{"id":890239,"date":"2026-09-13T07:24:25","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T07:24:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/890239\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T07:24:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T07:24:25","slug":"womens-medical-pain-victoria-standards-set-for-treatment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/890239\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s medical pain Victoria: Standards set for treatment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Wendy<\/p>\n

September 13, 2026 \u2014 5:00am<\/p>\n

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Thea Baker has a deep understanding of what women with long-term, undiagnosed pain endure.<\/p>\n

Like hundreds of thousands<\/a> of Australian women \u2013 one in seven by the age of 44-49 \u2013 she has lived with endometriosis, the condition that can cause so much pain many are sometimes crippled by it.<\/p>\n

\"TheaThea Baker is a psychotherapist who treats many women who, like herself, have lived with chronic but undiagnosed pain.Justin McManus<\/p>\n

As a psychotherapist, she treats many patients living with \u201cunending women\u2019s pain\u201d that has often been ignored, dismissed or belittled <\/a>when they seek care.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exhausting even having to advocate for yourself all the time, to pitch up time and again to clinician after clinician and get this sense that somehow this is the kind of pain we\u2019re just supposed to tolerate and accept,\u201d Baker says. \u201cThat this is just what it\u2019s like.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sweeping Victorian Women\u2019s Pain inquiry <\/a>in 2024 revealed \u201cdeep-seated medical misogyny and gender bias in the healthcare system\u201d when it reported late last year, and Baker sees the effects of it among so many women.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Melbourne<\/a><\/p>\n

Baker describes herself as an \u201cannoying\u201d person who will keep pushing for medical answers if what she is hearing doesn\u2019t sound good enough. \u201cI am white, super educated and don\u2019t care if doctors don\u2019t like me,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Baker was one of more than 13,000 women and groups who contacted the inquiry, which eventually found 90 per cent of respondents lived with pain for more than a year, 54 per cent experienced it every day and 53 per cent had a delayed diagnosis.<\/p>\n

It found sexism and bias contributed to 71 per cent of respondents feeling dismissed by health officials.<\/p>\n

Former health minister Mary-Anne Thomas oversaw the inquiry and immediately introduced the \u201cgreen whistle\u201d anaesthetic free for women having IUDs inserted at the state\u2019s 20 women\u2019s reproductive health hubs.<\/p>\n

Also among the 27 recommendations released late last year was that standards be created to establish what patients should be able to expect.<\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer health minister Mary-Anne Thomas oversaw the pain inquiry and was so shocked by what she learnt that she warned doctors months before it came out that it would make very tough reading,Simon Schluter<\/p>\n

Among these standards, which will be released on Sunday, are that \u201cwomen must be taken seriously and believed when discussing their pain\u201d, be listened to and supported to ask questions and express concerns, and be respected as partners in decision-making about their body, treatment and care.<\/p>\n

Health Minister Ingrid Stitt said \u201cvery distressing recent examples of where women have been subjected to appalling care and treatment\u201d made such standards important. She was referring to the alleged experiences of large numbers of patients of disgraced gynaecologist and endometriosis doctor Simon Gordon.<\/p>\n

Healthcare watchdog the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency launched an ongoing investigation into Gordon after The Age revealed allegations in February<\/a> that he performed unwarranted endometriosis surgeries on women, including full hysterectomies. He denies this, but civil proceedings have been launched against Gordon<\/a> in Victoria\u2019s Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Isabelle<\/a><\/p>\n

Legal firm Arnold Thomas & Becker said in August that it had been contacted by more than 500 women treated by Gordon and was representing 295 of his former patients.<\/p>\n

Women\u2019s Health Victoria has been running the endometriosis and pelvic surgery concerns line<\/a> since March, and chief executive Sally Hasler said more than 400 women, \u201cmost of them patients of Simon Gordon\u201d, have called the phone line to discuss the profound effects on their quality of life.<\/p>\n

Hasler said the pain standards were a good start, but there was no accountability mechanism yet built into them, and no training or monitoring.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an important step forward and consumer resource, and it acknowledges that women\u2019s pain is too often minimised or ignored and sends a strong message that women\u2019s pain is real, and it deserves to be taken seriously and should be treated with respect,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Bindi<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s really important that the responsibility for pain can\u2019t rest solely with women continuing to advocate for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

That 90 per cent of women told the inquiry that they had sought help for their pain but hadn\u2019t been listened to made introducing professional, as well as consumer, standards vital.<\/p>\n

Professor Kate Seear, deputy chair of the inquiry, has also lived long-term with endometriosis and adenomyosis and says the fact that so many women made submissions in a short period shows the extent and impact of chronic and long-lasting women\u2019s pain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have lived experience [of it] my whole life, I did my PhD on endometriosis and wrote a book about it \u2026 but still, hearing about particularly the impact on women\u2019s mental health and relationships of chronic, unaddressed, ignored and trivialised pain was surprising,\u201d Sear said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us involved in the inquiry felt a great sense of responsibility \u2026 To elevate and make women\u2019s experiences more visible has been really rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Jean Hailes for Women\u2019s Health chief executive Sarah White agreed the new consumer standard was good, but more details on how it would be implemented and monitored were needed \u201cto ensure it becomes part of the fabric of care for all women, all the time\u201d.<\/p>\n

Stitt said the consumer standard sends strong messages to state and federal health regulators that women\u2019s health concerns cannot be ignored or dismissed, and that the over-arching women\u2019s pain action plan recommended by the inquiry was close to being released.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to have to do a lot more, and to protect what we\u2019ve been able to achieve so far against some of the other parties who have made their policies clear when it comes to healthcare,\u201d Stitt said. \u201cWe know One Nation want to wind back abortion rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shadow minister for health Georgie Crozier said she had no plans to change any aspects of the recommendations should the Liberals win the November election.<\/p>\n

The Women\u2019s Health Victoria Endometriosis and Pelvic Concerns help line is on 9664 9330<\/a>Save<\/p>\n

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\"WendyWendy Tuohy<\/a> is a senior writer focusing on social issues and those impacting women and girls.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"September 13, 2026 \u2014 5:00am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":890240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[64,63,137,500],"class_list":["post-890239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=890239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/890240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=890239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=890239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=890239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}