Women across England are set to be better heard, better supported and better served under the government’s renewed Women’s Health Strategy.
The updated strategy places women’s lived experiences at the centre of healthcare delivery, with new measures designed to ensure women’s voices are listened to and acted upon, tackling longstanding concerns that women’s health needs are too often dismissed or delayed.
A central feature of the renewed strategy is a new commitment to strengthen accountability across the health system. The government will explore innovative ways to link women’s feedback directly to provider funding and targeted service improvements, including through a new trial.
The aim is to ensure that services are not only collecting women’s experiences but actively responding to them, addressing persistent problems around women feeling ignored or unsupported.
Women will also benefit from streamlined access to care through a single referral point, helping ensure they are directed to the right professional first time.
This will be supported by closer integration between local in‑person services and online support, helping to cut waiting lists and bring an end to years‑long waits for diagnosis and treatment. Conditions such as endometriosis, which can take nearly a decade to diagnose, are a particular focus of the reforms.
Responding to long‑standing concerns, the strategy commits to producing a new national standard of care to ensure women are offered appropriate and effective pain relief for invasive gynaecological procedures.
This will apply across a range of treatments, from contraceptive fitting to hysteroscopies, addressing widespread reports of pain being minimised or inadequately managed.
Under the current government, gynaecology waiting lists have already fallen by more than 30,000 since June 2024, supported by record NHS investment and wider reforms set out in the 10 Year Health Plan.
Women’s health has also been prioritised through:
- The launch of NHS Online, providing support for menstrual and menopausal symptoms
- Expanded community diagnostic centres, offering tests such as blood tests and MRIs closer to home and reducing delays between appointments
Together, these changes are designed to move care out of hospitals and into communities, improving access and convenience.
The renewed strategy sets out a programme of targeted reforms, including redesigned clinical pathways for heavy menstrual bleeding, urogynaecology and menopause to speed up diagnosis and treatment.
It also includes funding for a specialist women’s health centre in every region, promoting group‑based approaches that help women better understand and manage their conditions, alongside new investment in menstrual education for girls and innovation through a £1.5 million Femtech challenge fund.
A new Women’s Voices Partnership will bring together organisations representing women to help shape future policy, while work will continue to improve access to contraception and abortion care and review support for families experiencing repeated baby loss.
Through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), the government is funding research into unmet need in women’s health, including improved care for young women living with severe period pain and first‑of‑its‑kind technology to treat threatened miscarriage.
NIHR is also embedding new sex‑ and gender‑specific policies into health research to ensure findings are representative and that no woman is left behind by scientific progress.
Wes Streeting, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, commented:
“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.
“Whether it’s being passed from one appointment to another for conditions like endometriosis and fibroids, or a lack of proper pain relief during invasive procedures, through to having to navigate symptoms for years before receiving a diagnosis, it’s clear the system is failing women.
“Women’s voices must be central to delivering effective, respectful, and empathetic care. We need to hit medical misogyny where it hurts - the wallet. Today’s renewed strategy will tackle the issues women face every day and ensure no woman is left fighting to be heard.”
The refreshed strategy builds on action already taken, including free emergency contraception in pharmacies, at‑home HPV testing, making gynaecology the first specialty for NHS Online, and the introduction of bereavement leave for miscarriage.
From this year, the standard NHS Health Check for adults aged 40 to 74 will also include a question on menopause symptoms, giving up to five million women an easier route to advice and support.
Clinical Director for Women’s Health at NHS England, Dr Sue Mann, also said:
“We have come a long way in the last decade with women’s health being talked about more but there are still parts of society and the health system that are trapped in outdated thinking.
“Too many women are still dismissed for serious symptoms that impact on every part of their lives, whether that’s menstrual pain, irregular periods, or hot flushes and brain fog that affect many women experiencing the menopause.
“The renewed Women’s Health Strategy will build significantly on the work the NHS has been doing to ensure women are heard and get the specialist care they need - with a focus on bringing down waiting times, delivering more care in communities and giving women more choice over their care.”
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