From misdiagnosis and having painful symptoms or health concerns dismissed or belitted, a lack of research and funding has left women on the backburner of the medical world for far too long.
To address this, the government has established a National Women’s Health Advisory Council, which has been actively working over the course of 2023 to advise the government on key policy areas of women’s health.
The Council’s role is in guiding how the Government delivers on the National Women’s Health Strategy 2020-2030. This strategy outlines Australia’s national approach to improving the health of women and girls – particularly those at greatest risk of poor health – and to reducing inequities between different groups.
Assistant Minister for Health Ged Kearney, a fromer nurse, has spoken to many women who’ve experienced medical misogyny. Earlier this year, she shared insights she’s heard with Women’s Agenda.
“Women and girls deserve tailored and targeted healthcare that recognises and reflects their experiences and concerns,” said Kearney.
Despite the fact that endometriosis affects 1 in 9 women and those assigned female at birth, or 190 million people globally, research has shown that medical professionals are still touting outdated pseudoscience that having a baby cures the disease (there is currrenlty no cure). And many don’t officially get diagnosed until their early thirties as it takes an average of eight years to be diagnosed with the common condition.
When it comes to infertility, even though the condition affects about 1 in 6 Australian couples of reproductive age, gaps in knowledge among Australian women still persist, particularly in relation to what they can do to improve the chance of having children.
Women also experience nearly twice as much depression as men, four times as much anxiety and 12 times the rate of eating disorders, according to Women’s Health Victoria.
These unique challenges are leading women and girls to poorer health outcomes than men and boys.
Thankfully, this past year has brought about some exciting news in many areas of women’s health research. Here’s a look back at some of the biggest developments in 2023, and what they could mean for the future.
New research proves that PCOS won’t hinder conception with fertility treatments
Women who have been diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and wish to conceive have the same likelihood of falling pregnant as women without the condition when they undergo fertility treatments, a study from The University of Queensland has found this year.
Researchers from UQ’s School of Public Health studied 1109 women who were using fertility treatments and found no difference in births between the women with PCOS and those without PCOS. There was also no difference found between those on different treatment paths.
In Australia, roughly one in 10 women are diagnosed with PCOS. The condition, which sees increased levels of two hormones in the body, causes women to ovulate irregularly, or not ovulate at all, making conception difficult.
Dr Katrina Moss, a Research Fellow at the university specialising in reproductive health and assisted reproductive technology said that the latest research should provide some reassurance for women with PCOS who are anxious about their fertility.
New drugs show promising signs of slowing Alzheimer’s disease
Nearly two-thirds of Australians with dementia are women, and the numbers are only rising– the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare predicts the number of Australians with dementia to more than double by 2058 (533,800 women and 315,500 men).
Dementia is also the leading cause of death for women, according to statistics from Dementia Australia.
This year, pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly came out with the second drug in under a year to have been shown to slow Alzheimer’s- a form of dementia. It followed on the heels of lecanemab, sold under the brand name Leqembi.
Eli Lilly’s drug, donanemab, has been shown to slow the pace of the disease by about a third – a feat experts previously thought impossible.
In the company’s trial, there were 1,182 participants with early-stage disease whose brains had deposits of two key Alzheimer;s proteins, beta amyloid as well as intermediate levels of tau, a protein linked with the disease progression and brain cell death.
Overall, the pace of the disease was slowed by about 29 per cent with donanemab. And in a set of patients researchers thought more likely to respond, the clinical decline of the disease was at 35 per cent compared to a placebo.
Australia welcomes its first uterine transplant baby
Australia’s first uterine transplant baby, Henry Bryant, was born this week at a Sydney hospital.
“It’s been a whirlwind year and to have Henry here safely is beyond anything I thought possible,” said the baby’s mother, Kirsty Bryant.
She is the first woman in Australia to undergo a uterus transplant as part of a groundbreaking research trial led by Associate Professor Rebecca Deans, Gynaecology Specialist at the Royal Hospital for Women and clinical academic at UNSW Medicine & Health.
“After my hysterectomy, I desperately wanted another child and I felt like there weren’t many options for somebody in my situation,” Bryant said.
“To hold this baby in my arms is a dream come true.”
First baby born in Australia from a cheaper alternative to IVF
Australia’s first ever baby conceived via a new clinical procedure to treat infertility was born this year.
Leanna and Theo Loutas celebrated the birth of their first-born, Bonnie, in October at Sydney’s Royal Hospital for Women in Randwick.
Earlier this year, the couple were offered a new fertility procedure called CAPA IVM (Capacitation in-vitro maturation) — a treatment which involves retrieving eggs at an immature stage and bringing them to maturity in cell culture. It results in higher pregnancy rates per cycle.
It eliminates the need for two weeks of hormone treatment and costs about half the price of traditional IVF.
A world-first endometriosis discovery was made by researchers in Sydney
Researchers at the Royal Hospital for Women in Sydney made a world-first discovery into the diagnosis and treatment of endometriosis this year.
The team successfully grew tissue from all known types of endometriosis in a laboratory. This has allowed researchers to observe cell changes and compare how different tissue responds to different treatments.
An increased understanding will allow doctors to better diagnose varying types of endometriosis to ensure patients receive the most effective treatment.
The new development will also help determine whether a woman with endometriosis is likely to need fertility treatment in the future.
Largest ever genetic study of endometriosis reveals links to other chronic pain
The largest ever genetic study of endometriosis has found that genetic risk factors are also associated with other chronic pain types such as migraine, back pain and multi-site pain.
Researchers from the University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience, Dr. Sally Mortlock and Professor Grant Montgomery, collaborated with University of Oxford researchers and 24 teams across the world to compare the DNA code of more than 60,000 women with endometriosis and 700,000 women without the disease.
The shared genetic basis for endometriosis and other types of seemingly unrelated pain may be indicative of ‘sensitisation’ of the central nervous system, according to Dr. Morlock, who says “This makes people suffering from chronic pain more prone to other types of pain”.
Before the study, researchers knew of 17 genetic regions associated with endometriosis compared to the 42 regions now known. They can now work to better understand what genes in these regions do and find new drug targets, leading to new treatments.