Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Every woman has a story of experiencing bias in the healthcare system, a story of being dismissed or ignored, a story of delayed diagnosis, a story of overmedication, a story of not being heard. I have my own story of bias in the health system, and I want to share part of that for Women's Health Week this week.

A number of years ago I experienced some very strange pain all of a sudden, and I saw my GP. I had blood tests. I was sent to emergency. I was returned to emergency three times before something finally happened, which was that I had my appendix removed. I did not need my appendix removed. It was discovered that I had a tumour the size of a grapefruit in my uterus. I was told after emergency surgery that, if I were older, they would have considered giving me a hysterectomy. I was really traumatised by this experience of being turned away, of not being listened to and, potentially, of having a decision made about my body that I wouldn't have made. In sharing this story, I hope it encourages other women in our community to share their stories through the end gender bias survey by the National Women's Health Advisory Council. We can't fix what we don't know, so it's so important that these stories of bias in the healthcare system are shared so that we can fix the problems that are in our communities.

We are, though, really lucky to have some incredible researchers in our country who are leading the world in research into women's health. This Women's Health Week I wanted to highlight some absolutely incredible women's health research happening in my electorate of Chisholm. I recently had the great honour of officially launching the 2023 international PCOS guideline at the Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation at Monash University. This guideline is the culmination of the work of hundreds and hundreds of people from around the world, but it was led by Australia. There were 750 healthcare professionals and consumers involved in the development of the 2023 guideline, and this is a truly multidisciplinary, diverse group of people. There were academics involved, researchers, medical professionals, scientists, allied health professionals and, really importantly, consumers—people living with PCOS. The guideline was led by Professor Helena Teede, a world expert on PCOS.

Polycystic ovary syndrome, PCOS, is a highly prevalent condition affecting about 12 per cent of women. It is undiagnosed, underresearched and misunderstood. It has been misclassified for a long time now as a reproductive disorder of the ovaries, despite the far-reaching implications of PCOS on metabolic, endocrine, dermatologic, psychological, sleep and pregnancy health. PCOS is something I care deeply about. I know many people with PCOS. With one in eight women worldwide having PCOS, we probably all know someone or multiple people who have been diagnosed with PCOS. World-leading research into PCOS and women's health is happening in my electorate of Chisholm, and I'm really proud of all of the work being done, and proud to be able to support all of those involved in this important work.

Although the guideline is evidence based, the contributors emphasise that the research and evidence into PCOS is still low to moderate in quality. This is a serious condition with serious, wide-ranging effects impacting millions of women in our country. Again, this impacts one in eight women. It deserves attention, research and continued investment.

I'm really pleased and proud to be part of a government that is prioritising women's health. Not only are we undertaking our end gender bias survey; we are also taking other steps to make sure that women's health is a priority for our nation. This year we granted a substantial increase in funding through our Medical Research Future Fund to support the development of PCOS resources and tools, including the quite remarkable AskPCOS app. This app and PCOS translation program reaches 196 countries around the world and is available in multiple languages. It is very well utilised by patients who have PCOS.

Our government's funding will continue to advance the personalisation, interactivity, self-management and analysis of individual data. This is going to really improve shared decision-making between patients and their doctors, improve information, improve models of care and provide really important support to people with PCOS. It will also mean that we can expand the AskPCOS App translation to 11 languages, expanding on the four languages that are currently available.

I'm really pleased that our government is taking women's health so seriously. I really hope that the stories we hear from women all the time—and my own story too—are not things we continue to hear into the future, because we have improved the quality of care. We've done the work to work with medical schools and health networks right across the country to improve the understanding of medical professionals when it comes to listening to women and having better ways to diagnose issues that may disproportionately affect women.

We know that cardiovascular disease is the biggest killer of women over 60. Again, this is poorly understood in Australia, given that a lot of the research we have historically relied on to understand cardiovascular illnesses has predominantly looked at the way it has presented in men. Clearly, we need to break down the gender bias here too, to be able to save lives. So I was delighted to hear the assistant minister's statement this morning in the House, and I'm looking forward to keeping on working in the government to make sure that women's health is the priority it ought to be.

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