Marielle Smith (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

March is Endometriosis Awareness Month. Endometriosis is a chronic condition that can cause pain, impact fertility and, too often, prevent women and girls from participating fully in their everyday lives. As is so common when it comes to women's health, those living with endo are too often left without the support they need, have had their symptoms dismissed and have had to search tirelessly for answers, empathy and solutions.

This was certainly the case for an amazing resilient young woman I met recently on a visit to Adelaide's Thrive Endo Clinic. She had for years been living with debilitating pain that was simply dismissed by those she sought help from. It wasn't until she found the right care at Thrive, one of the 33 endo clinics funded by our government, that she was able to access the quality of care and the expertise she needed. Her pain had previously been so unbearable that it caused her to withdraw from school. Now she is returning to school and planning her bright future. The treatment this young woman relies on is one of the options added to the PBS by our government which has meant a great deal to her and her family.

When it comes to endometriosis, just as with a broader spectrum of women's health issues, too often women are going unheard, too often their pain is dismissed and too often they aren't getting the care they need—and our government is fighting every day to change that. Since our women's health package was introduced last year, Australian women have saved more than $23 million on contraception and 6,000 women and girls have access endo treatment at PBS prices and have saved almost $5 million on thousands of scripts in the past year alone.