Rejected petition Make endometriosis a recognized disability.

Rejected on 15 August 2022

Endometriosis is a debilitating incurable chronic illness affecting 1.5 million women in the UK. It takes on average 8 years from onset of symptoms to diagnosis. In that time the disease wreaks havoc causing our organs to fuse together and debilitate us. Make endometriosis a recognized disability.

Endometriosis should be recognized as a disability, this is why I am calling for the Government to recognize this and help the 1.5 million women living in the UK with their incurable debilitating chronic illness. We want the Government to class endometriosis as a disability.

Why was this petition rejected?

It’s not clear what the petition is asking the UK Government or Parliament to do.

The Government's guidance on disability under the Equality Act 2010 states that you’re disabled if you have a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ negative effect on your ability to do normal daily activities:
https://www.gov.uk/definition-of-disability-under-equality-act-2010

It is therefore already the case that under the Equality Act, anyone with a physical or a mental condition which has a substantial and long-term impact on your ability to do normal day to day activities is protected under the disability protected characteristic. This could cover people who have endometriosis, where this has a a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ negative effect on their ability to do normal daily activities. So it's not clear what else you would like to happen.

We have published the following related petitions, which you might like to sign:

Increase funding for treatment of women with chronic gynaecological conditions: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/617903

Fund more research into diagnosis and treatment of women’s health conditions: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/610170

Fund training on helping women with endometriosis for NHS staff: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/615854

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.