Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to amend the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines for endometriosis on (a) pain management, (b) mental health and (c) endometriosis outside the pelvic cavity.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is an independent body responsible for whether its published guidelines should be updated in light of new evidence or emerging issues not in the scope of the original guideline.

NICE’s guideline ‘Endometriosis: diagnosis and management’, published in 2017, includes recommendations on pharmacological pain management and organisation of care. It recommends that those patients with suspected or confirmed endometriosis should be provided with information and support that takes into account their psychosexual and emotional needs. NICE amended the guideline in 2021 to highlight that those with endometriosis outside the pelvic cavity should be referred to a specialist endometriosis centre. NICE is undertaking a further review of its guideline to determine whether it should be updated. As part of this review, NICE is considering whether diagnosing and managing thoracic endometriosis is a priority area.