Like so many women, I’ve cried to doctors about not being able to live properly because of the symptoms that accompany my menstrual cycle. But unlike many, I’ve been lucky enough to have blood tests, scans and even surgery in my 13-year hunt for a diagnosis (though unfortunately, each of them concluded there is, apparently, nothing wrong with me.)
Rather than being told they’ll investigate further to find the cause of my pain, those same doctors have discharged me every time. Why? Because their archaic scans and criteria have been valued more highly than the woman who stood before them, explaining her experience.
So, yes, I’m glad to read that “the golden thread” of the new Women’s Health Strategy for England is to make women’s voices and choices a central part of their healthcare. So, too, do I welcome Health Secretary Wes Streeting's promise to end medical misogyny and close the gender health gap, which has not just led to over 80% of women being ignored by doctors and conditions like endometriosis taking 10 years to diagnose, but has also meant that childbirth remains unsafe, especially for Black women.
After an interview about menstrual health was hijacked by far-right accounts, Athika Ahmed found herself at the centre of a global misinformation campaign.
Re-launched on Wednesday, 15 April, the strategy is Labour’s update to the original roadmap set out by the Conservative government in 2022. That first strategy made some positive changes, like investing £25 million to expand women’s health hubs across England and making emergency contraception free in pharmacies. But it also left a lot to be desired.
For instance, it aimed to reduce the huge waiting list for gynaecological services – the largest of any discipline in the NHS – from 457,000 patients. Yet, by the start of 2026, the number had grown to 570,000, according to The Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. It’s why, reading the relaunch, I’m apathetic – cynical, even, of change.
To start, I refuse to applaud some changes because I simply can’t believe they are not already the standard. That includes adding questions about menopause for women going for health check-ups, and having pain relief offered as standard for procedures, including coil fittings (a petition for this was made in 2021, stating, “it's shocking it's not already”).
Other suggestions seem misplaced. A new trial launched by the Department of Health and Social Care aims to “empower” women to have a stronger say in their care by asking them if, based on their experience, money should be withheld from providers and where it should be invested in the service. To which I say: I don’t have the business acumen to create a budget sheet or understand the logistics of financing services. The goal is for services with poor care to face consequences in the form of pulled financing, yet reducing investment has never made medical support safer, more accessible or more equal.
After a horrific, near-death experience giving birth, Made in Chelsea’s Louise Thompson is campaigning for a Maternity Commissioner.
There are also some strong initiatives, it has to be said, like investing £1 million into a menstrual education programme to ensure girls are better equipped to recognise the difference between healthy and unhealthy periods, and the Women’s Voices Partnership – a space for organisations representing women to inform national decision-making, focusing on those most excluded from traditional services. But when it comes to the care people will have in-clinic, I do wonder who is actually listening.
Medical misogyny and unconscious bias are so baked into the system that even new doors will do nothing for women meeting with doctors who don’t open them – because they don’t know how, don’t want to or can’t. And, as Dr Faye Bate, a medical doctor studying for a master's in women’s health, shared on Instagram, the re-launch is the “bare minimum and completely implausible given how West Street and has responded to the junior doctor strikes [...] How on earth West Street hopes to make this women's health strategy happen without doctors in the workforce is beyond me.”
She added that “women’s bodies are once again being used as political football” – and I agree.
The report rings with pride that it plugs gaps the Tories failed to fill, particularly around reproductive choices. But many of the plans are just promises rather than actions ("We will continue to ask NHS trust providers to stabilise their abortion services"), and they have glaring omissions of their own: how transgender men and women will access health services relating to gynaecology, reproductive and sexual health, particularly after the 2025 Supreme Court ruling, goes unmentioned.
On this day in 2025, the Supreme Court ruled that the definition of a ‘woman’ is based on biological sex. Here, one writer reflects on the moment everything changed – and why the fight for her community is far from over.
It seems we’re expected to be happy about the bare minimum, notes Dr Nighat Arif, a GP specialising in women’s health. “You will see medical misogyny reflected a lot [...] in the Revised Women's Health Strategy. But honestly, women have been saying this for years. There's no groundbreaking, new thing in the revised strategy,” she shared in a Reel. “I suppose the fact that the health secretary has admitted medical misogyny is letting women down in the NHS, yes, it's a start, but trust is fragile.”
Mine certainly is. I desperately want to believe in plans for a better future for women’s health. Right now, though, I’m at a point where I’ve accepted pain is a part of my future, too scared to return to my GP for fear of being dismissed again. Nor does this strategy give me enough of a concrete plan to hope for more.
Maybe I’m reading it with cynical eyes, but given that women have been using our voices to talk (shout!) about medical misogyny for as long as healthcare has existed, I refuse to clap at the admission that, in 2026, it’s only just becoming policy to listen to us.
A report by The Fuller Project finds that misinformation about the pill's side effects on social media is leading to rising distrust amongst UK women.
