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Women’s Health Strategy ● This Government has prioritised women’s health, including by increasing choice for women by making progestogen-only contraceptive pills available from pharmacies without prescription; committing to cut the cost of hormone replacement therapy; making record investment in health and education; and banning both virginity testing and hymenoplasty, as part of our wider work to tackle violence against women and girls. ● But there is more to do. Over four in five women (85 per cent) feel, or are perceived to feel, comfortable talking to healthcare professionals about general physical health concerns. This falls to less than three in five women when discussing mental health conditions (59 per cent). ● Decades of sex-based health disparities will be addressed with England’s first ever Women’s Health Strategy, which we will publish this year. This will reset the dial on women’s health, setting out an ambitious and positive new approach, ensuring the system offers equal access to effective care and support and prioritising care on the basis of clinical need. ● The Strategy will be underpinned by the analysis from almost 100,000 responses to the Call for Evidence we ran in 2021. This heard directly from women to understand their experiences of the health and care system, so we can make sure women’s voices are at the centre of the Strategy. ● The Strategy will focus both on priority healthcare issues for women across the course of their lives: o priority healthcare issues: menstrual health and gynaecological conditions; fertility, pregnancy, pregnancy loss and post-natal support; the menopause; healthy ageing and long-term conditions; mental health; and the health impacts of violence against women and girls; and o thematic priorities: women’s voices; healthcare policies and services; information and education; health in the workplace; and research evidence and data. ● Our Vision for the Women’s Health Strategy for England, published in December 2021, set out the life course approach we will take, ensuring we understand the changing health and care needs of women and girls across their lives, rather than focussing on interventions for a single condition, often at a single life stage. ● The Vision also announced the first ever Women’s Health Ambassador for England. The Ambassador will focus on raising the profile for women’s health, increasing awareness of taboo topics, and bringing in a range of collaborative voices to implement the Women’s Health Strategy.

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