Gai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I recently had the great honour of becoming an endometriosis ambassador—I made the pledge just recently. One in 10 women in the world suffer from endometriosis. One in 10 women largely suffer in stoic silence. They live with the misdiagnosis, the myths, the endless operations, the hysterectomies, the lost opportunities, the huge cost, the daily struggle to take control of their lives, the fear of infertility, and the dreadful, dreadful pain.

This is an insidious disease, and the problem is that no-one is actually talking about it. It is a disease that occurs when the tissue that is similar to the lining of the womb grows outside it in other parts of the body. This insidious disease costs the health, the careers, the futures, the fertility, the sex lives, the hopes and the dreams of 10 per cent of women in our community. Ten per cent of women out there are suffering from endometriosis. We have to break the taboo about this little-known women's condition that knows no boundaries and shows no mercy. As an endometriosis ambassador, I pledge to work with those one in 10 women in Australia, with those one in 10 women worldwide, to end the silence on endo.