Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions she has had with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence on its Topic Selection processes for hormone-based therapies used in the treatment of menopause and female sexual dysfunction and the need for timely decisions on women's health technologies awaiting appraisal.

We recognise the concerns that women have raised about inequalities in their healthcare, and we are committed to ensuring that women’s voices and choices are central to healthcare. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is an independent body and is responsible for the methods and processes it uses in the development of its guidance and for the prioritisation of topics for guidance development.

NICE evaluates all new licensed medicines, including medicines for women’s health, and women’s and reproductive health is one of NICE’s priority topic areas for the maintenance and updating of guideline content.

NICE has prioritised a number of topics for guidance development related to women’s health including Digital Health Technologies for the delivery of cognitive behaviour therapy to help manage the symptoms of menopause, technologies for the rapid diagnosis of endometriosis, and technologies to improve the detection of endometrial cancer.