BELINDA KING, PRESENTER: Women's health. It's often put in the too hard basket with women facing extra hurdles, higher costs and not always feeling heard. We have a new women's health package that aims to change all that and you've been passionate about this being rolled out. tell me, what sort of things are we talking about changing here?
REBECCA WHITE, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE: That's exactly right. I think all of us have heard stories, haven't we, of going to the doctor, or our friends going to the doctor and having their symptoms dismissed or just told, that's just because you're a woman or it's just that time of the month.
It's often really hard for women to get access to support for their symptoms. from the 1st of May this year there were new medicines listed on the PBS and this is for endometriosis treatment, but also menopause treatment, in the case of both of these new medicines we haven't seen drugs like this listed on the PBS for 20 or 30 years.
This provides access to affordable healthcare for women who might be dealing with endometriosis or might be dealing with perimenopause or menopause to be able to access new medicines on the PBS. Here in Tassie since the 1st of May, more than 9,000 women have already taken this option up, which is fantastic.
They're getting access to cheaper medicines to treat the conditions they've been dealing with. And it means that they can finally, in some cases, access that support because, sadly, it had been too expensive in some instances for women to access these types of medicines.
And across the country, we've seen 365,000 women access new medicines from the 1st of May, including new contraceptives. We have had no new listings of contraceptives for 30 years on the PBS, and there are now three new oral contraceptives listed that women have been able to access as well, which is great news for their hip pocket, but also great news for their health.
BELINDA KING, PRESENTER: You know, you mentioned 9,000 women in Tasmania. I'm one of those 9,000 that has seen a significant drop in some of the medicines that I access through my GP and pharmacy. What does that tell you about the need in Tasmania?
REBECCA WHITE, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE: I think the need is enormous. But one of the things I've also learnt in this job, but just also being in my 40s, is that we don't talk often enough about the fact that there is help available. I'm so pleased to hear that you're accessing not only the health you need, but also the medicines that are available now through the PBS for the cheaper price. And that's one of the reasons I'm really happy to talk to you about it.
We don't talk enough about perimenopause, menopause. It affects 50 per cent of our population. There are symptoms that women deal with every single day that they're just putting up with because they've been told that's just what you have to face at this time in your life. But there are supports available and from the 1st of July this year we increased through Medicare the rebate for going and having a chat to your doctor about menopause and perimenopause.
Doctors are reimbursed for that longer consultation that they now can spend with a woman talking through these symptoms, looking at options, whether it's medicine or other support that might be available. And across the country, we've seen 20,000 women take that up from the 1st of July.
We know that just by talking about it, hopefully women are going and having a chat to their GP or their health professional about it, and being able to then get hormone treatment or access to other support that's going to help because these symptoms are treatable, they're manageable, and you can live a much better quality of life rather than just dealing with this and thinking you've got to put up with it.
BELINDA KING, PRESENTER: Indeed. I know my prescription that I get filled every month has dropped from $60 to about $31, hat's very welcome.
REBECCA WHITE, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE And then from the 1st of January next year, all medicines on the PBS go down to $25, becoming cheaper again, which is great news. And if you're on a concession card, then it's only $7.70 and those prices are capped until 2030. We're trying to make it as easy affordable as possible for women and all Australians who are accessing pbs medication to be able to do that without worrying about how you find the money because we've heard too often from people that they don't fill scripts for instance because they just don't know where they're going to pull together those funds from. From the 1st of January it'll get cheaper again. I'm really pleased that legislation that we passed in this last session of Parliament to make that a reality.
BELINDA KING, PRESENTER: What's next to help open up the conversation and make it easier for women to chat with their GP?
REBECCA WHITE, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE: We're about to kick off a big awareness campaign across the country talking about perimenopause and menopause and that'll probably start next year but it goes to the point that we've already discussed that we just need to reduce the stigma about this issue.
It's completely normal. We should be able to have a conversation about it. A public awareness campaign is going to be useful both for encouraging women and hopefully empowering them to go and have a chat to their GP. This will hopefully educating the broader community too about what menopause is and it's nothing to be scared of it's completely normal and there are some symptoms but also here's some support that's available and coupled with that we've been doing a big piece of work educating the health workforce with some initiatives that have been rolled out across the country.
So that when women then do go and seek from their GP, they feel well informed and able to support them and that's a really important piece of this as well. There's also the pelvic pain clinics that we've been rolling out across the country. We do have one in Tasmania delivered by Family Planning and that provides support for women who are dealing with endometriosis.
But very soon that will also be expanded to cover perimenopause and menopause as just a first point of contact to go and seek some advice if you're not certain about whether or not you're able to then go and talk to your GP or you can't get in to see your GP, I know is still a problem, but those pelvic pain clinics are being rolled out across the country expanding from just endometriosis to also include broader pelvic pain issues including menopause and perimenopause and I think just talking about it is going to also hopefully encourage women to think oh actually maybe those things sound familiar those, you know, the changes in my mood, the way that I'm feeling, the pain that I might be experiencing, my heavy menstrual bleeding, these things don't have to be dealt with alone. I can actually go and get some assistance for this and it's completely normalised.
BELINDA KING, PRESENTER Good to chat this morning. We'll continue the conversation in coming months. Rebecca White, with us this morning. Our federal Labor member for Lyons and very good to hear that there are some additional services coming our way and I can vouch firsthand that most certainly the prices have indeed dropped around quite a range of medicines.