Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One in 10 Australian women suffers from the crippling condition endometriosis. Despite this, very few women know how to recognise the symptoms. Medical diagnosis and treatment takes, on average, eight years. There remains a lack of interest from most healthcare professionals and the cost to our medical system is $6 billion a year. This figure does not include the huge personal and financial costs to women and their families.

For these reasons my colleague the member from Canberra and I have formed the Parliamentary Friends of Endometriosis Awareness to end the silence on endo. We are attending the EndoActive Conference this weekend to hear directly from the small and passionate group of healthcare professionals addressing this problem, including Dr Susan Evans, who first drew my attention to this devastating disease. The EndoActive Conference is convened by the incredible Lesley and Syl Freedman, who have dedicated themselves to raising awareness of endo.

We know what needs to be done: we need better education of young women; we need better education of healthcare professionals, from GPs to specialists; and we need far more research as to why endometriosis causes the cells that line the uterus to grow as lesions in other parts of the body and within the pelvis, causing inflammation, severe pain and scar tissue. Early intervention is crucial. Without early intervention women may suffer a lifetime of pain, lose education, employment and economic opportunities, and they may never be able to start a family.