Speeches by Brewer.

“That was my next question, but this is specifically about it getting on to NHS social media channels.”

“Yes, thank you. We have heard a lot throughout this inquiry about the difference between the acceptability of naming men’s genital parts and the taboo of naming women’s body parts and therefore there is significant work going on to combat this. They told us that NHS bureaucracy might be preventing some menstrual health…”

“Thank you. Do you think the NHS should be making more use of third-party media content produced by effective women’s health communicators, for example Dr Sesay and Dr Arif?”

“Six months still seems a very long time from where I am sitting.”

“The Committee would be very interested in understanding exactly what the barriers are to making that happen.”

“That is okay. Can I take it then that you have not specifically had conversations with social media platforms about stopping this but you would raise that with DSIT instead?”

“I would be interested to know whether those conversations that you are having will feed into the women’s health strategy as a part of it.”

“As a woman and parent of a teenage girl, and boy for that matter, my concern is that we are currently living in an age where teenagers can go on to social media sites and strip someone naked digitally but cannot access accurate information about their own bodies. That is a digital problem but also a health problem. Wha…”

“This is something that is very definitely affecting the content.”

“I just want to come back to the very first point that Kim asked around whether your strategy is going to include the concerns that we are raising in this inquiry, and you said it might depend on timing. I just wanted to add that the clues might be in our questions today as to the kind of areas we are interested in. I w…”

“Okay. Excellent.”

“One way that young women access health information—not just young women, it has to be said—is through social media channels: TikTok, Instagram and so on. In order for them to do that, it obviously needs to be pushed out via the right channels and then not be deprioritised or shadow-banned by those social media algorith…”

“We heard a good deal of evidence so I am pleased to hear it. I have quite a long list of questions so I am going to push on. Do you think there should be a link to the Wellbeing of Women’s period symptom checker on the NHS website?”

“I want to ask whether you think NHS funding should be more widely available for egg freezing, particularly for women who have medical conditions that might affect their fertility.”

“My semi-rural constituency is less than an hour from London, so people would think the broadband would be tip-top, but it is far from it. In some areas, speeds are less than 1 megabit per second. As we have discussed, this prevents businesses from holding online meetings and so on, but it also means that, for example, …”

“You touched a little on what needs to happen next, but are there any areas where you are disappointed in terms of progress or where there could have been more removal of barriers, for instance?”

“Briefly, Lesley, what has been your proudest achievement as women’s health ambassador in relation to better supporting girls’ and women’s menstrual and gynaecological health?”

“I am sorry to hear about the experience of my hon. Friend’s mother, and the experiences of my hon. Friend’s constituents. Many people in my constituency of North East Hampshire face similar challenges. I have personal experience with a relative who could not get a diagnosis in Hampshire despite many of us, as her famil…”

“Sue, you are the first ever NHS national clinical director for women’s health. Can you talk a little about the benefits the role has brought to girls and young women’s menstrual and gynaecological health?”

“I represent a semi-rural constituency where public transport is, at best, threadbare. We do not even have part of a conurbation, if you see what I mean; we have lots of small towns and villages. Put it this way: it would be an extremely long time, with many women’s health hubs opening up, before we got one in my consti…”