as an overreaction.
— Wes Streeting, Health and Social Care Secretary
Sources