Heartbreaking video Australia needs to see

The painful reality of life for one in nine Aussie women has been laid bare in this heartbreaking video.

The painful reality of life for one in nine Aussie women has been laid bare in this heartbreaking video.

News.com.au has today launched its About Bloody Time campaign, exposing the unacceptable lack of care women seeking treatment for endometriosis – a debilitating disease that causes severe pain and infertility – receive.

To provoke this necessary national conversation, we’ve released a compelling campaign video (watch it in the player above) featuring 14-year-old Eva Luna Austin and our senior reporter, Lexie Cartwright, who was diagnosed with endometriosis in February 2021.

Medicare is failing women and it’s About Bloody Time things changed. Around one million suffer from endometriosis. There is no cure. Help is hard to come by and in rural or regional areas, it’s virtually impossible. We are campaigning for longer, Medicare-funded consultations for endometriosis diagnosis and treatment.

SIGN THE PETITION HERE

We begin with Eva, who says she has just got her first period. She begins to forecast what her next few years will look like as a bright-eyed young girl venturing into womanhood, unaware for the most part she’s battling a chronic silent illness.

What she’ll encounter mirrors the stories of the estimated one million people battling this excruciating condition, who are frequently told it’s “just bad period pain”.

“In my 20s, I’ll have surgery three times,” she says.

“I’ll just get by at uni, because every month, I’ll be curled over on the shower floor as though my pelvis is being torn out.”

It then transitions to Lexie, who concludes the video by echoing one of the most distressing fears for a woman with endometriosis who is approaching her 30s.

“And when I’m 30, I’ll try for a baby. Two years later, I’ll still be trying,” she says. “Endometriosis is not just bad period pain.”

The dismissal of the disease as “just bad period pain” was integral to address, given that 54.4 per cent of the more than 1700 women with endometriosis news.com.au surveyed reported they had mostly negative experiences with doctors when seeking help.

In order to cut through that rhetoric, “when we set about making this video, we knew we needed to come up with a concept that would make people stop and pay attention”, Lexie explained.

“Because this is not new. Women with endometriosis have been trying to get this taken seriously for years,” she said.

“And there’s something about children that makes us stop and listen – we want to protect them from bad things that happen in the world.

“They’re the picture of innocence, and hearing these deeply upsetting instances coming from the mouth of a child is really quite sobering.

“And then obviously by transitioning to me – as someone who has been through a lot of those things over the years – it just really puts the whole message into stark perspective.”

It was key to emphasise, as well, how deeply felt the impact of endometriosis is on every facet of a woman’s life.

“I would say I struggle more with the mental anguish than the physical pain. Mentally, it’s a lot,” Lexie said.

“It’s much harder to cover that part of it up, when you’re feeling drained and exhausted - another night without sleep; you’re probably on hormonal contraceptives, you’re probably taking pain relief. I find it snowballs into my whole life - for weeks, I don’t exercise, I’m not eating healthy or eating at all, I’m not looking after myself.

“And your relationships suffer, because you’re not the best version of yourself, and you don’t love yourself, so you can’t put out love to the world. It really is all-encompassing.”

That mental anguish also had an impact on Lexie’s willingness to share her own story as part of this campaign, for fear of being perceived as “just a whinging woman.”

“It’s silly, I know it’s silly, and ultimately, that worry is the whole reason why we’re doing this campaign,” she explained.

“Because every person I’ve interviewed, every sufferer I’ve spoken to, has said they have felt gaslighted for years. They have felt like they’ve wasted medical professionals’ time. They have felt every time they’ve been wheeled into an operating room, like they’re not worthy, that they don’t deserve to be fixed.

“And I hope that this campaign is successful in prompting a deeper understanding so sufferers no longer have to deal with this impostor-syndrome on top of the endometriosis itself.”

Not only is she hopeful this campaign will make key changes to the Medicare system so sufferers can access better care, but that it goes a long way in “raising that all-important awareness”.

“It sounds token to say, but awareness really is key. I didn’t tell my boss I had endo until last year, when my pain was at its most debilitating and awful. I’d been in hospital, and I couldn’t come into work for a week,” Lexie recalled.

“That was an instance where I had to tell her what was really going on - and she was wonderful, and so very understanding. But that one, personal chat has resulted in a nationwide campaign on Australia’s number-one news website.

“It led to us finding out how many other women in our office have it too. And the common theme, for all of these women, was feeling like their doctors weren’t taking them seriously.

“It’s just one example that shows you the power of a simple conversation.”

About Bloody Time is an editorial campaign by news.com.au that been developed in collaboration with scientists recommended by the Australian Science Media Centre, and with the support of a grant from the Walkley Foundation’s META Public Interest Journalism fund.