Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month is held in Australia each February, a time when we recognise and support women diagnosed with ovarian cancer and their families. Sadly, there are no early detection tests available for women like there are for breast cancer and cervical cancer. Ovarian cancer is only recognised from symptoms. Therefore, it is vitally important that women are armed with information in order to know what the symptoms are. I've spoken on this subject every year for so long now and I wanted to, rather than go over the statistics, which are really high for Australian women, share a story of some women who have lived this experience.

I want to speak about Jane. She is a young woman who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer aged 20. The first symptoms Jane experienced included pain, bloating and frequent urination. During her periods, her pain was so bad that she often passed out. Jane was a frequent visitor to the emergency department, where she was told on numerous occasions to 'harden up and take Panadol'. This young woman spent years feeling like no one would listen, which is unfortunately a common experience when women share their recount of their ovarian cancer journey.

Once Jane was finally diagnosed, the first question Jane had was whether she would still be able to have children. Most young women need to take treatments or undergo surgery that sometimes make it impossible to have children. There would be some who may possibly be able to freeze their eggs; however, this is not always an option due to the severity of the cancer or the ability to afford the costs associated with harvesting and storing their eggs.

Another concern Jane had was with the medication she was given to treat her cancer. Jane experienced weight gain while taking the medication. She went from a size eight to a size 14, which was mentally challenging for her. She desperately wanted to lose weight but just didn't have the energy to exercise.

Once Jane was diagnosed, she found she lost a lot of her friends—friends who she once was able to talk about anything with or confide in. But they didn't know how to deal with her illness or what to say to her, and the result was that they stopped calling her and visiting her. As a young woman, Jane found herself isolated from the social life of her friends. She suffered with feelings of depression, loneliness, sadness and anger, feelings foreign to Jane—not easy for anyone, but particularly difficult for a young woman.

Jane was extremely lucky to have an amazing gynaecological oncologist who could relate so well to her and was a good communicator. If Jane had a question at any stage about her treatment or medication, her doctor was more than happy to answer and told her no question was silly. What got Jane through the tough times of diagnosis and treatment was the love and support of her family. Her mum attended every appointment. If it weren't for her mum pushing, she might never have had the ovarian cancer detected, as she had almost given up hope that anyone would believe how sick she actually felt. Jane's experience reminds us that we should always seek a second, a third or even a fourth opinion if we aren't happy with the doctor's advice.

I now want to share a story and journey from Karen. Forty-eight-year-old Karen had no symptoms that she recognised. In fact, she was fit and healthy. Karen had lost 30 kilos and was looking the best she ever had. She was scheduled to have an ultrasound for something completely unrelated. However, when the sonographer was doing her scan, they noticed some shading on her right ovary. The sonographer sent the results through to Karen's doctor, who delivered to her the news on what they had found. The following week, Karen was booked in and had a biopsy of the growth on her ovary. It felt as if the days dragged by for Karen as she waited for the biopsy results, and then she had to continue to wait to see her doctor.

When the doctor delivered the shattering news that they had detected cancer, Karen was referred to a gynaecological oncologist who, like Jane's, was fantastic. He informed Karen of all her options, but Karen's first concern was what she was going to tell her children. How was she going to explain to them what was happening? She didn't want to cause them any undue stress. Karen had two children aged nine and 14. She wanted to be positive, but she was also terrified, as she knew the success rates of treatment for ovarian cancer were not great. Through her journey, she had support from her close friends and her husband, Ben, who attended appointments and was a great support in those dark days when Karen was so sick she couldn't even get out of bed. Luckily for Karen, the early detection of ovarian cancer saved her. Sadly, for many the diagnosis is made when it is too late, and treatment is not successful.

Finally, I'd like to tell you about Betty. Betty, aged 61, loved to exercise and had done so for most of her life. However, while she was exercising, she started to have acid reflux every time she bent at her waist. The problem continued for three weeks, after which time Betty made an appointment to visit her doctor. Betty was given antireflux medication and told to go and see how she went. Unfortunately, the problem didn't go away, and Betty made another appointment with her doctor for more tests. These tests came back with nothing as well. Betty was getting frustrated, as the doctor could not give her any answers. She continued to put up with the reflux issues for another three months. However, Betty started to experience other problems that were unusual. For the third time, Betty went back to the doctor's surgery and saw another doctor. She explained her previous symptoms and the reflux and now added feeling bloated. frequently urinating, and having constipation and a lack of appetite. This time the doctor sent her for more tests, including an ultrasound, which showed a shadow that covered her ovaries. Once Betty was given the results from this second doctor, she was referred to a gynaecological oncologist and had the tumour removed. The story of Betty does not have a happy ending. The cancer spread aggressively to other parts of her body. In her final stages, Betty was cared for by her daughter. It is a terrible experience to lose a loved one and even harder when you have to watch them suffer.

Ovarian cancer research and treatment desperately needs more funding. The funding it gets is a quarter of what is spent on breast cancer, and I feel that we don't support it enough. We need to continue to raise awareness of ovarian cancer. We know that breast cancer has a much higher profile. We have the pink cricket days and pink ribbon days. But what we don't have is enough research, enough awareness and enough training of our GPs to take women seriously when they come in with symptoms very similar to those of these three women. They should take them at face value and do more investigation. We lose too many young women in this country, and too many young women are unable to go on and have children. What we need to do is be proactive and raise awareness. We need to talk to our sisters, our aunties and our mothers, because there is no age limit on this. You can be diagnosed when you are 20, you can be diagnosed in your 40s and you can be diagnosed in your 60s. So if you aren't happy, if you don't feel right, I strongly urge you to seek a second opinion.

We need to work together because, this year, 1,580 Australian women are expected to be diagnosed with ovarian cancer and 1,047 women will die from this disease. We can do more. We must do more. We must educate ourselves and we must be very persistent when we seek medical advice. We must do more in terms of raising awareness. We need to have more money going into research. There wouldn't be a person in this chamber who wouldn't be supportive of more funding going into research. So I ask you to share the stories to help me and others in this chamber to raise awareness, because one woman saved is something we should honour and respect. I urge you to have those conversations in your community.