Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average time taken to diagnose endometriosis was in each of the last five years.

This data is not held centrally. The Government is committed to prioritising women’s health and improving the care for gynaecological conditions, including endometriosis.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published an update to the guideline on endometriosis diagnosis and management in November 2024. This makes firmer recommendations for healthcare professionals on referrals and investigations for women with suspected endometriosis, which will help women receive a diagnosis and treatment more quickly.

For many women with symptoms of endometriosis, the initial pharmacological treatment takes place in primary care and can be in parallel with a referral for further investigations. As a result, looking at diagnosis times alone is unlikely to be the only measure of whether women are receiving care for endometriosis in a timely matter. NHS England is looking into metrics that best reflect the timely access to care and outcomes for women, including for endometriosis. This work will explore whether time to diagnosis is the optimum measure.

An ongoing Office for National Statistics investigation is looking into the impact of endometriosis on women's labour market outcomes. One component of this study is linking primary and secondary care data to better understand diagnosis times for endometriosis.