Push to stop girls having to suffer pelvic pain in silence

Endometriosis can be excruciatingly painful for the about one in seven Australian girls and women with the condition.

For teenagers dealing with changing bodies and raging hormones, it can be difficult to identify symptoms of the disease.

Polly Levinson has been delivering the hour-long Periods, Pain and Endometriosis Program (PPEP) Talk program to teenage students across schools for almost four years, helping young people understand more about pelvic pain.

"Australian teachers are not super comfortable teaching about puberty, because it goes beyond biological processes," she said.

"We often find students appreciate not having to divulge really deeply personal information about their reproductive health to their potentially male PE teacher, who they're going to see for basketball tomorrow."

Now, independent state MP for Murray Helen Dalton is sponsoring a parliamentary petition to get specialist endometriosis education classes for boys and girls funded across NSW public high schools.

The PPEP Talk program currently runs in independent and Catholic schools across the country, and in state schools in Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia.

The NSW Department of Education will next year launch a pelvic health and endometriosis education program, which aims to support teachers discussing the condition.

But Ms Dalton said it made more sense to support the existing PEPP Talk program offered by the Pelvic Pain Foundation.

Her petition, which calls for the specialist class to expand into public high schools across the state, has gained more than 1,700 signatures since it was launched in August.

Ms Dalton said it could be particularly challenging for male teachers to deliver education around endometriosis.

"I think that they would find it a little bit difficult to speak to the girls about that, and the girls obviously would be probably hesitant to speak to a male about that," she said.

"Whereas the program is run by women that understand women's issues."

A peer-reviewed 2022 study on menstrual health education in Australian schools found personal discomfort meant some Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE) teachers lacked confidence when teaching puberty and menstruation.

Ms Levinson said clinical educators have been able to pick up on congenital conditions in conversations with students after the classes.

"That opportunity for students to talk one-on-one with the educator at the end of the session is something teachers have really told us they find immensely helpful, as well as the students themselves," she said.

Early intervention

Trudi Beck co-founded an endometriosis and pelvic pain clinic in Wagga Wagga.

She said young women often spent too long tolerating pain before seeking medical intervention.

"They are suffering these things often in silence, and only present when they get iron deficiency, which is a direct result of the heavy periods that's causing them to miss a lot of school," Dr Beck said.

She said awareness from an early age could prevent further health issues in later life, which was especially important in regional areas where access to support was limited.

"Some of the women in this region are travelling 200 to 300 kilometres each way to access care," Dr Beck said.

"We need to work on targeting younger women where we can work with prevention of long-term consequences of undiagnosed endometriosis."