Women across Liverpool are becoming seriously ill earlier than women elsewhere in England; they live longer with chronic health conditions and face more and more barriers to healthcare, according to evidence presented at Liverpool City Council’s Women’s Health Conference.
The conference, bringing together health leaders, community organisations, campaigners, and women with lived experience, exposed what many described as a deepening public health crisis shaped by poverty, trauma, inequality and years of systemic neglect.
Women facing poorer health for longer
The findings paint a stark picture of women’s lives across the city.
Women in Liverpool experience ill health around 10 years earlier than the national average and spend approximately 30% of their lives in poor health. Health inequalities are also widening fastest among women facing multiple disadvantages, including poverty, caring responsibilities, domestic abuse, poor housing and long-term unemployment.
Behind those figures are thousands of women struggling daily with worsening physical and mental health while feeling unsupported by the systems designed to help them.
A recurring message throughout the conference was simple but powerful: many women do not feel listened to, believed or properly supported when they seek care.
Women described long waiting times, fragmented services, difficulty accessing specialist support, and experiences of having symptoms dismissed or minimised. Community organisations working directly with women said many are forced to “fight” to be taken seriously, particularly when dealing with chronic pain, menopause symptoms, reproductive health conditions or mental ill health.
Mental ill health rising, especially in midlife
The report highlighted significant concern around women’s mental health, particularly during midlife.
Depression affects around 17% of women in Liverpool overall, rising to almost 30% among women in midlife. Rates are highest in more disadvantaged communities where financial pressure, poor housing, insecure work and social isolation continue to worsen mental wellbeing.
Health leaders warned that women are increasingly living with more than one long-term health condition, often at much younger ages than expected. Chronic pain, respiratory illness, cardiovascular disease and cancer are all contributing to women spending a greater proportion of their lives in ill health.
Preventable illness and early death
Some of the most alarming findings focused on preventable illness and early death.
Drug-related deaths among women in Liverpool are now more than three times the England average. Smoking, alcohol abuse, obesity and physical inactivity continue to drive worsening health outcomes, particularly in deprived areas where women are more likely to experience poverty and reduced access to support services.
Respiratory illness among women has become a major concern across the city.
Lung cancer mortality rates for women in Liverpool are double the national average, while deaths linked to other respiratory diseases are more than twice the rate seen across England. Mortality from falls among older women is also among the highest in the country, raising growing concerns around healthy ageing, as Liverpool’s female population continues to age.
Poverty, caring and violence shaping women’s health
Conference speakers repeatedly stressed that women’s health cannot be separated from wider social and economic conditions.
Women are more likely than men to be economically inactive due to unpaid caring responsibilities or long-term sickness. Many women are balancing childcare, caring for relatives, experience insecure work and financial hardship while ignoring their own deteriorating health.
One in three children in Liverpool currently lives in poverty, with campaigners warning that poverty continues to shape health outcomes across generations.
Violence against women and girls was also identified as a major driver of poor physical and mental health.
Domestic abuse, sexual violence and coercive control continue to affect large numbers of women across the region, leaving long-lasting impacts on mental wellbeing, chronic illness, housing stability and women’s sense of safety in everyday life.
Speakers argued that trauma-informed approaches must become central to public services if women are to receive effective support.
Toni Garrigos’ story
The conference included powerful testimony from Liverpool woman Toni Garrigos, who shared her experiences of domestic abuse, financial hardship and imprisonment.
Garrigos explained how years of coercive control and economic pressure shaped her life, despite growing up in a stable environment and later graduating from Liverpool John Moores University with a degree in Forensic Psychology and Criminal Justice.
As a single mother of three during the cost-of-living crisis, she described feeling overwhelmed by financial responsibility and survival pressures before becoming involved in criminal activity that ultimately led to a six-year prison sentence.
Her account highlighted the emotional trauma experienced by many women within the criminal justice system, particularly mothers separated from their children.
But her story also reflected another key theme of the conference: the importance of support, opportunity and community-led intervention.
After receiving opportunities through prison education and employment support, Garrigos rebuilt her life and now works with the Prison Radio Association, helping families stay connected with loved ones in prison.
Her experience was used to demonstrate how early intervention, trauma-informed support and stable opportunities can significantly improve outcomes for women.
Community organisations seen as vital
Throughout the conference, community organisations were repeatedly identified as some of the most trusted and effective sources of support for women.
Examples included women-only hubs supporting women facing multiple disadvantages, programmes helping mothers affected by alcohol-related harm, and initiatives increasing access to cervical screening within ethnic minority communities.
Citizens Advice Liverpool also highlighted how issues such as debt, housing insecurity and poverty are directly contributing to worsening mental and physical health among women.
Debbie Nolan, Head of Health Services for Citizens Advice Liverpool, said women’s health is “shaped as much by poverty, housing, caring responsibilities and safety as by healthcare”.
Gaps in women’s health care
Health leaders acknowledged that many women’s specific health needs remain poorly recognised across the system.
Conditions such as endometriosis, menstrual disorders and menopause-related health issues are frequently underdiagnosed or poorly managed, while gynaecology waiting lists remain among the longest across NHS specialities.
Women from ethnic minority communities, migrant backgrounds and disadvantaged neighbourhoods also continue to face additional barriers linked to language, discrimination, cultural stigma and unequal access to information and care.
Councillor Rahima Farah, Assistant Cabinet Member for Health, Wellbeing and Culture, said “women’s health in Liverpool is not one shared experience, but many different ones, shaped by ethnicity, disability, poverty, caring roles” and the areas women live in.
A call for system-wide change
Despite the scale of the challenges, the conference focused heavily on action and accountability.
Liverpool City Council leaders, NHS representatives and community organisations said the event marked the beginning of a wider push for measurable, system-wide change in women’s health across the city.
Councillor Liam Robinson, Leader of Liverpool City Council, described the conference as a commitment to listening directly to women, and ensuring their experiences shape future policy and healthcare decisions.
Professor Matt Ashton, Liverpool’s Director of Public Health, said the evidence around women’s health inequalities has existed for years, but the priority must now be turning evidence into meaningful improvements that women can feel in their everyday lives.
Women need action to improve outcomes
For many women across Liverpool, however, the crisis is already deeply personal.
It is the mother waiting months for specialist care while raising children alone. The woman living with chronic pain after years of being dismissed. The survivor of abuse struggling to rebuild her life. The older woman isolated by illness and poverty. The young woman developing chronic health conditions long before she should.
The conference made one thing painfully clear: women’s poor health in Liverpool is not inevitable. But without urgent, joined-up action, thousands more women will continue to suffer in silence.
Based on information from a press release by Liverpool City Council.
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