Young woman from Donegal forced to travel almost 2,000 miles to get endometriosis diagnosis after years of pain - video Dailymotion

Young woman from Donegal forced to travel almost 2,000 miles to get endometriosis diagnosis after years of pain

Transcript

00:00The neglect needs to end, the failure needs to end, endometriosis affects so many women

00:05and like others I've been attending meetings across different parts of this country and

00:11I've heard some harrowing stories. But there's also a constant theme in all of it, no matter

00:16where you are in the country, it is that they feel that they have been abandoned by the

00:21state and they have. They feel that they've been ignored, dismissed and talked down to.

00:26But there's also in those rooms stories of imaginal strength, determination, as they

00:31told us how they fought for years for what should be basic healthcare. A young woman from

00:36my own county in Donegal shared her story with me of her experience of trying to access endometriosis

00:43healthcare in Ireland. She had to reach out again and again and again. She spoke to other

00:49people with the same challenges and she finally decided to travel to Romania in 2024, where

00:55she finally got the answers that she deserved. A specialist MRI diagnosed her with endometriosis.

01:01That is a diagnosis, Minister. That took nine years. Nine years. And after she got that diagnosis

01:08in Romania and after undergoing counselling due to the lasting effects of this journey on

01:14her, she had surgery in Greece where the endometriosis was removed from multiple sites and she was also

01:22diagnosed with adenomyosis. And for a decade, that young woman suffered with chronic pelvic pain,

01:30chronic fatigue, underlying issues, bowel issues, back pains, countless other systems,

01:36and nobody believed her. And that story isn't just hers. It is far too many women right across the

01:42state. And this needs to be treated like the emergency it is. Too many times women are being

01:48failed. Too many times they are not being believed. Too many times they have to travel abroad and it has to

01:53come to an end. There are other stories I could recall to you. A story of another woman again failed by the

02:00system in this state had to travel privately outside. And she got her diagnosis. She was told

02:06there were cysts in her ovaries. She cried, Minister. But she didn't cry because she needed emergency

02:11surgery. She did not cry because she had cysts in her ospreys. She cried because for the first time

02:18somebody believed her. For the first time somebody believed that she had endometriosis. Somebody believed

02:24that there was a plan in place for her afterwards. This has to come to an end. I said at the start,

02:29the neglect has to end. The failure has to end. We need to start listening and believing our sisters,

02:36our mothers, our aunties, our nieces, our daughters. And we have to put the care that they deserve in place.

02:42The first thing I want to do is thank you for the work that you are doing with and on behalf of women.

02:49It is wonderful to see so many different parties, so many different voices, male and female,

02:56articulate the female health experience. Because every single person here knows that it has been

03:00overlooked. Every single person knows that experience of telling a story and not being listened to

03:05and not being believed. I completely respect those experiences and I have no interest whatsoever

03:11in engaging in politics around something as important and as serious as this. What I am

03:16interested in is service delivery and the quickest possible way of ameliorating and fixing and making

03:23good the sheer lack of service delivery for women's health that has been there for so long.

03:28There have been important advancements in the last five years. There is an important program

03:32happening now which is a different way of listening to and respecting women. I cannot make up for the

03:39previous experience, but what I can say is that as the first female Minister for Health for a very,

03:45very long time, I have a very, very strong commitment to delivering services that are going to make a difference

03:52difference in people's lives.