Discussing menstrual health in Parliament

SignHealth represents deaf women at committee meeting

On Monday, 9 February 2026, Abigail and another SignHealth colleague went to Parliament to meet the Women and Equalities Select Committee.

The committee are preparing a Women’s Health Strategy, due to be published in the spring. The roundtable focused on menstrual health. Menstrual relates to the menstrual cycle. The ovaries control the hormones that affect your period cycle. The same hormones are also involved in life stages such as pregnancy and menopause.

These experiences can affect people emotionally, physically and mentally. We raised that there is currently no established sign for “menstrual”, which creates a barrier at the very first point of understanding. It becomes much harder for deaf people to learn about and discuss these issues without shared signed vocabulary or accessible information in BSL.

Discussion

The committee asked deaf and disabled women several questions:

• Do people have clear, accessible information?
• Do schools provide appropriate education?
• Are events and services accessible?
• Do patients understand treatments and referral pathways?
• Does public health information meet deaf and disabled people’s needs?

Participants discussed these topics in depth. A deaf contributor explained that there is very little information available in BSL and many barriers remain. These include difficulties accessing GPs, complex referral pathways, and support groups that are inaccessible due to a lack of interpreters.

She also highlighted that the issue is not only about BSL. The deaf community includes many intersectional identities: deaf, deafblind and disabled people, LGBTIQA+ people, and people from Black and Asian communities. Barriers differ depending on identity, and experiences and perspectives vary. Information therefore needs to be adapted and representative of different communities.

We outlined some of the changes needed and what we would like to see included in the strategy. It was a productive day and we hope the final strategy properly recognises the needs of deaf and disabled people.

– Abigail Gorman, Policy and Research Manager at SignHealth

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