Endometriosis inquiry exposes career, pay and job loss impacts

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Endometriosis launched an inquiry into endometriosis and the workplace as new Office for National Statistics data put a sharper focus on pay, employment status and job loss in England. Endometriosis UK says one in six women and those assigned female at birth with the condition have had to leave the workplace because of it.

The ONS data cover England from April 2016 to December 2022 and draw on a study that linked employee pay records, census data and endometriosis diagnoses. The research abstract says no previous population-level study had quantified the labour market effects of endometriosis in England, even though the condition is known to have physical, psychological, social and economic impacts.

That wider cost is now being framed as an employment issue as well as a health one. Recent analysis has linked endometriosis with lower monthly employee pay and a greater risk of leaving work, while campaigners and workplace experts have called for better support and stronger manager training.

Two women have described the strain in practical terms. Samantha Hartin said endometriosis has affected every job she has had, while Samantha Gelder, 37, called for better workplace support and said many employers did not understand the condition. Their accounts mirror a disease that can take seven to 12 years to diagnose and affects about one in 10 women in the UK.

The parliamentary pressure is building alongside the data. The House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee has already published a report on women’s reproductive health conditions, and the Government must respond within two months. Endometriosis UK has described the new inquiry as a second inquiry into the issue, underscoring how long the workplace consequences have been discussed without a settled response.

For employers, the numbers point to a retention problem as much as a welfare one. If diagnosis arrives after years of symptoms, workers can spend a large part of their careers managing pain, fatigue and absences without formal recognition or support. The new inquiry will gather evidence on how that plays out in hiring, pay progression and whether women stay in post.