English: I'll focus my remarks on something that Sioned Williams has mentioned: the normalisation of pain for women in medical procedures and the ways in which girls and women are brought up to expect and tolerate discomfort as part of their daily lives. Perhaps most worryingly, when women complain about experiencing pain, as we've heard, there's ample research to suggest that they are routinely ignored or not taken as seriously as men in medical settings. In January, the cross-party group on women's health held a discussion about pain experienced in gynaecological out-patient settings, and, Llywydd, we heard truly harrowing stories about how some women feel they can't complain when they're in pain. We heard about a resistance amongst some practitioners to introducing more widespread pain relief and about a disconnect between patients and clinicians in terms of how they estimate pain. On this question in terms of how we estimate pain, the disconnect seems to come about because women and girls are very often told that a level of discomfort will be something like period pain, and there's a significant problem here because period pain will be drastically different for different individuals, and the assumption that period pain will be a constant will mean that some clinicians either give patients an unrealistically low expectation about the kind of pain they should expect or they don't understand how some women's bodies work. And why should women be expected as a matter of course to tolerate pain similar to period pain? Why should there be an assumption that women's tolerance for pain will be higher because of childbirth? Why should that be normal? Our motion talks about the cost of women's health. The monetary cost is well rehearsed: sanitary products that until relatively awfully recently were taxed as luxuries; over-the-counter pain medication. But, again, what about mental health? It's been mentioned already, the mental health impact of a failure to acknowledge women's health issues, the cost to society and the economy of sustaining a taboo, a veil of shame when it comes to talking about some conditions. How many women feel that they can't tell their employer that they can't go into work because their period pains are debilitating? How many women suffer in silence or can't tell their colleagues that they've had a miscarriage and that they need time off to get over it? How many women are summoned by HR to explain why their sickness record is so long, when, in fact, they're going through the menopause? Society both normalises women's pain and expects us to shut it away, not to mention it, not to consider it as appropriate for polite conversation. That is a double injustice, an intensified injury and a wrong that's wrought upon women. Now, research suggests that women in acute pain go longer without being treated in hospitals than men suffering from similar conditions. They're also, as we've heard, more likely to be misdiagnosed with mental health problems and given anti-anxiety medication rather than having their pain or the cause of that pain treated. The tendency to dismiss women's pain is rooted in a centuries-old bias. The words for hysterectomy and hysteria have the same root, and this medieval notion that women were made mad or unbalanced because of their wombs, that still has aftershocks today - an ancient, outdated prejudice upheld by modern medical practices. Chronic pain conditions that affect women, like fibromyalgia and endometriosis, are treated with a lack of seriousness and urgency. Women wait longer to receive pain medication; they face longer waits before being diagnosed with cancer; they're less likely to receive CPR because their symptoms are so often ignored or dismissed. And this isn't just a cognitive bias that we're battling; it's the fact that textbooks tend to focus on the male anatomy. The norm is always male, and not enough funding is put into conditions that affect women. These failures, Llywydd, result in unacceptable numbers of women dying, and before that, horrendously high numbers of women thinking that the level of pain they're going through is normal when it isn't. That's the cost of a lack of attention to women's health: you can count it in bodies or prescription scripts. So, in closing, Llywydd, instead of normalising women's pain, we should be normalising talking about how we experience pain, talking about gynaecological conditions, improving training, because this gender pain gap has to be closed once and for all.
Welsh: Rwyf am ganolbwyntio fy sylwadau ar rywbeth y mae Sioned Williams wedi'i grybwyll: normaleiddio poen i fenywod mewn gweithdrefnau meddygol a'r ffyrdd y mae merched a menywod yn cael eu magu i ddisgwyl a goddef anghysur yn rhan o'u bywydau bob dydd. Yr hyn sy'n peri'r pryder mwyaf efallai, pan fydd menywod yn cwyno am boen, fel y clywsom, yw y ceir digonedd o ymchwil i awgrymu eu bod yn cael eu hanwybyddu fel mater o drefn, neu nad ydynt yn cael eu cymryd o ddifrif i'r un graddau â dynion mewn lleoliadau meddygol. Ym mis Ionawr, cynhaliodd y grŵp trawsbleidiol ar iechyd menywod drafodaeth am brofiadau o boen mewn lleoliadau gynaecolegol i gleifion allanol, a chlywsom straeon gwirioneddol frawychus, Lywydd, ynglŷn â sut y mae rhai menywod yn teimlo na allant gwyno pan fyddant mewn poen. Clywsom am anfodlonrwydd ymhlith rhai ymarferwyr i ddarparu cyffuriau lleddfu poen ar raddfa ehangach ac am ddatgysylltiad rhwng cleifion a chlinigwyr yn y ffordd y maent yn amcangyfrif poen. Ar y cwestiwn ynglŷn â sut rydym yn amcangyfrif poen, ymddengys bod y datgysylltiad yn deillio o'r ffaith bod menywod a merched yn cael clywed yn aml iawn y bydd lefel yr anghysur yn debyg i boen mislif, ac mae problem fawr yn hynny o beth gan y bydd poen mislif yn dra gwahanol i wahanol unigolion, a bydd y dybiaeth fod poen mislif yn gyson yn golygu bod rhai clinigwyr naill ai'n rhoi disgwyliad afrealistig o isel i gleifion ynglŷn â'r math o boen y dylent ei disgwyl, neu nid ydynt yn deall sut y mae cyrff rhai menywod yn gweithio. A pham y dylid disgwyl i fenywod oddef poen tebyg i boen mislif fel mater o drefn? Pam y dylid cael rhagdybiaeth y bydd menywod yn gallu goddef mwy o boen am eu bod yn geni plant? Pam y dylai hynny fod yn normal? Mae ein cynnig yn sôn am gost iechyd menywod. Mae'r gost ariannol wedi'i hailadrodd lawer gwaith: eitemau ar gyfer y mislif yn cael eu trethu fel pethau moethus tan yn ofnadwy o ddiweddar; meddyginiaeth lleddfu poen dros y cownter. Ond unwaith eto, beth am iechyd meddwl? Mae wedi'i grybwyll eisoes, effaith y methiant i gydnabod problemau iechyd menywod ar iechyd meddwl, cost cynnal tabŵ i gymdeithas ac i'r economi, llen o gywilydd wrth sôn am rai cyflyrau. Faint o fenywod sy'n teimlo na allant ddweud wrth eu cyflogwr na allant fynd i'r gwaith am fod eu poen mislif yn wanychol? Faint o fenywod sy'n dioddef yn dawel neu'n methu dweud wrth eu cydweithwyr eu bod wedi cael camesgoriad a bod angen amser i ffwrdd arnynt i ymdopi? Faint o fenywod sy'n cael eu galw gan yr adran adnoddau dynol i egluro pam fod eu cofnod salwch mor hir, pan fyddant, mewn gwirionedd, yn mynd drwy'r menopos? Mae cymdeithas yn normaleiddio poen menywod ac yn disgwyl i ni ei anwybyddu, peidio â sôn amdano, ei ystyried yn amhriodol ar gyfer sgwrs gwrtais. Mae hynny'n anghyfiawnder dwbl, yn anaf dwysach ac yn gamwedd ar fenywod. Nawr, mae ymchwil yn awgrymu bod menywod sydd mewn poen acíwt yn mynd yn hirach heb gael eu trin mewn ysbytai na dynion sy'n dioddef o gyflyrau tebyg. Maent hefyd, fel y clywsom, yn fwy tebygol o gael diagnosis anghywir o broblemau iechyd meddwl a chael meddyginiaeth gwrth-bryder yn hytrach na bod eu poen neu achos y boen yn cael ei drin. Mae'r duedd i ddiystyru poen menywod wedi'i gwreiddio mewn rhagfarn sy'n ganrifoedd oed. Mae'r geiriau am hysterectomi a hysteria yn dod o'r un gwreiddyn, a'r syniad canoloesol hwn fod menywod wedi mynd yn wallgof neu'n ddryslyd oherwydd eu crothau, sy'n dal atseinio heddiw - rhagfarn hynafol, hen ffasiwn sy'n cael ei chynnal gan arferion meddygol modern. Mae cyflyrau poen cronig sy'n effeithio ar fenywod, fel ffibromyalgia ac endometriosis, yn cael eu trin â diffyg difrifoldeb a brys. Mae menywod yn aros yn hirach i gael meddyginiaeth lleddfu poen; maent yn wynebu amseroedd aros hirach cyn cael diagnosis o ganser; maent yn llai tebygol o gael triniaeth adfywio cardio-pwlmonaidd am fod eu symptomau'n cael eu hanwybyddu neu eu diystyru mor aml. Ac nid rhagfarn wybyddol yn unig yr ydym yn brwydro yn ei herbyn, ond y ffaith bod gwerslyfrau'n tueddu i ganolbwyntio ar anatomeg wrywaidd. Mae'r norm yn wrywaidd bob amser, ac nid oes digon o gyllid yn cael ei roi tuag at y cyflyrau sy'n effeithio ar fenywod. Mae'r methiannau hyn, Lywydd, yn arwain at niferoedd annerbyniol o fenywod yn marw, a chyn hynny, niferoedd ofnadwy o uchel o fenywod yn meddwl bod lefel y boen y maent yn ei dioddef yn normal pan nad yw'n normal. Dyna gost diffyg sylw i iechyd menywod: gallwch ei gyfrif mewn cyrff neu bresgripsiynau. Felly, i gloi, Lywydd, yn hytrach na normaleiddio poen menywod, dylem fod yn normaleiddio siarad am y ffordd yr ydym yn profi poen, yn siarad am gyflyrau gynaecolegol, yn gwella hyfforddiant, gan fod yn rhaid cau'r bwlch poen hwn rhwng y rhywiau unwaith ac am byth.