The federal government is expanding the number of pelvic pain and endometriosis clinics being delivered under an election commitment from both major parties.
Key points:
- The Coalition and Labor both promised new pelvic pain clinics at the 2022 election
- Labor has expanded the plan, establishing 20 clinics, up from 16
- One in five women or people assigned female at birth experience pelvic pain
Both major parties were committed to funding at least 16 new clinics, but now Labor is increasing that to 20.
The new centres will be in every state and territory and established in existing GP clinics, with each one to receive around $700,000 over four years.
Painfully under diagnosed
Persistent pelvic pain affects one in five women or people assigned female at birth, with one in nine affected by endometriosis which on average takes seven years to be diagnosed.
Loading...Assistant Health Minister Ged Kearney, who is heading up Labor's work on women's health, said the new centres will hopefully help shorten diagnosis times.
"Gathering expertise under one roof, fostering that knowledge to improve diagnosis and services, having referral pathways in place," she said.
"These are all crucial elements to getting the support that women need right.
"We are a government that is committed to improving women's health and this is a crucial step forward for part of the population that has too long been dismissed."
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The $175,000 per year that will be provided to each clinic will go towards specialised equipment — like pelvic physio facilities — and hiring staff such as nurse practitioners and allied health professionals.
Pelvic pain conditions are estimated to cost the economy $9.7 billion annually, with a study from Western Sydney University finding they cost individuals between $24,000 to $30,500 per year.
How can the new centres help?
Sarah White, executive director of Jean Hailes Women's Health, said giving patients access to specialists who are experts in pelvic pain will help deal with major delays around getting diagnosed.
"We know that accessing specialist clinics for women's health issues is really, really hard. And so the more clinics we have, the better," she said.
"One of the biggest challenges is sort of a lack of awareness and knowledge around pelvic pain and endometriosis because we have this normalisation of periods being painful.
"So a lot of people don't understand that periods actually shouldn't be painful, so they'll suffer for a long time before they go and and have the courage to raise that with a GP.
"If the GP is a little bit dismissive — and that unfortunately happens frequently — we find women are actually put off investigating further."
Dr White said the clinics can play a key role in educating GPs as well as patients.
"I think we need to really build capacity in our GP workforce, and I think that's something that the clinics will actually help the government and all of us working in workforce capacity building," she said.
"These clinics will help because it actually shines a spotlight on the need for specialist services and it gives a place for information to come from and disseminate out to the GP and other workforces."
Gynaecologist Susan Evans is chair of the Pelvic Pain Foundation of Australia, and like Sarah White agrees the clinics are a good first step.
"The five organisations across Australia that represent people with endometriosis and pelvic pain through the Australian Coalition of Endometriosis welcome the opportunity to support these clinics in any way that we can," she said.
"In the past, we've often thought that these problems could only be managed in hospital settings — in big tertiary health care settings — but there are a lot of things that can be done in primary care to reduce the symptoms and pain associated with endometriosis and pelvic pain.
"There are so many people affected and the services have been so inadequate to address people's needs that this big injection of support in primary care in the community is very welcome."