Minister Leszczyna at the Women's Health Forum: I will do everything to implement your recommendations

• The Women's Health Forum began on June 9. New Horizons
• The inaugural session was attended by the Minister of Health, Izabela Leszczyna, who opened a two-day discussion on women's health with her speech.
• - I hope that when talking about women's health there will be less and less ideology and less politics, and more and more health - said the minister.
• She recalled that after taking up the position, the first project the ministry dealt with was the "Conscious, safe me" package, i.e. solutions dedicated to women
• - I ask you to do everything we can together for women's health, so that the applications about it reach me, and I will do everything to put your ideas, your recommendations into practice - she appealed

The Women's Health Forum was inaugurated by the Minister of Health, Izabela Leszczyna. In her speech, she referred to how women's health has been perceived in recent decades.

- When you, the director Paulina Gumowska and the editor-in-chief Klara Klinger, invited me to today's event and told me that we would be talking about women's health , I remembered my mother's book "Women's Health" - a book edited by professor Ireneusz Roszkowski. My childhood memory of this book is as follows: there was a bookcase with various books in it, but this book on women's health was completely separate. It was lying as if locked away in a cabinet, which was only my mother's cabinet. I thought to myself that women's health has always been a bit like my mother's book: it was as if separate, and sometimes a bit shameful, and sometimes unfortunately ideologized - the minister recalled.

- In connection with what, in fact, women's health in the Polish healthcare system , in Polish medicine, has certainly been a bit on the sidelines for many years. Of course, we are changing this paradigm. I am very happy to be part of this change and I hope that when talking about women's health, there will be less and less ideology and less and less politics, and more and more health, which means that we, the decision-makers, politicians, will also listen to you - doctors, female doctors and you, patients, in the field of women's health - she added.

Referring to her childhood memories, Minister Leszczyna emphasised that after taking up the position, the first project the ministry dealt with was the "Conscious, safe me" package, i.e. solutions dedicated to women.

- Part of this package is perinatal care and certainly an important element of it, namely perinatal anesthesia, which last year - we have successes here indeed - began to grow dynamically. More and more natural births are births with anesthesia. We have introduced additional remuneration in the benefits package and we are moving away from the opinion that labor pain is natural pain - every woman has the right to anesthesia if she wants to give birth naturally - added the minister.

She reminded that part of perinatal care is also the expansion of prenatal tests. - There is no age limit here - every pregnant woman has the right to prenatal tests, because she has the right to fear for her own child and its health - she concluded.

- I am glad that the conference program includes an important place for new horizons of gynecological care , because when talking about women's health, we also remember about oncofertility, i.e. that cancer, a tumor is a very serious disease, but it does not exclude motherhood. Hence, in this important part of the project "Conscious, safe self", a significant part is occupied by the in vitro program. A very important part of it is oncofertility, i.e. that patients who have to undergo oncological treatment can freeze their gametes - said the head of the Ministry of Health.

She also summed up the results of the implementation of the government's n vitro program to date. - We have over 1,500 children born from this program and of course, on an individual level, this is fantastic information for each such couple, but on a demographic level, it is also significant. We have over 30,000 couples qualified for the program and over 13,000 pregnancies.

The "Conscious, Safe Me" program also includes vaccinations against HPV. - Boys and girls have access to free vaccines. A few weeks ago, we decided that those fourteen-year-olds who, for various reasons, did not manage to take the second dose can also take it - she added.

She also addressed all participants of the Women's Health Forum. - A huge request to all of you: please, be ambassadors for these vaccinations. There is a lot of misunderstanding and fake news information surrounding them. This is a very important vaccination and I probably do not have to convince anyone in this room to do so, we have a chance to save the next generations of young people from a very dangerous cancer - she appealed.

In the context of emergency contraception, she stressed that it was not possible to introduce it as planned, but it is available in pharmacies that signed up for the pilot project.

- Here again, a huge request to all of you: let's put pressure on pharmacists. There is a chance that this emergency contraceptive pill, the so-called morning-after pill, will be available without a prescription in pharmacies - it is the pharmacist's decision whether to join the pilot - she concluded.

Also as part of the "Conscious, safe self" package, the Ministry of Health has included the treatment of endometriosis.

- From July 1, deep endometriosis, which requires surgical, extremely complicated and specialist treatment, will be financed by the National Health Fund and will be included in the basket of guaranteed benefits. We will have several such centres of excellence in Poland, where women with this disease will be treated from public funds. Of course, the treatment of endometriosis is not only deep endometriosis, it is also the guidelines that we have developed, or rather our experts, headed by consultant Wender-Ożegowska, have developed. Guidelines for all gynecologists who meet with women in clinics, clinics, on how to diagnose endometriosis, how to treat endometriosis conservatively, if it is not in its most difficult form - announced Minister Leszczyna at the Forum.

Also from July 1, the Ministry of Health is introducing the HPV HR test and liquid-based cytology. - Patient organizations have been coming to me since the beginning when I became the Minister of Health and they said: Minister, there is already liquid-based cytology all over the world and it is better, more sensitive. From July 1, such cytology will be financed by the National Health Fund - she explained.

She also announced that, in cooperation with experts, a package of solutions for women in the menopausal period will be created.

At the same time, Minister Leszczyn reminded that the "My Health" program was introduced on May 5.

- It is a program dedicated to both women and men [...]. It has replaced its predecessor, the pilot program 40 plus, and it differs from it in that after performing basic tests, we return to our family doctor to discuss the tests with him, to find out from him whether everything is fine, and if it is a bit bad, what we should change in our diet, lifestyle, habits, our activity. Or, what additional tests we should do to deepen them. So our family doctor draws up an individual health plan for us and we call it an adult check-up . Once from the age of 20 to 49 - every 5 years - we can do such a check-up, but it does not mean that only once every 5 years, because the doctor will later tell us: what, when and what we should pay attention to, and from the age of 50 we do the check-up every 3 years - she summed up the program.

- I ask you to do everything good we can together for women's health, to send me the applications about it, and I will do everything to put your ideas, your recommendations into practice - the head of the Ministry of Health encouraged cooperation.

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