An Australian-first inquiry has heard thousands of women are living in pain and waiting years to be taken seriously by medical professionals. The Victorian government has released the report from the inquiry nearly 12 months after it was initially expected to be released, and it’s promising more support for women in pain.
00:00After decades in pain, Thea Baker was diagnosed with endometriosis at 41.
00:07When it comes to gynaecological pain and pelvic pain, you just take Nurofen and Panadol and you suck it up and you keep going.
00:15She's one of 13,000 women who shared their experience of pain to a Victorian government inquiry.
00:2190% said they had experienced pain for more than a year, while 54% said they experienced it daily.
00:28Being not believed with the amount of pain that I've experienced as I've come out of anaesthetic and basically being told that I'm making a fuss.
00:41This is about driving cultural change that starts from today.
00:45The report has made 27 recommendations, including better education for GPs and more funding for research.
00:53This is a whole system issue and this report is an opportunity to do better.
00:57Women have been excluded from medical research by virtue of our biology.
01:02Pain relief in the form of the green whistle will be rolled out at 20 sexual and reproductive health hubs for women getting an IUD implanted.
01:10And a new clinic for teenagers in pain will be opened at the Royal Children's Hospital.
01:14We've got to get people to early intervention. We've got to get GPs changing their approach of taxonurofen.
01:21The government says it will act immediately on women's pain. But after an 11 month delay releasing the report and no new funding for research, that's little comfort to women living with life altering pain.
01:33Paying respect to the volume of data was critical. So we wanted to make sure that we took the time to get it right.
01:42I really hope it's going to change an awful lot for women.
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