The Department of Health and Social Care has opened a survey for six weeks to hear views form women, ‘to help shape future reproductive health policy’.
Women aged 16-55, including people born as females and now living as trans or non-binary, are asked to share their views on heavy menstrual bleeding, contraception, termination of pregnancies and menopausal symptoms in the online survey, which closes on 19 October.
The survey is being run as an academic study by the London School for Hygiene and Tropical Medicine on behalf of the DHSC. No other involvement is required of women apart from sharing their anonymous views.
The DHSC says the survey meets a commitment of its Women’s Health Strategy to listen more to the experiences of women. The survey includes questions on how generally satisfied women were with support from health care professionals, workplaces or other people in their lives when seeking help for symptoms.
We would have liked to have seen more specific questions in the survey on how well women feel listened to by health care professionals and how many repeated appointments it took to get diagnoses or support for reproductive health problems. But overall it represents another opportunity for women to have their say on their specific health needs.
