Amsterdam UMC women’s health consultation successful: “waiting list of four to five months”
The women’s health consultation at Amsterdam UMC, set up to provide accessible advice on women-specific health issues, has proved more popular than expected. At present, 290 women are on the waiting list. “The number of registrations has been overwhelming.”
After Amsterdam UMC announced the women’s health consultation on its intranet, registrations poured in so quickly that the scheduling system crashed. Since the consultation started in January, 275 women have already attended. Gynaecologist Felicia Yarde and medical researcher Isa Bijlo, who run the consultation together, had not expected it to attract so much attention. Yarde says: “There is a waiting list of four to five months.”
The idea for the women’s health consultation originated from research led by Professor Judith Huirne at Amsterdam UMC. The findings showed that women-specific conditions have a major impact on quality of life. Women with these conditions also often report sick from work because they are unable to function properly. Ten per cent of short-term sick leave is caused by cycle-related complaints.
Hospital employees can attend the one-off consultation if they experience menstruation-related, hormonal and/or pelvic floor problems. The women’s health consultation – held three days a week – aims to quickly identify the cause and provide employees with targeted advice. The high level of interest does not surprise Yarde: “On average, women live with women-specific conditions for seven to eight years and often see several healthcare professionals before receiving the correct diagnosis.”
A sticking plaster solution
When women finally discover the cause of their symptoms, treatment often focuses on relieving the symptoms – a sticking plaster solution. “There is still no targeted treatment to prevent or cure women-specific conditions,” says Yarde. According to her, this is due to a lack of knowledge about women’s health: references to it are largely absent from schoolbooks, healthcare and science.
The Dutch government has also stated that women’s health must be taken more seriously. This summer, the Ministry of Health called for more research into women-specific conditions and for greater prioritisation of women’s healthcare in the National Strategy for Women’s Health. Amsterdam UMC has been researching this topic for several years. “Every woman will experience at least one women-specific condition during her lifetime,” says Yarde. “Yet most research funding in the Netherlands still goes to diseases that mainly occur later in life. Women, by contrast, tend to experience these issues much earlier – while studying, doing internships or working. The impact often continues throughout their lives and contributes to the health gap between men and women.”
Taboo
Research into women’s health must also help break the taboo surrounding women-specific conditions. And that taboo is significant, Yarde notes: this is evident from a report by the Dutch Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. “We hear it echoed in our consulting rooms as well.”
An added benefit of the women’s health consultation is that staff feel less ashamed to discuss their symptoms. “Women tell us they often live with their complaints for a long time because they think it’s just something they have to put up with,” says Yarde. “But when they hear in the corridors that more women are attending the consultation, they feel encouraged to make an appointment too. It’s becoming something people can talk about at work, because they realise they’re not the only ones.”
