Health committee  No, I was just impressed with Ms. Wahl's comment.

Health committee  In Calgary, we have about 40, and to my knowledge, there isn't a qualifying certificate to call yourself a pelvic floor physiotherapist, but we do have a large number here.

Health committee  I think that, with both of those areas, whether it's pelvic floor physiotherapy or looking at chronic pain and specifically chronic pain in the pelvis, we do see an inequity and quite a lack of equal access across the country, even within large centres like Calgary, Montreal or Vancouver.

Health committee  Respectfully, I'm going to punt this question over to Dr. Allaire. She is more expert than I.

Health committee  You're speaking to the converted here. I am a patient who had a laparoscopy at age 19, and I became a gynecologist. Now I teach pelvic pain at the medical school. There are efforts on the ground and advocates like those who are sitting in front of you who are doing this work to educate fellow physicians, medical students and family physicians.

Health committee  Thank you for the question. The arenas around contraceptives and endometriosis do overlap. Sometimes oral contraceptive pills or the Mirena progesterone IUD are adjuncts that can be used to treat pain with endometriosis and to control bleeding that can be associated with it as well.

Health committee  Thank you, Anita. What a nice treat to see you. I think it is historical gender equality. It's 2023 and it's time for that to be called out. The issue with data is that we do not have it. I went online today to see what my wait time is for hysterectomies here in Calgary compared with other colleagues, and the data is blank.

Health committee  Thank you, chair and members, for this opportunity to speak. I'm Dr. Fiona Mattatall, and I've worked for two decades as an obstetrician-gynecologist in Calgary, Alberta. As such, I am a specialist in both the medical and the surgical care of the organ system that includes the vulva, vagina, uterus and ovaries.