Priorities and actions (pages 23-26 of the report)
Increase access to sexual and reproductive health care information, diagnosis, treatment and services
Promote access to resources for students and parents to learn more about sexual and reproductive health
Update sexual health curriculums in schools to include information on:
Sexually transmissible infections (STIs) and access to screening, and the long-term effect of STIs on fertility
Available contraception options
Respectful relationships
Safe and consensual sex
Education needs to be delivered in partnership with teachers, parents and the local community.
Education should be inclusive of sex, gender and sexual diversity, be sex positive and culturally and linguistically safe and appropriate.
Improve access to information, screening services, self-education and self-management tools to encourage self-informing and help-seeking behaviours in relation to women’s sexual and reproductive health:
Promote and support national access to cervical screening.
Develop interactive tools (phone applications, web-based tools and symptom checkers) to increase sexual and reproductive health literacy and health-seeking behaviour.
Promote these tools to health professionals and health networks to facilitate information sharing and to raise awareness of their application.
Raise community and health care provider awareness to improve visibility and diagnosis of under-recognised sexual and reproductive health conditions and reproductive risk factors:
Promote existing and emerging information sources for conditions such as:
Endometriosis and other chronic pelvic pain conditions (as outlined in the National Action Plan)
Polycystic ovarian syndrome
Primary ovarian insufficiency
Pelvic inflammatory disease
Complications from transvaginal mesh implants
Complications from menopause
Improve treatment and support for urinary and fecal incontinence in women
Establish specialist primary care services for incontinence:
Provide access to pelvic floor physiotherapy for older women with urinary and faecal incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse
Remove barriers to support equitable access to timely, appropriate and affordable care for all women, including culturally and linguistically sensitive and safe care:
Work towards universal access to sexual and reproductive health information, treatment and services that offer options to women to empower choice and control in decision-making about their bodies, including contraception and options for addressing unplanned pregnancies, including access to termination services.
Improve access to and uptake of appropriate contraceptive methods including long-acting reversible contraception through education for GPs, nurses and other health care providers, and expansion of service provision.
Improve equitable access to evidence-based IVF.
Expand family planning services for priority population groups, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, women with disability, health care card holders, migrants and refugee populations and incarcerated women.
Strengthen access pathways to sexual and reproductive health services across the country, particularly in rural and remote areas:
Ensure strong referral pathways between primary care services and specialised services and practitioners.
Invest in and support the development and expansion of telehealth services and new models of care.
Continue to support women’s health services at a national, state and local level.
Provide education and training to GPs, nurses and other relevant health care providers, to provide comprehensive sexual and reproductive services.
Develop a suite of approaches for information sharing and access to sexual and reproductive health services for women who have limited access to mobile and digital channels and local services, such as women in rural and remote areas.
Increase access to services for conditions such as polycystic ovarian syndrome, endometriosis, vaginismus, premature and early menopause, prolapse, incontinence, sub-fertility and infertility.
Increase access to government-funded health services that offer sexual and reproductive health services, particularly for women living in rural and remote areas.
2. Increase health promotion activity to enhance and support preconception and perinatal health
Promote the importance of good preconception health, particularly regarding nutrition, lifestyle and pelvic floor health, for all women who are planning a pregnancy:
Increase awareness of gestational diabetes as an indicator of Type 2 diabetes later in life and support affected women to make healthy life choices.
Increase awareness of the link between hypertensive disorders during pregnancy and risk of cardiovascular disease.
Develop and deliver preventive health and awareness programs for pelvic floor health.
Map family history and previous health experiences for preconception and newly pregnant women to understand and manage risks for women and their babies.
Engage with existing whole-of-life preventive health campaigns to promote awareness of pregnancy complications, pregnancy loss and infertility:
Support health care services, including genetic counsellors, involved in preconception and perinatal health care to enable women to lower pregnancy and infertility risks.
Promote awareness of the link between excess weight gain from a young age and infertility and ill health during pregnancy.
Support awareness and support for miscarriage.
Tailor service delivery and communication messages to ensure cultural safety in maternal and perinatal care for all women
Design campaigns and programs which celebrate positive and relatable mother figures and role models across priority populations.
Support the implementation of the Cultural Respect Framework 2016-2026 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health.
3. Support enhanced access to maternal and perinatal health care services
Support primary and community health care services to complete all prepregnancy activity and education about available screening options, alongside existing sexual and reproductive health services:
Encourage primary and community health care services (including GPs, women’s health care centres, family planning clinics and community pharmacists) to leverage perinatal health care interactions with pregnant women to provide support and referral to appropriate services to address other physical and/or mental health conditions.
Ensure women planning pregnancy are aware of screening tests available to them prior to and during pregnancy.
Promote screening for available genetic testing and carrier screening, mental health assessments, indicators of domestic or sexual abuse and consideration of risk factors for chronic conditions.
Create clear pathways for women to access relevant services to prevent or minimise the impact of the reoccurrence of pre-existing conditions, emergence of conditions as a result of pregnancy, as well as plan for subsequent pregnancies:
Equip GPs to address and support pre-existing conditions both previously known and discovered during the first pregnancy and refer to other services where appropriate. For example, genetic counsellors.
Develop and encourage use of follow up postnatal care pathways to identify at-risk women to prevent chronic conditions, and treatment of issues which either emerged during pregnancy, such as gestational diabetes, or are a direct result of pregnancy and/or birth, such as pelvic floor problems and/or incontinence.
Promote health care services that support women in addressing common postnatal health problems such as urinary incontinence, haemorrhoids and bowel issues.
Support women’s capacity to establish and maintain breastfeeding:
Facilitate breastfeeding education and awareness for health professionals who may encounter women in the perinatal period to protect, promote and support breastfeeding.
Promote breastfeeding information and support programs.
Promote the NHMRC Australian Infant Feeding Guidelines to relevant health professionals.
Support the implementation of the Australian National Breastfeeding Strategy 2019 and Beyond.
Promote access to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander specific maternity programs that support cultural safety:
Align with and support the implementation of the National Approach to Maternity Services.
Improve access to, and integration of, mental health services throughout preconception and perinatal stages. Engage with health care practitioners to promote and utilise the Mental Health Care in the Perinatal Period: Australian Clinical Practice Guideline
Provide mental health support for women with sub-fertility, infertility, women going through IVF and women who experience miscarriage or stillbirth.
Increase support for women at risk of experiencing perinatal mental ill-health and encourage mothers to seek help and social support.
Break down the stigma surrounding postnatal depression, perinatal anxiety and other mental ill-health experienced in the perinatal period.
Include screening for indicators of violence.
Tailor awareness campaigns to address late presentation to antenatal care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, migrant and culturally and linguistically diverse women:
Co-design education and awareness materials and campaigns with each cohort across the community, to develop the specific messages required for each group.
Include peer support and education.
Set sustainable national accreditation criteria, measurements and standards for maternal and perinatal care:
Collaborate with peak bodies to work towards consistent national implementation of best practice guidelines.
Enhance workforce capability through training to upskill GPs, nurses and midwives.
Priority area 3 – Chronic conditions and preventive health
Reduce the prevalence and impact of endometriosis and associated chronic pelvic pain
Stronger awareness, recognition, acknowledgement and education regarding endometriosis and associated chronic pelvic pain:
Develop widespread, visible and context-specific community awareness campaigns delivered through multiple channels.
Promote early education on women’s health, delivered in school settings, and provided for all genders.
Improve access to information, self-education and self-management tools for individuals living with endometriosis at all stages of their journey.
Improve awareness and understanding of endometriosis among health professionals working at every stage in the clinical pathway.
Ensure availability of, and access to, affordable and consistent healthcare options, and better treatment options, for endometriosis patients:
Develop clinical guidelines and clinical care standards to promote integrative care for all stages of the care pathway.
Target diagnostic delay and promote early access to intervention, care and treatment options.
Improve the affordability, accessibility and national consistency of management and care options throughout Australia.
Endure endometriosis is recognised as a chronic condition by all health practitioners, acknowledging its physical, psychological and social impacts.
Narrow the gap in quality of life between patients and their peers.
Strengthen the national research agenda for endometriosis and associated chronic pelvic pain to enable: more accurate quantification of disease burden; investigation of causes; and increase the potential for finding a cure:
Build a collaborative environment that enables world-leading research on endometriosis.
Mine existing data and improve data linkage between sources to improve understanding of the current state of endometriosis in Australia.
Conduct further research to understand the causes and impacts of endometriosis and progress towards the development of a cure.