Dear Menopause
Are you experiencing changes to your physical, mental and emotional health you find hard to explain?
Have you tried talking to your doctor/partner/employer/best friend and been left feeling unsupported?
In this weekly show, host Sonya Lovell interviews a range of experts and shares the stories of everyday people to help you understand what the hell is going on, why and where you can find support, empowerment and most importantly, a like-minded community.
Dear Menopause
110: Ged Kearney on Investing in Women's Health
Delve into an exciting new era for women's health in Australia, highlighted by a $573.3 million investment.
Join my conversation with Ged Kearney, the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, who passionately shares insights from her extensive background in nursing and women's health advocacy.
As we explore the various components of this funding package, Ged discusses critical advancements aimed at transforming menopause care, addressing gender disparities in the health system, and fostering community awareness about healthcare needs.
We unpack the elimination of barriers related to long-acting contraceptives, funding for additional endometriosis, pelvic pain and menopause clinics, and the emphasis on educating healthcare professionals to provide better perimenopause and menopause care for women.
This episode offers a deep look into the shifts occurring within healthcare policy and the need for comprehensive support services designed for women navigating challenges in their midlife health.
Don't miss the chance to learn more about how these initiatives can empower women across the nation and how your vote at election time can secure this support.
To be part of the conversation, subscribe, share this episode, and join my mission to raise awareness around women's menopausal health.
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Welcome to this episode of Dear Menopause. I am delighted to be joined today by Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, Ged Kearney. Welcome, Ged.
Ged:Thank you so much. I'm very excited to be on your show.
Sonya:Thank you. Now, Ged, we have a very big, meaty issue that we're here to talk about today, but how about we get the ball rolling with you giving our listeners today a little introduction into who Ged Kearney is?
Ged:Well, I am a grandma and two, six beautiful grandchildren. I am a mum of four kids and two beautiful stepchildren, two gorgeous stepdaughters. I am a nurse by background. I worked as a nurse for nearly 20 years, spent most of my working life at the Austin Hospital in Melbourne For any of your Melbourne visitors, they'll know the Austin Hospital and I became head of the Nurses' Union, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation. Then I was asked to run as president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, which was a big job, and then I was asked to run for public office, which I did, and won the seat of what was called Batman. Then it's now the seat of Hooper here in Melbourne in the inner north and an electorate that I adore and love, and it's a great part of my job. And now I don't know how it happens sometimes, but now I'm an assistant minister for health and aged care and First Nations health. It's one of those things where you pinch yourself and you think, wow.
Sonya:I was going to say you had this like beautiful look of surprise on your face as you were about to say that, as if you really don't know how you got here.
Ged:No, no, I often you know the movie Forrest Gump I often think, oh, it's just a bit of a Forrest Gump thing. But you know, as women we do that, don't we? We self-deprec hard.
Sonya:I have worked hard all my life and I'm really quite I'm secretly quite proud of myself. I think you should absolutely be proud of yourself and I don't think we need to keep it a secret. So congratulations on an incredible career. And you know, you've obviously been someone that has been very invested in women's health, but also women's issues, you know, from an advocacy perspective as well for a very long time, for a very long time.
Ged:When I was first elected and got this role, I was asked to take up women's health because I have been a great advocate for women's health pretty much all my working life and have been able to see that there is bias in the health system, gender bias, which is, you know it's not to say that anyone cuts women out or is out to not give women the best care they can, because I'm a health professional myself and I know people work very hard.
Ged:It's just that the system itself has been built over hundreds and hundreds of years by men for men and about men. Of course, more recently we're seeing more and more health professionals and women. More and more doctors in particular are women and we have more women in policymaking positions. We're elevating those female-dominated health professions like nursing and midwifery and allied health, and I think it's all a perfect time for me to come along and really advance the issue of women's health care and how we need to do a lot to make sure that women that bias is is is stopped and worked on yeah, absolutely, and that leads us beautifully into one of the reasons that we're here today, which is to talk about the biggest announcement impacting women's health in Australia that, from my perspective, we've seen for quite some time, and that is the half a billion dollar package that was announced on the 9th of February.
Sonya:So, first and foremost, thank you.
Ged:You're welcome, and I should thank you because it's advocates like your wonderful self who have really pushed this to the fore and made it an issue that has got a lot of groundswell of support, and so really, I flew on your coattails in many ways, so thank you.
Sonya:Oh goodness. Well, thank you very much for that. But it's a collaborative effort, isn't it? And just goes to show the importance of voices at all levels, from someone like myself who's at grassroots, you know, considers herself to literally just be the voice of those that don't feel that they have or know how to use a voice, to someone like yourself who is in that position to actually really make a considerable change. It is a team effort, yeah, always. Now, Jed, I think it'd be really nice if you could give us a quick overview of the package that was announced. I do have a question. It's a question that's come through from listeners consistently since the package was announced that I'll ask you off the back of that and then we'll dive into some more of the details.
Ged:Okay, well, I should give a little bit of background to this package. You know, we have coming up to the end of the three-year term and I've been working on women's health since I was appointed to this role. We appointed the National Women's Health Advisory Council, who's been helping me, and we did a national survey where two-thirds of respondents said that, as women, they felt there was bias and discrimination in the system. A lot of that was around sexual and reproductive health care. There are taboos on it, there's stigma, it's pushed into the shadows, it's not talked about, it's a secret women's business, you know, and consequently, and there's lots of other health issues for women that are not about reproductive health care. But this is one area where women really did feel disadvantaged and, as a consequence of that being not spoken about and pushed into the shadows, it wasn't a policy priority for governments past.
Ged:It has been for our government and last year we announced $160 million package. It was a modest package for women while we were building up onto this big one, which is now $573.3 million package. It's more than half a billion dollars. This is a huge investment. It's in a couple of stages. Some things happen now and some things will happen on the re-election of a labor government. I am pleased to say that the liberal government has said they will commit to implementing this, and jolly well if they win the election. I hope they do. You know that this was a big labor priority and it is a labor reform. Having said all that, we announced 169.2 million dollars to make it easier for women. And I'll start one, and I know you want to talk about menopause, but I'll say the whole thing yeah sure.
Ged:For long-acting reversible contraceptives commonly known as LARCs your listeners will know them as IUDs and Implanon, you know yeah implants, implants.
Ged:So these have been very expensive for women in Australia Don't know why. The rest of the world has gone way ahead of us and we know they're extremely effective contraceptive. They're also very good for menopause treatment. For some symptoms of menopause, it cost a woman on average $400 to $500 to have an IUD inserted, which made it a huge barrier for women. We're cutting that cost, so we're removing that cost of insertion and removal. We're going to give doctors GPs a lot more money to do that and so hopefully they will every woman. They should not really need to pay because we are reimbursing doctors enough.
Ged:64.5 million is being invested for high quality models of care for endometriosis and pelvic pain, and we have endometriosis and pelvic pain and we have endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics right around the country. There's 22 of them. We're going to increase that to 33 and they're not only just going to be for endometriosis and pelvic pain, they will be for menopause and perimenopause care, so we will have that expertise there. I can talk a bit more about that later. Sonia, great things are happening around that. There will be a new health assessment item on the MBS for women to sit down with their GP and talk about menopause, and I think that will be great. It's not very often that we get a new MBS item number, I promise you, so this is really fantastic and there'll be long consults and a woman can have them every year.
Ged:There will be and I know this is something that you will be very pleased about there will be $12.8 million for a public health campaign to raise awareness and increase understanding of menopause and perimenopause, the symptoms, the management options. You know what I'm really interested in? Empowering women to know their bodies and know what's normal and know what to talk to their health practitioners about, maybe even talk to your boss. So you've got facts and figures and you can talk to boss and make the workplace a bit better or just bring it out of that secret women's business shadows. I think would be great. We're going to have nationally consistent guidelines for menopause, believe it or not? Hallelujah, hallelujah, can you believe it? And there's lots of other money being put in place to train our health professionals in helping women with menopause and perimenopause. So that's sort of in a nutshell. And, of course, what did I forget?
Sonya:And the PBS?
Ged:PBS Holy moly, holy moly.
Sonya:Three, don't worry, I wasn't going to let you miss that one.
Ged:Two new contraceptive pills will go on the PBS from the 1st of March and three of the most commonly used hormone therapies will be on the PBS Estrogel, prometrium and Estrogel Pro. Whoa, at last you know it's 20 years. Hormone therapy has been put on the PBS. Can you believe it? And I'm really excited about this People come up to me and say oh my God, I've been dying to smother myself in Estrogel for so long and now I can afford it.
Sonya:Oh my gosh.
Ged:No, don't do that, we should be fine.
Sonya:No, don't. Okay, that is not medical advice. Please don't listen to us. They're all amazing, amazing, wonderful announcements, and I know myself and a huge cohort of advocates were absolutely delighted when we received the information the night before that the announcement was made and we were all so incredibly excited. There are a couple of things in there that I do want to kind of deep dive into with you in a minute. Now you did kind of touch on this question and you may not be able to expand any further, but I'm going to ask it so that I don't feel like I'm letting my listeners down. And that is, these announcements have all been made by yourself, the Labor government. You've made that clear right at the beginning. We did see immediately, thankfully which was great news on the day, that the opposition did come out and show bipartisan support for that, which is absolutely wonderful. But what you know, does that really mean you know what could happen if there is a change of government with this package, and it's a really good question.
Ged:You know Labor governments by and large are governments of reform. We are governments that really believe in public health. We implemented Medicare over three or four times. Each time there was a conservative government they tried to strip Medicare away. Peter Dutton himself tried to do away with bulk billing by putting cash registers in EDs and making you pay to go to the GP.
Ged:like getting rid of bulk billing and so we were always a little bit worried about healthcare and Medicare when a coalition government is elected. Peter Dutton has said that he wants to find $350 billion worth of savings. We're not quite sure where those savings are going to come from, he hasn't said. But you know, this is, I think, this for me. That's the political bit. We are coming up to an election. Pop that bit in.
Sonya:Is that box?
Ged:I just think that we are coming up to an election Pop. That bit in the bit for me really is you know, sonia, this is what happens when you have women in government we have. 50% of our parliament are women, half of our cabinet, 50% of our cabinet, is women, are women, is women. There's 50% we have, you know, and when you have women at the table, you get policy change like this. You know, this is why we're investing in child care, investing in aged care, investing in medicare. These are things that women bring to the table, and I think that this is really indicative of the fact that we work this policy up for three years, and the coalition has hasn't been a priority. We haven't seen anything from them and I think they got a bit of a shock when we announced this fabulous policy. They saw the response from you, from Australia's women, and they thought crikey duh who would have thunk that women would be happy?
Sonya:Who would have thunk?
Ged:Yeah exactly.
Sonya:So I guess the takeaway from that really is if you want these packages to not just be kind of kicked to the curb because there is a change of government, Don't allow there to be a change of government.
Ged:No that's my basic take Absolutely and I'm saying this in a very partisan manner, but no, you know we came up with the package. I am committed to this package. It is a revolutionary idea that has come from the Labor Party. Really, only the Labor Party will, absolutely 100% deliver it, implement.
Sonya:Yeah, fantastic, great, thank you. Thank you for addressing that. So one of the first areas that I'd really like to dive into a little bit with is the. You made mention of the currently existing 22 endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics. You announced that you will be expanding those by 11, plus the expanding the remit of those to include menopause and perimenopause care, which is fantastic. Where will those 33 be located? Is there going to be equitable access to those four women, regardless of where they're located?
Ged:Sure, at the moment we've been doing it by PHN. I'm not sure if your listeners will know what a PHN is, but it's a primary healthcare network and these are Australia's been broken up, if you like, into healthcare areas. And there's a primary healthcare network and these are Australia's been broken up, if you like, into healthcare areas. And you know there's a large state and a highly populated state like New South Wales will have several PHNs, and South Australia has two PHNs. So in the first instance, we want a clinic in every single PHN so that women do not have to travel far. Now I would love one on every corner if you are, but you know constraints mean that I think we started off with 22.
Ged:Another 11 is a commitment that we believe they work and that they are an important part of our health infrastructure, and we are really committed to trying our health infrastructure and we are really committed to trying to help women, and so I think these are a great start. If people say, oh, we're a bit disappointed that there's not one near me and I would totally understand that what I will say is there's something wonderful happening is that with endometriosis and pelvic pain, there's a community of practice. So those 22 endoclinics meet regularly. They discuss, you know, case studies, they talk what's working, what's not working, they talk about new ideas and research, they generate research, and so this community of excellence, if you like, around endometriosis and pelvic pain care is developing out of them and they are educating our primary healthcare professionals more broadly.
Ged:So, I think you know that's what I'm loving. And eventually, let's face it, we shouldn't really have specialist clinics. Every woman should walk into every private primary healthcare facility and get the best care they possibly can. We know that doesn't happen now. Ultimately, that would be my aim to do away with these specialty clinics. Everybody would know about it so, but in the meantime, we're starting with these ones okay, amazing.
Sonya:And they don't provide a telehealth service, do they? It is literally just an in-person appointment no, I think they do provide telehealth.
Ged:Okay, all right, cool, no, no, yep, definitely um fantastic. Well, that's good news then yeah, no, the beauty of them is that they respond to community needs. Yeah, okay great.
Sonya:So they have the flexibility to offer what they feel is going to best serve their community. Okay, fantastic. So when we expand the remit of those clinics and we start bringing in the menopause and the perimenopause care, does that mean that you are bringing in menopause and perimenopause specialist GPs or nurses, or however you're planning to do that, into the centres? Like, are you upping the staff or is it an upskilling of the existing staff?
Ged:Okay, great question. So the model that we have from the endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics, which is similar to what we'll use, we put out a tender and we say to primary healthcare providers a number of questions Do you have experts already in these areas? And some gp specialists nurse practitioners, midwives are already experts. So they will say yes, we do, and we would like extra resources to employ a larger multidisciplinary team. And so that is one model exercise physiologists, dieticians, psychologists, pain experts are all being employed.
Ged:Another model is, like you said look, we don't have the expertise. We see the need in our community and we want to have some resources to upskill our staff, and this is how we're going to do that, how we're going to upskill our staff. So some of them are using the resources to get to upskill. Some are saying we have the resources now we want to expand them. So there's a couple of models happening, but I think your question about upskilling more broadly is a really important one, because we are investing a lot of money in building capacity of our health professionals to give comprehensive menopause care. There were some in the previous package last year, there's more in this package and there's online training. We're funding doctors to get to training. If they're in rural or remote areas, we're giving them scholarships to get to training. We're building national guidelines that there's consistency of care right across the country. We're offering online training, face-to-face training. We're doing our best to upskill the workforce, so it's a great.
Ged:Amazing.
Sonya:Yeah, thank you.
Sonya:And that does also lead into one of my other questions, which is very much along the lines of that absolute need for the education and upskilling and obviously you're aware of that was a big part of the announcement that was made. One of my questions around that, you know, that really huge need to upskill, just as our gps, very first and foremost, regardless of before we get out into specialist clinics and things like that, because they are the first port of call for many, many women. And they are the point where I hear every day and we do hear stories and other mediums as well where that is the first place where women are dismissed, where they are let down, where they really feel that they're not being heard and not supported. So, when it comes to the retraining for want of a better expression but the upskilling, the education, filling that education gap that we know exists, who will be providing that training? Is that something that will also be going out to tender? Are there existing providers that you'll be tapping into? How does that kind of start playing out?
Ged:Well, we have some existing programs already. So Jean Hales, for example, jean Hales for Women's Health runs an online training program for menopause care. So they will be providing some of that. As I said, some of it will be in scholarships. We will be looking to the Australian Menopause Society perhaps, or you know other organisations with skills to offer their services. There will be a tender process, you know, for that. I don't have the exact way that it's going to operate just yet, but we'll be very open to as many portals and many entry ports as we possibly can for people to get that training.
Sonya:One of the reasons why I was wanting to bring that up and have that conversation is if these are existing providers that have already been offering this service, yet we find ourselves in a situation where many GPs still are not educated. Obviously, there needs to be a significant overhaul of what does already exist because it's not working and bringing in, as you said, more options and ways to be able to provide that education as well.
Ged:Yeah, and a lot of the barriers to doctors not attending, but they tell us they don't have time, they can't backfill their practice. There's travel costs, so we'll be providing free placements for up to about 11,000 health professionals to access training. So leave that with me and I will be able to come back to you with a lot more information when we've dug down in the detail. But I hear your point and it's a very good point.
Sonya:Thank you, I appreciate that. So then, when we're talking about the new health assessment that kicks in as of the 1st of July, is that right? Yep, that's right. Yep, that's exciting. So can you tell us what that actually means for someone that perhaps doesn't understand the Medicare system? What can a woman that's listening do to take advantage of that?
Ged:Well, I think you can. When you ring up to make an appointment, you need to specify that I'm coming for a menopause discussion or a menopause consultation I think is probably the better word so that you're not in the six minute medicine time slot, you know, because there's not a lot you can say.
Sonya:So will it be a dedicated, longer appointment time.
Ged:It will be a dedicated, longer appointment time and I would encourage you to, when you ring up to make an appointment, to say that that is specifically what you are coming for. It also gives if there is an expert in menopause in your primary healthcare facility you know will prompt a visit to them or with them. They might have a nurse, practitioner or someone that is specially trained up in menopause that can talk to you. You know all the things that you say. You know to your listeners all the time. Use the hour, go with your your questions, don't be even allow them to be dismissed or pushed back. Hopefully that won't happen now, because there's a lot of awareness and you're going for a menopause consultation. But I really encourage you to feel really confident that that's exactly what this is for and that you will be heard, you will be no, you won't be dismissed and you will be offered help and treatment. I think that this having it dedicated to that I think will drive a revolution in primary health care for women with menopause.
Sonya:It's not just yeah.
Ged:I hope so. I hope so. It's not just. Oh you sure you're not distressed, I'll give you some. You know what happens.
Sonya:You just need a holiday.
Ged:You need a holiday, that's right. Oh, all that brain fog, it'll pass. I had. I had menorrhagia, very heavy periods, really heavy periods during perimenopause and my GP says, oh, it's just menopause, it will pass. It will pass.
Sonya:I had a conversation, I spoke at an event on Wednesday in the city here in Sydney and I had a lady come up to me afterwards and I was talking to her and a friend and she says to me you know she goes, oh gosh, sonia, it's terrible. I've been bleeding consistently for months and my GP just keeps telling me some women in their 40s bleed and I was horrified because any unexplained bleeding must be investigated. It may not be perimenopause there are a host of things that that could be and for a GP to be as dismissive as women in their forties just sometimes bleed, I thought was absolutely atrocious.
Ged:I absolutely agree with you. Please, I hope you had told that poor woman to go and get checked out, because I ended up. You know I tell this story. I don't know if you heard, but I flooded on a tram once story I don't know if you've heard but I flooded on a tram once Like I don't know if anyone has menorrhagia, but it's awful.
Ged:When you get up off the tram, the seat's covered in blood. You're covered in blood. It's terrible and I thought I'm going to quit work. I can't go to work anymore. And eventually I did find a doctor that said we'd better do some blood tests. And and he said to me well, you've got a hemoglobin that is not compatible with life. I had bled so much, he said I don't know how you're standing upright.
Sonya:Oh, my goodness.
Ged:I said crikey, what do we do about that? He said something really quick.
Sonya:Really quickly. Yeah Well, one of the things that she said to me when we had this conversation was I'm just so tired, I'm so fatigued, and I went, your iron will be so depleted. He should have at least offered you a test to understand where your iron levels were. So, yeah, a lot wrong with that whole conversation and I'm sorry that you had that experience. That just sounds awfully traumatic and, in the moment, must have just been something really incredible to have to experience. I'm not the only one, I'm sure. No, jed, I know I have another example of a girlfriend who had that exact situation in a board meeting. So, oh, public transport board meeting, they're just awful places to have to deal with these situations. But, yes, it happens, unfortunately, and that's why we're here and that can bring us beautifully into the awareness campaign that you have earmarked some amazing funds for. So is that something that will be out to tender? Should we be encouraging some amazing creative agencies out there to start getting their thinking caps on?
Ged:Again, we haven't put the parameters around this. There's $12.8 million for this, so it's not a small amount of money, and I'll be sitting down with the department and we will be working out exactly how we're going to do that, how we're going to include great organisations that I know, who are out there who could help with this or create this or do this. Unfortunately, sonia, I haven't got the details to tell you, but Do you know what I'm thinking, Jed?
Sonya:I think we're going to have to come back post-election and revisit this conversation.
Ged:I will come back, jed will even I'll give you a little text when.
Sonya:I know a little bit. So how's that? From my very personal experience, the information that I shared at the Senate inquiry, the conversations I've had with Senator Mariel and Senator Larissa, and one of the things that made me so happy when the report was handed down from the Senate inquiry, was the suggestion of an awareness campaign, but within that, for it to include lived experience, because we must must hear the voices of the lived experience, because that is where a true awareness really does kind of start having a big impact.
Ged:I couldn't agree with you more. I could not agree with you more Absolutely. I mean the stories we heard in the senate inquiry and all kudos to senators smith and waters. It was amazing was some of it was heartbreaking, like when you read the reports um women's marriages breaking up and giving up work and just some of it was really pretty full of. But yeah, I agree with you because you know women may not identify that that's what's happening to them, you know. So if you hear the personal stories people go, oh, hang on a minute, that's me, you know yeah.
Ged:I've got that. Maybe I'm having perimenopause problems. You know it's so important to hear other people's experiences so you feel included, you don't feel isolated and you have an awareness of what's happening in your body.
Sonya:It's so great so, yeah, and it takes a while. Oh, thank you, it was. You know, absolutely my pleasure. It's so great, yeah, and it takes a while. Oh, thank you, it was. You know, absolutely my pleasure. Any opportunity that I get to to be able to share my story, but also know that that's impacting everybody down the line, and particularly the changes that we are going to make now that will impact the generations that come behind us. Jed, thank you so much for your time today. Was there anything else that you wanted to talk about or anything you want to leave us with?
Ged:Again, just say thank you to you and to everybody who have really kept this issue alive and who gave evidence of the inquiry. We couldn't have done it without you all, and I just feel part of a really amazing community of women that have really pushed so hard for this, so thank you.
