The latest\u202fUK-wide estimates\u202fsuggest\u202fover\u202fhalf (56%) \u202fof\u202fpatients are\u202fnow\u202fwaiting over 52 \u202fweeks.<\/p>\n
Women who have spoken to BBC News NI said waiting up to five years just to be seen by a consultant and even longer for surgery is not unusual.<\/p>\n
Among those waiting is Marie Brown from Belfast, who said she waited 20 years for a diagnosis.<\/p>\n
“During that time I was told mainly by male doctors that it was just period pain and I would have to live with it,” she said.<\/p>\n
Brown, who was a teacher, had to take medical retirement because she said she couldn’t physically work.<\/p>\n
“My life has been ruined waiting for treatment for endometriosis,” she said. <\/p>\n
“The pain is chronic – at one stage I was so bloated and unable to eat they thought I may have ovarian cancer.<\/p>\n
“Gynae issues and especially endometriosis is just not prioritised – it is debilitating and life changing but just not taken seriously by the health service.”<\/p>\n
While she did eventually have surgery, she said it wasn’t successful and she has been back on the waiting list for almost two years.<\/p>\n
The RCOG has said 2026 must be a turning point for women waiting for gynaecology care.<\/p>\n
It has called for faster, more decisive action to support women already waiting and to tackle the underlying capacity challenges driving long delays in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The latest\u202fUK-wide estimates\u202fsuggest\u202fover\u202fhalf (56%) \u202fof\u202fpatients are\u202fnow\u202fwaiting over 52 \u202fweeks. Women who have spoken to BBC News NI said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-358594","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}