Large Print – 12th Report – Menstrual health of girls and young women

Key findings

• New RSHE statutory guidance (mandatory from September 2026) includes specific teaching on menstrual and gynaecological health and common conditions (endometriosis, PCOS, heavy bleeding), but effective implementation requires teacher training, resources, and guidance for diverse student populations.
• Nearly half a million women are on hospital gynaecology waiting lists; early identification and management of menstrual problems in girls could prevent escalation to chronic conditions affecting education, employment, and fertility.
• School nurses have been cut by 33% since 2009 and are severely under-resourced; in some areas school nursing is not commissioned at all, creating a 'postcode lottery' that undermines early access to menstrual care.
• Girls and young women from racial and ethnic minorities and those with disabilities face additional barriers to menstrual education and care; racial biases in pain management persist and disabled/Deaf young women's needs are poorly understood.
• NHS digital provision (website, social media, FemTech apps) is insufficient; the NHS must provide not-for-profit alternatives to exploitative period-tracking apps and address 'shadow banning' of women's health content on social media platforms.

Recommendations

• The Government should encourage schools to use RSHE grant funding to train teachers on menstrual and gynaecological health elements. The Department for Education should work with the Department of Health and Social Care and stakeholders to ensure effective training and resources are made available at limited cost.
• The Department for Education and Department of Health and Social Care should work with expert stakeholders to ensure guidance and teaching materials reflect the diversity of menstrual wellbeing experiences and needs of students, including those from different racial and ethnic backgrounds and those with disabilities.
• The Department for Education should develop whole-school resources and guidance for embedding menstrual health awareness and support, including best practice on access to period products without perpetuating stigma.
• The Government should investigate why some schools and colleges have not participated in the period product scheme and encourage participation. The scheme should be extended indefinitely and to other settings beyond schools and colleges.
• The Government should investigate the extent to which school toilet access is being restricted and request that school leaders take alternative approaches to discipline issues rather than restricting toilet access.
• The renewed Women's Health Strategy should include an aim to improve school nurse provision, particularly in deprived areas, recognising that investment in school nursing would reduce risk of symptom escalation and align with prevention goals in the 10-year Health Plan.
• The NHS must improve its website, social media, and digital provision for women's health information. The Government should commit to including a link to Wellbeing of Women's period symptom checker on the NHS website immediately, and establish clear actions and targets for authoritative content.
• The Government must act to stop 'shadow banning' of women's health content on social media, hold social media companies to account, and ensure harmful content censoring ceases.
• The NHS must provide not-for-profit FemTech alternatives to exploitative and potentially harmful period-tracking apps, stepping into the space quickly to drive demand away from harmful commercial apps.
• The renewed Women's Health Strategy must include a credible, costed implementation plan with clear timetable to ensure women's health hubs are sustainable and funded, bringing together fragmented services and reducing hospital gynaecology waiting lists.
• The Government must provide additional ring-fenced funding to Integrated Care Boards to ensure women's health hubs continue to develop and deliver multidisciplinary menstrual and gynaecological care, with accountability for meeting core specification.
• The renewed Women's Health Strategy should set out ambitions for increased research into menstrual health conditions, with specific targets and actions to incentivise funders, industry and clinical academia to prioritise root causes as well as diagnosis and treatment.

Key actors

Sarah Owen (Chair, Women and Equalities Committee), Professor Dame Lesley Regan (Women's Health Ambassador), Dr Sue Mann (NHS England National Clinical Director for Women's Health), Kate Lancaster (Chief Executive, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists), Janet Lindsay (Wellbeing of Women), Chella Quint (founder, Period Positive), Dr Nandi Simpson (NHS Race and Health Observatory), Department for Education, Department of Health and Social Care