One in seven Australian women lives with endometriosis, a statistic that should have triggered a public health emergency response years ago. Instead, we’re still battling outdated attitudes that dismiss devastating chronic pain as “just part of being a woman.” The cost of this dismissal? A staggering $9.7 billion annually in healthcare costs and lost productivity.
When “women’s health” becomes everyone’s problem
This isn’t just a personal health issue tucked away in doctors’ offices – it’s a systemic crisis derailing careers and straining our economy. Those with severe endometriosis symptoms incur up to six times the healthcare expenses of those with minimal pain, yet diagnosis delays of 7-12 years remain common.
The true cost of medical dismissal
I learned this reality firsthand at age 10 when excruciating pain first disrupted my life during a school camp. What followed was a decade-long odyssey through a medical system that repeatedly dismissed severe symptoms as routine menstrual discomfort. By 19, a laparoscopy revealed what should have been caught years earlier: extensive endometriosis alongside a large tumour.
The medical response? A casual suggestion to stay on the pill until I wanted children – with no mention that the disease would continue its silent progression, ultimately leading to multiple surgeries, including a bowel resection and hysterectomy that left me biologically childless.
From personal pain to systemic change
During my worst periods, pain consumed up to 10 days of each month. Like countless others, I relied on heat packs for relief, generating mountains of waste from disposable options while trying to maintain a semblance of normal life. This experience led me to spend three years collaborating with Melbourne’s leading tech minds to develop rae – a sustainable, wearable heat device born from the urgent need for better solutions.
That I needed to innovate my own solution for pain management speaks volumes about our healthcare system’s failure. When patients are forced to become entrepreneurs just to access basic relief, something is fundamentally broken.
Here’s what real change looks like
Let’s cut to the chase: This Endometriosis Awareness Month, we need to move beyond Instagram posts and yellow ribbons. Real change means getting serious about funding – because how is it possible that a condition costing our economy billions annually still receives pocket change for research?
It means demanding better from our healthcare system. Too many doctors still reach for the birth control pill as a one-size-fits-all solution, while specialists with actual endo expertise remain as rare as a pain-free period. We need mandatory endo education for every healthcare provider because “it’s just period pain” isn’t a diagnosis – it’s medical negligence.
Workplaces need to step up, too. When one in seven women in your office could be struggling with a chronic condition that can knock them out for days, flexible work arrangements aren’t just nice to have – they’re essential. And let’s be real: if men experienced this level of regular pain and disruption to their lives, we’d already have comprehensive workplace policies in place.
The price of maintaining the status quo is too steep, and we’re all paying it – through lost talent in our workforce, through the strain on our healthcare system, and through the countless lives put on hold while waiting for proper diagnosis and treatment. We can’t afford to wait another decade for change. The time for action is now.