Community & Business
12 May, 2023
“Pain is not all in your head”
YOUNG women at Mareeba State High School had the opportunity to sit down and learn about endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain last week as a part of the national Period, Pain, Endometriosis Program (PPEP) Talk program.
In recent years, more research has gone into endometriosis, a condition that affects one in nine women when tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside of the reproductive organ.
That research has been shared by the Pelvic Pain Foundation’s clinic educator Kate Tomsett, whose main focus of the PPEP Talk was to help young girls recognise the early signs of endometriosis and pelvic pain.
“We have a look at pain and whether is it normal or not and we love giving students the tools that they need to manage that,” she said.
“Everything we talk about is research backed and my background is in clinical research and biomolecular science, and it has been really great to be a part of this program and to keep the students up with the latest (research).
“(I want the students to know) when their period pain is normal and not so normal and
that there are things we can do to help them. Pain is not all in your head, it’s real, and I think a lot of the time we go to a doctor for our pain to be told it’s just about being a woman.
“For students to realise their pain isn’t normal and there are steps to address it would be great.”
During the presentation, students openly spoke about the effects their periods had had on them whilst also learning what en-dometriosis looked like through a video of a laparoscopy – the surgical procedure that doctors perform to diagnose endometriosis
