From awareness to action: access to endometriosis care changing lives

This Endometriosis Awareness Month, the message from women’s health advocates is clear – awareness coupled with action and access is the way forward. We celebrate the first milestone 18 months of our region’s two Endometriosis and Pelvic Pain (EPP) clinics, and the multidisciplinary care that is “changing the lives” of women and people assigned female at birth across North Brisbane and Moreton Bay who are disproportionately affected.

Approximately 17 per cent of our female population have been diagnosed with endometriosis compared to 11 per cent of the total Australian female population (data from Brisbane North PHN Women’s health snapshot). Women across Queensland also suffer at higher rates than the national average.

Over 18 months of service more than 489 of these women have been able to receive “exceptional” care at Neighbourhood Medical in Bardon and Moreton Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Health Service (MATSICHS), where dedicated EPP clinics were established in 2022-23 to deliver specialised care – including dedicated First Nations services – in a general practice setting.

Delivery of high-quality and coordinated endometriosis and persistent pelvic pain care is complex, takes time, and requires significant investment in primary healthcare. Ours are two of these 22 funded “Endo22” clinics established nationwide to enable GPs and other providers to take a team-based approach to better treat and support EPP patients.

Brisbane North PHN and our service providers welcome the February announcement that funding for these clinics will be extended to enable services to continue to 2028 and expanded to include perimenopause and menopause services. Additionally, 11 new clinics will be delivered nationally in PHN regions currently without one.

“Women deserve this, and women’s health should not be a niche area of medicine,” said Dr Sarah McDonnell, Director and GP at Neighbourhood Medical, who said that caring for “endo warriors” and other patients experiencing persistent pelvic pain was some of the most rewarding – and challenging – work undertaken by their practice.

The pilot model employed across EPP clinics reduces the cost of care for women, and includes access to wraparound services like ultrasound, physiotherapy, psychology, exercise physiology and more.

“It’s a great program,” said one of MATSICHS’ EPP patients, who for the first time was able to access a specialised women’s health physio for support.

Both clinics continue to refine their service offerings – this year implementing access to dietitian sessions and trialling psychology group sessions (at Neighbourhood Medical), and working with UQ Masters students to develop a group-based peer support program (at MATSICHS).

Endometriosis Awareness Month is observed in March, and Brisbane North PHN was pleased to join Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care and Indigenous Health the Hon. Ged Kearney MP during her recent visit back to Neighbourhood Medical this month to mark the occasion.

Ms Kearney said that this Endometriosis Awareness Month “we want women to know that we want you to be seen, to be heard, to be believed, and to get the treatment you deserve.”

“Too many women suffer because their pain is not taken seriously,” she said during her visit last year.