Archive for year: 2022

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Survey of Women’s Health in the ACT

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Seeking local women to share their experiences of sexual and reproductive health.

Women’s Health Matters (WHM) has released a new online survey of women’s health. WHM needs more people to complete the survey to make women’s health needs more visible in the ACT.
The survey explores what women have to say about sexual and reproductive health, access to services, experiences with health professionals and more.

Early analysis of the survey responses indicates that reproductive health issues are common, but many people are not able to get effective medical help, and many lack access to affordable GP and specialist care.

Preliminary data from the survey shows around 30% of people had persistent pelvic pain (PPP) in the last 12 months, while about 35% of those who sought professional medical help about PPP were dissatisfied with the care received. Of those who had PPP, over 60% had missed study or work commitments as a result.

Lauren Anthes, CEO of Women’s Health Matters, says this early data is already beginning to shape new understanding about women’s health needs.

“Australian jurisdictions are moving towards a more strategic and holistic approach to sexual and reproductive health. With the new data from our survey helping to make these health needs visible, the ACT will be better positioned to respond.

It’s quite confronting seeing that many women who have health concerns are perhaps not feeling like they can get effective medical help”, Ms Anthes said.

Significant numbers (around 15-20% of responses so far) are also reporting they have been diagnosed or treated for endometriosis and/or polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), with many dissatisfied with the medical care they have received for these conditions.

Information about women’s sexual and reproductive health is a major gap in ACT-specific data. Most existing datasets are too small to allow detailed local findings despite sexual and reproductive health and rights being key measures of gender equality.

The survey also explores mental health, safety and discrimination, as well as access to healthcare and satisfaction with services. It is also hoped that the survey will expand ACT level knowledge about the experiences of marginalised groups.

This survey has been made possible through a grant received from the Canberra Foundations Collaborative earlier this year. Georgina Byron, CEO of The Snow Foundation says projects like this one are important to improve healthcare in the ACT.

“Having a strong evidence base focused on the specific experiences and needs of women in the ACT will identify trends, priorities and opportunities to improve the health and well-being of the Canberra community”, Ms Byron said.

You can access the survey here. You can read more about the survey here.

FAQ: Survey of Women’s Health in the ACT

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Support Options: Survey of Women’s Health in the ACT

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Below is a list of support options available to you, should you need them.

Lifeline  – for crisis support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – ph: 13 11 14 . For more information or online chat visit their website.

Beyond Blue – for help with anxiety and depression 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – ph: 1300 22 4636. For more information or online chat visit their website.

Red Nose Grief and Loss – miscarriage, stillbirth and newborn death support – ph: 1300 308 307 for 24/7 support. For more information or online chat visit their website.

QLife – LGBTI peer support and referral for LGBTI people and issues relating to sexuality and gender – ph: 1800 184 527. For more information or online chat visit their website.

Domestic Violence Crisis Service – local service for people impacted by domestic and family violence: 24/7 Crisis Line: ph 02 6280 0900. For more information or online chat visit their website.

Canberra Rape Crisis Centre – assistance, counselling and advocacy for issues relating to sexual violence: CRCC Crisis Line 7am-11pm 7 days per week – ph: 02 6247 2525. For more information visit their website.

1800RESPECT – national service for issues relating to domestic and family violence, sexual assault and other forms of gender-based violence –  ph: 1800 737 732 . For more information or online chat visit their website.

ACT Women’s Health Service – ph:  02 5124 1787. For more information visit their website.

Sexual Health and Family Planning ACT – All Options Pregnancy Counselling – if you are pregnant now and trying to make a decision about whether to continue a pregnancy, you can call SHFPACT for free all options counselling on 02 6247 3077.  For more information visit their website.

Perinatal Wellbeing Centre – for mental health issues related to becoming a parent – Non-crisis phone support, support groups and support for partners as well as information and referral – ph 02 6288 1936. For more information visit their website.

Care Financial Counselling – Canberra-based service helping with financial distress and debt – Phone support (Mon to Fri 9am to 5pm) – ph: 1800 007 007. For more information visit their website.

National Debt Hotline – financial counselling by phone: 1800 007 007 (Mon-Fri 9:30am to 4:30pm) or Live Chat (Mon-Fri 9am to 8pm) via website.

My Pregnancy Options ACT – find out about your pregnancy, abortion and contraception options in the ACT: website

13YARN – confidential, culturally safe space for Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people to yarn about needs, worries or concerns with an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Crisis Supporter. Ph: 13 92 76 (24 hours/7 days). More information at their website.

 

TACT podcast – Behind the Scenes

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Q&A with Natalie – Breast Cancer Awareness Month

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We caught up with Natalie this breast cancer awareness month.  Natalie was diagnosed with a BRCA1 gene fault at age 21 and spoke to us about how important prevention is in this space.

1. Can you tell us a bit about your experience with breast cancer?

I was diagnosed with a BRCA1 gene fault at age 21 after many women in my family had experienced breast cancer, including my mother, who was also diagnosed with the BRCA1 gene fault.

At that age, it wasn’t really a big deal as my risk wasn’t known to increase significantly until after the age of 30. As that birthday drew closer however, I became more and more anxious about my risk of cancer and it really started to take a toll on my mental health.

Initially I thought I’d have my children, breastfeed them all and then undergo risk reducing surgery afterwards. As a physiotherapist working in the area of women’s health and treating many breastfeeding mothers, I knew that there were studies showing a potential risk reduction of some breast and ovarian cancers with breastfeeding, and this provided me some comfort.

In 2021 however, at age 33, I had three cancer scares. The first two scares involved me finding a lump in my breast, which had to be investigated, both turning out to be benign. The last scare occurred during one of my annual MRI screens, provided to women with a BRCA1 gene fault. The doctor found ‘something’ on the MRI. I had to have a mammogram and then an ultrasound.

Nothing was found on the mammogram but the ultrasound revealed an anomaly. I then had to have a breast tissue biopsy and waited a few days for the results. I was beside myself. Thankfully the results were clear and it was then that I decided enough was enough and booked in for my preventative double mastectomy and reconstruction, which was done in two parts in March and August this year. It was the best decision I made, particularly for my mental health.

2. How did you go about getting in for the surgery – did you face any barriers trying to organise this?

I had some recommendations for various breast surgeons in Canberra from people I had come in contact with along my BRCA1 journey and booked in appointments with a few of them to decide who I would prefer to see.

This took time and unfortunately, they didn’t end up being the right fit for me. I decided to search for a health professional outside Canberra and consulted the members of Pink Hope, which is an amazing support group for people in similar situations to me. I was provided with some great recommendations and ended up booking an appointment with Dr Kylie Snook, a breast surgeon with expertise in reconstructive and oncoplastic techniques in breast surgery. She was absolutely amazing, as were her team, and I immediately knew that she was the surgeon that would be performing my mastectomy and reconstruction. She has been a huge source of strength and confidence for me during a time that could have been even more scary than it was.

3. Why is it important to take preventative action as opposed to waiting for a diagnosis if you are aware of certain genetic issues?

As a health professional, I am a huge advocate of preventative treatment. Knowledge is power and if I have the knowledge and means to prevent something sinister occurring, I’ll do what needs to be done – with my patients and myself.

This is however, very scary and confronting for people to contemplate, and I really do feel for anyone who has to make the same decision as I have. At the same time, I have seen many patients with cancer over the years in my work as a physiotherapist, and what they have to go through is tough to say the least.

Each time, I think how extremely lucky I am to have been given the choice to prevent this happening to me. I am sure those men and women would jump at the chance to prevent such a horrible disease too.

In my case, particularly after the scares, it was a no brainer. Since diagnosis, I always knew I was going to have the preventative surgery and that’s what I’ve done. If you’d like to know your risk, the Peter Mac Cancer Centre in Victoria have developed a breast cancer risk assessment and risk management decision support tool designed to facilitate prevention and screening discussions between women and their doctors. This tool is known as iPrevent and can be accessed here.

4. What would you like to tell other women who are going through the same/a similar experience?

  1. You are not alone. Make sure you surround yourself with a wide network of support. If you have been diagnosed with a gene fault that puts you at a higher risk of cancer, I encourage you to get in touch with Pink Hope. Pink Hope is a preventative health hub that provide the tools to empower people to take control of their breast and ovarian cancer risk. There are also many women in similar situations who are linked in with this organisation so it is a great place to form connections and hear about other people’s experiences.
  2. Take it one step at a time. This pathway can quite quickly become very overwhelming. One way I coped was to try and take it all in baby steps, focussing on each day as it came rather than everything all at once.
  3. I’ll say it again, knowledge is power. It is extremely important that you link in with medical and health professionals that a) you trust and b) provide you with the most up to date evidence-based information to allow you to make a truly informed decision based on your individual circumstances.

Useful links:

Breastscreen ACT 

Q&A with Fleur and Maddy from Positive Motion – Women’s Health Week 2022

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Fleur Balmain

Madeleine Walker

We caught up with Fleur and Maddy from the Positive Motion Rehabilitation Kingston Physio for the final day of Women’s Health Week 2022 – Move and Improve.

Fleur is the director and a physiotherapist at the clinic and Maddy is a physiotherapist. Together they put on their move and improve hats and shared with us some key reasons on why you should exercise, not just for your body but also for your brain! Check out their answers below.

 

Q. Why is it important to exercise?

A. Exercise is important to not only help maintain or reduce weight but it also helps to improve brain function through the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to all your tissues. This influences your sense of wellbeing and improves your mood through the release of serotonin.

Exercise also helps to reduce the risk of osteoporosis by improving bone health and can help reduce the risk of heart disease and diabetes. Exercise can help to improve your cardiovascular system thereby improving circulation to increase your energy levels and give you the willpower to make healthier choices.

This in turn can improve sleep quality and sex drive enhancing arousal for women and reducing the symptoms of erectile dysfunction in men.

Q. How does exercising benefit not only your body but also your brain?

A. Exercise can be a form of letting go and allows the person escape the day-to-day hassles that can clog up the brain. It releases endorphins which help relieve stress in the brain and can help you de-fog when you’ve had a stressful day.

Practising things like mindfulness can help to connect the body and the brain better, things like yoga and tai-chi can create a sense of calm, as often we can switch things on easily but can struggle to switch off.

Breathing exercises can also help to improve mood, and promote relaxation.

Q. How can exercising help during other times?

A.  There are lots of different examples of how exercising can help women at all stages of their life. For women going through the changes which menopause bring, hormone levels will change. This puts the women at a higher risk of various diseases and tendon stresses.

There is also a linear relationship between weight gain and incontinence in women. Weight loss alone for those considered overweight can have a terrific impact on improving pelvic floor control and continence.

Some of these hormones help protect the body from things like osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease so it is important to exercise to help reduce the risk, especially muscle strength and resistance work for bone health and cardiovascular health are important.

Women if they choose to, go through pregnancy and childbirth, this obviously impacts the body and can sometimes create issues immediately post, e.g pelvic floor weakness and leakage, however, a woman may be fine until they hit menopause and the associated hormonal changes which kept them at bay then may affect them and they can start to experience issues.

If a woman has had a baby and wants to return to higher impact activities or exercise having a review by a women’s health physio is very important. It can direct the women if she needs to strengthen some muscles to safely return to the activity and can also give confidence to the women that she can get back to some of her activities that she may have had to stop during pregnancy.

For a lot of women knowing that there is help at hand is really important. Sometimes simple changes can greatly affect quality of life, so seeing a health professional with an understanding in this area can be life changing.

Q. Tell us a bit about your clinic?

At positive motion we assess everyone as an individual and take the time to listen to the client about what their goals are and how we can help them. This may include more clinic work and hands on work by the therapist or exercising in our gym downstairs. We offer different types of classes in our gym which include circuit style, pilates based, program based and also classes specially designed for people post cancer.

Time is spent to understand the clients needs and make sure the appropriate class is picked and caters to their needs. Although we treat a range of conditions we see a lot of people especially women post cancer treatment.

The bar has been set — It is time for employers to support reproductive health

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2022 has been a big year for reproductive health and rights.

Overseas, the overturning of the Roe v Wade decision has seen the US slide back decades on access to abortion. In Australia, it has triggered collective action at the same time as a series of reforms have been implemented across the country, from decriminalisation in South Australia, the announcement of new services in Queensland and Victoria, and free access to abortion in Canberra.

At the same time, the ground has also been shifting on periods and period poverty. There’s more national funding for addressing endometriosis than ever before, while States and Territories have been making pads and tampons available in schools since 2021, and a Bill to make period products freely available to the whole community has recently been introduced in the ACT.

These initiatives will go a long way to addressing the disproportionate cost of reproductive health for women and people with uteruses. But there’s still more to be done, and one piece of the puzzle falls squarely in the lap of employers, not policymakers.

Reproductive health policies provide leave and flexibility for employees for reproductive health-related needs, sexual health and wellbeing. Reproductive health needs can be complex, change over time and vary significantly across individuals. Reproductive health policies can allow employees leave to attend IVF or abortion appointments, flexibility to work from home when an employee has painful periods, or time off after a miscarriage.

We know that reproductive health needs do not, in most circumstances, reflect ill health, they are part of day to day life for a significant proportion of the population in the workforce. Reproductive health polices help to recognise the time and burden involved in reproduction, and its important role in our community.

Reproductive health policies also help to alleviate the indirect costs which can restrict reproductive choice. For example, the price of procedures like freezing eggs or abortion care are so significant that they stop women and people with uteruses from accessing them. The loss of paid work involved in attending appointments make these costs even greater.

It’s also been shown that the benefits don’t just flow to employee wellbeing and health outcomes, but also to overall workplace productivity and work satisfaction.

We talk about Australia being one of the most progressive countries in relation to reproductive health policy. But if this were true, wouldn’t this be reflected in our workplaces? In 2021, University of Sydney researchers Sydney Colussi, Elizabeth Hill and Marian Baird wrote that normalising and supporting reproductive health is a key lever for gender equality in the workplace.

This Women’s Health Week, Women’s Health Matters, the ACT Peak Body for Women’s Health, is implementing a reproductive health policy to support staff and are calling for other employers to do the same. The policy includes leave (24 days per year) and flexible work arrangements to support staff around:

  • Menstruation
  • Menopause
  • Miscarriage
  • Abortion
  • Fertility and other pre-natal needs

Reproductive health policies are not entirely new, and businesses such as ModiBodi and FutureSuper have previously announced leave for menstruation and menopause. Victorian Women’s Trust has also undertaken groundbreaking work in the period leave space.

Women’s Health Matters is building on these policies to set a baseline for minimum expectations around supporting reproductive health in the workplace. The intent of the policy is to provide staff with support and flexibility and to also set the bar externally for other employers to consider similar policies and supports and is publicly available from Women’s Health Matters website.

This reproductive health policy is a call to action for Australian employers to consider how they support their staff and their reproductive health needs. It also provides an opportunity to improve research and evaluation in this space, which will illustrate the direct and indirect benefits of these sorts of policies.

By normalising reproductive health in the workplace and enabling access to critical reproductive health services we will drive long term change that will contribute to gender equality, improved health outcomes, increased job satisfaction and workplace productivity.

Supporting reproductive health in the workplace should be a bare minimum expectation, not a competitive benefit.

Q&A with Maeve O’Brien – Women’s Health Week 2022

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Happy Women’s Health Week! We met up with Maeve O’Brien who is a Continence and Women’s Health Physiotherapist working at the Community Pelvic Health clinic in Canberra to talk all things pelvic health!

1. Why is good pelvic health important?

1 in 4 Australians, men, women, and children, can have problems with their pelvic health and this can have a significant impact on their quality of life. There is much that can be done to help people with pelvic health conditions, but many people do not seek help. Good pelvic health is essential for not only continence but also sexual function. Sometimes people are embarrassed to raise their concerns with their doctor or physiotherapist, but it is important to remember that we specialise in these issues and can offer simple strategies that can make a big difference.

2. Tell us a bit about pelvic pain and the pelvic floor?

Pelvic pain affects 1 in 5 women but often cannot be diagnosed with a test or scans which means that people often continue to suffer for years before getting help. Sometimes the pelvic floor muscles themselves can become tight and painful and this can make passing urine, opening bowels and intercourse painful. Women with pelvic pain may also experience abdominal pain, bloating and pain with their periods.

Pelvic health physiotherapists assess all these things and provide a plan to help manage and improve these symptoms. Unfortunately, there is often not one thing that will fix everything but by having a detailed assessment and setting goals together we can develop a plan to reduce pain.

3. If someone is experiencing pelvic pain, what can they do to help improve this?

First of all, it is important to seek help and talk to their doctor or pelvic health physiotherapist if they have not done so already. Simple lifestyle choices can have a big impact on pain. These may include ensuring they are drinking enough fluid every day 1.5-2l of mostly water is sufficient, they are managing their bowel health and avoiding constipation, getting regular exercise which may just be walking every day for short periods, sleeping well and trying to do something they enjoy every day. This may be something as simple as listening to music or reading a good book. Depending on the nature of the pain, we will often provide more specific treatments and strategies following the initial assessment.

4. How do your workshops help women to take control of their pelvic health?

We offer two face to face workshops. One is a pelvic floor workshop for women with continence or prolapse symptoms that provides education on healthy bladder and bowel habits and provides simple strategies to help manage these conditions. The other is a more targeted workshop for women experiencing persistent pelvic pain. This provides detail on why pelvic pain occurs, education on pain management strategies including pelvic floor relaxation and stretches and aims to empower women to manage this complex condition.

Additional funding to support abortion services in the ACT

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Additional funding to support abortion services in the ACT

Women’s Health Matters (WHM) welcomes the decision in the ACT Government’s budget to ensure that women and people with a uterus in our region have access to safe, accessible, and affordable abortion services.

From early next year, funding will be available for people to access free medical and surgical abortions for up to 16 Weeks. All ACT residents will be eligible for this service, including those without a Medicare card.

Lauren Anthes, CEO at Women’s Health Matters, says the new funding will help to alleviate some of the barriers that people face when trying to access abortions in the ACT.

“There are significant financial barriers to people accessing termination of pregnancy services in the ACT, particularly for our more vulnerable cohorts”, said Ms Anthes.
This funding and access for those without Medicare cards will help to reduce these barriers and allow people timely access to these services in the ACT.”

The announcement comes with an allocation of $4.6 million by the ACT Government to help address this pressure.

In addition to this funding the ACT Government has committed to the development of a communications package to help ensure accessibility and easier navigation of healthcare services available in the ACT.

“We welcome the commitment of funding to develop communications with stakeholders across the ACT to ensure that people will be aware and are able to access services”, said Ms Anthes.

“This will include the development of an accessible and easy to navigate website”.

This commitment from the ACT Government is a big step forward but there is always more that can be done to improve access to termination of pregnancy services in the ACT.

WHM will continue to work with the ACT Government to work towards universal access, including expanding the provision of abortion services after 16 weeks in the ACT so women and pregnant people do not need to travel interstate.

“The availability of the Interstate Patient Travel Assistance Scheme for those who need to travel interstate is a welcome interim measure”, said Ms Anthes.

WHM looks forward to working with the ACT Government to support the implementation of this funding and welcomes the opportunity to support the development of a communications campaign.

Supported by ACT Health Directorate

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