Women’s Minister Katy Gallagher calls out widespread endometriosis neglect

Women’s Minister Katy Gallagher has delivered an impassioned speech about gender equality, citing the endometriosis plight.

Federal Women’s Minister Katy Gallagher has acknowledged the plight of the estimated one million Australians affected by endometriosis in a powerful speech about gender equality ahead of International Women’s Day.

In the wake of news.com.au’s About Bloody Time campaign launch last Friday – which is pushing on the federal government to provide Medicare-funded longer consults for diagnosis and treatment – Senator Gallagher suggested more needed to be done to support sufferers.

The minister was announcing Australia’s first national strategy to achieve gender equality at the National Press Club on Thursday, confirming Labor would help close the gender superannuation gap by offering an additional 12 per cent parental leave payments into super funds.

The move is one of the key recommendations from the Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce (WEET) handed down in September last year, a 10-year plan to assist in closing the gender gap in Australia.

“Women in this country don’t need another empty promise, they need action and accountability,” Minister Gallagher said.

“To a little girl who is born today, by the time you go to school, you won’t have preconceived ideas about girls’ jobs and boys’ jobs.

“If you experience the pain of endometriosis, or polycystic ovarian syndrome, your diagnosis doesn’t take a decade or you are told the pain is in your head and sent away from the ED with Nurofen as pain relief.”

Finance and Women’s Minister Katy Gallagher. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

One of the key messages of the About Bloody Time campaign is a failure among doctors to take endometriosis symptoms seriously, with 54.4 per cent of people news.com.au surveyed reporting they’d had mostly negative experiences with practitioners.

This neglect has been flagged by medical experts as a contributing factor for the average seven year diagnosis delay.

Sufferers of endometriosis – an incurable disease that causes severe pelvic pain and infertility – are charged more than patients in other areas of healthcare with similarly complex conditions, with Medicare rebates on gynaecology consultations among the lowest in the country.

Senator Gallagher’s acknowledgment of endometriosis sufferers as part of a wider push to achieve gender equality comes after Health Minister Mark Butler agreed women were being “dismissed, called hysterical and accused of drug shopping” while seeking treatment for the disease, which impacts an estimated one million people.

Mr Butler stopped short of backing news.com.au’s call to boost Medicare rebates for gynaecological care – for now – as the Albanese Government considers new funding measures in the budget.

Australia’s eight state and territory health ministers called on their federal colleagues to take action on Monday in an unprecedented show of unity, with Victoria Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas saying women were still having their health treated as a “niche” issue.

“The Albanese Government has already done a body of work towards improving women’s health, led by Assistant Minister Ged Kearney. But we know there is still a long way to go,” Ms Thomas said.

“Collectively, we can make a profound difference to the lives of so many women by making healthcare accessible, affordable, and comprehensive for every single woman in this country. The time to do this is now.”

Queensland Minister for Health and Women Shannon Fentiman also supported the push “to extend the Medicare funding for longer gynaecological consults”, calling on her federal colleagues to “take up this chance to improve healthcare for all Australian women and girls”.

They were joined by health ministers from NSW, South Australia, Western Australia, Northern Territory and the ACT to back the About Bloody Time campaign initiative, with our call to action petition hitting almost 50,000 signatures as of Thursday morning.

National Party leader David Littleproud suggested his party would commit to a policy supporting longer gynaecologist appointments, but urged the Prime Minister to “just commit to it” now.

“I just think this is a big issue that hopefully the prime minister can come back and say, let’s just do it,” Littleproud said on Channel 9 on Sunday.

“I think it’s so important.

“Let’s make those consults 45 minutes and let’s give the support to the gynaecologist to be able to do that.”