I’m pleased that we’re having this very important discussion today. Although we've had a commitment from the Minister, I think the fact that so many constituents continue to contact us demonstrates the importance of raising awareness with every opportunity that we have with regard to women's health, and the health of those assigned female at birth. I know that plans are afoot in this area, but people are living in pain, and knowing that they perhaps have to suffer that pain for years to come whilst a plan emerges is very difficult, because it has a detrimental impact on your ability to live on a daily basis. 

References have been made to endometriosis already, and this is a subject that I raised recently having been contacted by a constituent after she was told by Cwm Taf health board that the vital treatment that she needed, which was supposed to take place before the first lockdown back in 2020, hadn’t just been postponed, but had been cancelled entirely. Since then, she has contacted me again to let me know that she has refused the only option she was given, namely treatment to bring on early menopause, because she also has a bone condition, which could deteriorate severely with menopause medication. Instead of being supportive, the nurse became very angry with her and threatened to release her from the gynaecologist’s care if she wasn’t willing to take the medication, rather than continuing to call for the treatment and surgery that she needs. All this despite the fact that she is in such pain that it is having an impact on her work and personal life. Unfortunately, cases of this kind are far too common, and it isn’t good enough that we expect women to suffer like this. 

I would also, in my contribution today, like to focus on pregnancy and the problems that a strategy must tackle. Although pregnancy in the United Kingdom is, on the whole, considered to be safe, women and babies are still dying unnecessarily as a direct result of complications with pregnancy that could be prevented. Every year, around 5,000 babies in the UK are either stillborn or die soon after birth, and 70 mothers die as a result of specific pregnancy-related conditions. We know that black women are four times more likely to die from complications during pregnancy than white women, and Asian women twice as likely. Older mothers, mothers from deprived backgrounds and women of mixed ethnicity are also more likely to die during pregnancy or soon afterwards. Care for women is being seriously hampered by a lack of suitable medications that we know for certain are safe and effective during pregnancy or while breastfeeding. Over the past 40 years, only two new forms of medication have been approved for use during pregnancy.

Another subject that demands attention, and which builds on Jenny Rathbone's point, is the injuries that women suffer during childbirth, which have a detrimental and long-term impact on a person’s ability to work, leave the house and have sexual intercourse, due to bowel incontinence. They also lose touch with their children, and this has a major psychological impact. This issue is rarely discussed. On Monday I was pleased to be able to attend the launch of a pelvic health hub at Barry Hospital. Led by Julie Cornish, this is the only hub in Wales that supports women with injuries of this kind. I spoke to the MASIC charity about this, and I was told that one in 20 women or people who give birth for the first time suffers a serious injury. Whilst praising to the skies the work of this new hub, the charity said how unacceptable it is that there wasn’t a hub of this kind in every health board area, and that the majority of women in Wales cannot access any support with this issue. This cannot go on.

And this isn’t the only area where improvement is needed. Sixty-five per cent of people living with dementia are women, but 60 to 70 per cent of carers of people with dementia are also women. Also, 20 per cent of female carers have gone from full-time to part-time employment due to their caring responsibilities, and 17 per cent felt that they were being penalised at work.

We also know that there is a whole host of statistics with regard to heart disease, and these are very powerful figures in terms of the fact that women aren't receiving the recognition that they have coronary heart disease. Women are 40 per cent more likely than a man of having an incorrect initial diagnosis of heart attack. So, there are anomalies here in terms of women and men with conditions that are very common. This can be very disheartening in terms of all of the things that we face as challenges. But, the more we talk about these challenges and encourage women to attend surgeries, rather than suffering in silence—I think about the fact that we have whispered about these conditions in the past—the more we will be talking about them and making progress in these areas. I'm pleased that we have an opportunity like this debate and we would, of course, welcome this new strategy, but also the action taken on the ground to support women in Wales.