Speaker 1: My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda
Speaker 1: Bunjelung Calcotin woman from Gadighl country. The Daily oz acknowledges
Speaker 1: that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the
Speaker 1: Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres
Speaker 1: Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the
Speaker 1: first peoples of these countries, both past and present.
Speaker 2: Good morning and welcome to the Daily os. It's Wednesday,
Speaker 2: the twentieth of September. I'm Zara, I'm Sam. The rate
Speaker 2: of endometriosis hospitalizations has doubled for women age twenty to
Speaker 2: twenty four in the last decade, but it's still taking
Speaker 2: on average up to eight years to receive a diagnosis.
Speaker 3: People passing out on the bathroom floor due to their
Speaker 3: pain and they're told that period pain is normal and
Speaker 3: you just need to get used to it or you
Speaker 3: need to manage it better.
Speaker 2: In the Deep Dive, we'll explain how prevalent endometriosis actually
Speaker 2: is and what's being done to help people manage the disease.
Speaker 2: Ju Sam, we have a group of Polleys traveling overseas.
Speaker 4: That's right, there's a group headed to Washington today and
Speaker 4: their calling for the release of Julian Sange. Federal ministers,
Speaker 4: including National MP Barnaby Joyce, Independent MP Menique Ryan and
Speaker 4: Green Senator David Shubridge, will lobby American lawmakers to reconsider
Speaker 4: extraditing the Australian citizen from the UK to face criminal
Speaker 4: prosecution in the US. Assange is facing serious charges relating
Speaker 4: two thousands of historic leaked classified documents.
Speaker 2: Single job seeker payments will increase by fifty six dollars
Speaker 2: from today. The increase comes into effect after it passed
Speaker 2: through the Federal Parliament earlier this year. Single job seeker
Speaker 2: recipients will now receive seven hundred and fifty dollars each fortnight.
Speaker 2: Parenting and pension payments are also going up from today.
Speaker 4: The Bureau of Meteorology has officially declared an El Nino
Speaker 4: weather event is underway. Certainly feels like it. El Nino
Speaker 4: brings warmer, drier condition and can also result in a
Speaker 4: higher bush fire risk and increased likelihood of drought. It
Speaker 4: comes after three consecutive summers of increased rainfall caused by
Speaker 4: a La Nina weather pattern, and the.
Speaker 2: Good news an Australian made drug used to treat symptoms
Speaker 2: of a rare blood cancer, has been approved for use
Speaker 2: in the US. The drug treats anemia caused by myolofibrosis,
Speaker 2: which is a cancer affecting twenty five thousand Americans. So
Speaker 2: hope the drug can establish a new standard of care
Speaker 2: for treating myolofibrosis. Before we go into a discussion about endometriosis,
Speaker 2: I do just want to make a quick comment about
Speaker 2: the language that we are using today. We recognize that
Speaker 2: endometriosis can affect women and girls, it can affect transgender people,
Speaker 2: non binary people, and gender diverse people. In the report
Speaker 2: that we are referencing, the AIHW didn't specifically reach out
Speaker 2: to those groups, so we will be relying on the
Speaker 2: language used in this report for today's deep dive before
Speaker 2: we go into the prevalence of endometriosis. Yeah, I want
Speaker 2: to ask you, and this is not a gotcha question,
Speaker 2: what do you understand about endometriosis? What do you think?
Speaker 4: It is definitely not enough, But what I think it
Speaker 4: is is a condition that means you have extremely painful periods.
Speaker 2: That is definitely part of it. So it is essentially
Speaker 2: a disease where tissue that is similar to the lining
Speaker 2: of the uterus actually grows in other parts of your body,
Speaker 2: and so that can be responsible for things like you
Speaker 2: just said, like painful periods, but it can also be
Speaker 2: responsible for fertility issues. You know, some people don't experience
Speaker 2: a lot of symptoms, while others experience that severe pain,
Speaker 2: heavy and irregular mental bleeding, bloating, fatigue, anxiety, depression, and
Speaker 2: a whole host of other symptoms. And I think the
Speaker 2: reason that I wanted to ask you is because it
Speaker 2: is so common.
Speaker 4: I do have to say again, from my perspective, I've
Speaker 4: noticed an increase in conversations about it, particularly on social media.
Speaker 4: How prevalent is endometriosis in Australia.
Speaker 2: Again, like many other issues in the kind of women's
Speaker 2: health realm, there is a lot to still be done
Speaker 2: in terms of how we report and how we understand this.
Speaker 2: But what we do know is that, according to data
Speaker 2: from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare that we
Speaker 2: got earlier today, around fourteen percent of women aged forty
Speaker 2: four to forty nine are estimated to have endometriosis and
Speaker 2: around eight point eight percent for twenty six to thirty
Speaker 2: one year olds. And if we look at those figures.
Speaker 2: What that tells us is that there's actually an increase
Speaker 2: in the likelihood of endometriosis diagnosis as women get older,
Speaker 2: with the passing of time and so on average, the
Speaker 2: report actually says it takes up to eight years for
Speaker 2: someone to receive a diagnosis after first getting symptoms. Why
Speaker 2: is that the case, I think because traditionally it's been
Speaker 2: so hard to get a diagnosis, and as I said,
Speaker 2: it affects many people. And we did ask our audience
Speaker 2: for their experiences dealing with enemy triosis. Maya told us
Speaker 2: it took over a decade of debilitating symptoms for her
Speaker 2: to actually even receive a diagnosis.
Speaker 1: In that time, I had been repeatedly given misinformation by
Speaker 1: multiple doctors.
Speaker 4: I had to wait until my mid.
Speaker 2: Twenties to have surgery for admetriosis, and my life could
Speaker 2: have been a lot easier and a lot less painful
Speaker 2: if I'd been able to get that diagnosis earlier. So
Speaker 2: we heard from Maya how hard the process of getting
Speaker 2: a diagnosis can be. But this isn't unique to just
Speaker 2: her experience. This is Lucy who actually works at a
Speaker 2: specialist endoclinic in WA and she's talking about why it's
Speaker 2: so difficult to actually get a diagnosis.
Speaker 3: Until recently, the only way to get formally diagnosed was
Speaker 3: to undergo laparoscopic surgery, which is where essentially doctors cut
Speaker 3: open the abdomen of people with ENDO and visualize the
Speaker 3: endometriosis lesions.
Speaker 2: Lucy says that the lack of diagnostic options has actually
Speaker 2: just left people in chronic, debilitating pain.
Speaker 3: Do you know, I've heard stories of people passing out
Speaker 3: on the bathroom floor due to their pain, not being
Speaker 3: able to go to work and missing school days, and
Speaker 3: then going to an ed and presenting with this awful pain,
Speaker 3: and they're dismissed for drug seeking behavior by doctors or
Speaker 3: told that period pain is normal and you just need
Speaker 3: to get used to it, or you need to manage
Speaker 3: it better, which just completely invalidates the experiences of these
Speaker 3: people and breeds a huge distrust in the medical system,
Speaker 3: which is really damaging to these people.
Speaker 2: Things have begun to shift, though, that's according to Lucy,
Speaker 2: who says that that's in part due to the diagnosis
Speaker 2: process at clinics like the one where she works.
Speaker 3: It's now shifted towards the clinical diagnosis, which is a
Speaker 3: combined set of history, symptoms and any management strategies, which
Speaker 3: has improved the diagnostic process and that people don't have
Speaker 3: to have an invasive surgery in order to get diagnosed
Speaker 3: and to be taken seriously with this disease.
Speaker 2: Lucy works at one of the twenty two who federally
Speaker 2: funded endometriosis clinics in the country, and they're based in
Speaker 2: pre existing GP clinics, but they're designed to provide specialist
Speaker 2: care for people who have endometriosis. In order for real change, though,
Speaker 2: Lucy says, we need more investment in research.
Speaker 3: We need to figure out what causes it. We need
Speaker 3: to figure out what causes flare ups and exacerbates people's symptoms,
Speaker 3: and then from there maybe we can introduce some preventative
Speaker 3: treatment for people that are increase risk and find a cure.
Speaker 2: There are currently some research projects underway in Australia and
Speaker 2: I know we spoke about one of them recently. As
Speaker 2: the good news on this pod. Federal government has committed
Speaker 2: around twenty nine million dollars to research the issue since
Speaker 2: twenty eighteen, and that includes projects that are specifically designed
Speaker 2: to combat the issue we're talking about, which is the
Speaker 2: diagnosis process and also the treatment of ENDO. This research
Speaker 2: will also look at things like diet and exercise in
Speaker 2: genetics and try to learn more about how people can
Speaker 2: actually best manage and identify endometriosis in the meantime, while
Speaker 2: we wait for more information about this disease. If you're
Speaker 2: in need of endometriosis care, or you know, listening to
Speaker 2: this or reading about endometriosis, you think that this might
Speaker 2: be something that you're suffering from, Lucy recommends looking up
Speaker 2: where the closest ENDO clinic might.
Speaker 4: Be to you. Zara podcast that I listened to from
Speaker 4: the New York Times is coming to mind. It's called
Speaker 4: The Retrievals, and in that podcast they talk about the
Speaker 4: IVF clinic at Yale University where a number of women
Speaker 4: were expressing the fact that they had excruciating pain after
Speaker 4: IVF procedures and doctors just didn't really believe them. And
Speaker 4: it turned out that there was a nurse who was
Speaker 4: pocketing the pain relief and the pain relief was not
Speaker 4: actually getting to the women. But it took something like
Speaker 4: a dozen women to actually get an investigation. Now, all
Speaker 4: of this research has happened around ENDO is part of
Speaker 4: the issue here that women just aren't being believed about
Speaker 4: their pain.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think that's definitely part of it
Speaker 2: is that you know, for so long, I mean, we
Speaker 2: talk about the rising rate or diagnosis of endometriosis, and
Speaker 2: I don't think more people have endometriosis. I think we're
Speaker 2: just finally finding a name for what has otherwise just
Speaker 2: been excruciating pain that women lived through. And you know,
Speaker 2: when you go to a doctor and talk about excruciating
Speaker 2: period pain, we are now finding the vocabulary to describe
Speaker 2: that that isn't normal, that that is not something that
Speaker 2: you live with, that that is actually a disease that
Speaker 2: has a formal diagnosis and a formal care plan.
Speaker 4: I just want to particularly thank our listeners who contributed
Speaker 4: to this episode, but also those people who sent in
Speaker 4: voice notes and we didn't include in this episode. Your
Speaker 4: contributions really bring these stories to life and as part
Speaker 4: of what makes the Dailios so special. Thank you to
Speaker 4: everyone for listening to this episode of the podcast. We'll
Speaker 4: be back again tomorrow. Until then, have a great day.