Women, men and health professionals from throughout the North West came together in Moree to learn more about endometriosis from some of the world’s leading doctors and specialists at the Living with Endo seminar, organised by Pius X Aboriginal Corporation and EndoActive.

More than 70 people attended the seminar, held at the Max Centre, with attendees coming from Moree, Mungindi, Toomelah, Wee Waa, Inverell, Warialda and Goondiwindi, while the specialists came from as far as New Zealand, Darwin and Sydney.

A total of 55 people stayed on for the dinner that evening where they heard from Jessica Duncan and Gretchen Carrigan, who shared their personal experiences with the disease.

“They were very heartfelt; there wasn’t a dry eye in the room,” Pius X board member Cathy Budda-Deen said.

Throughout the day, the visiting specialists spoke on a variety of topics relating to living with endometriosis including ‘who should be on your team’; laparoscopy and beyond; easing the pain with the power of the mind; hormones, contraception and endo; sex, intimacy and endo; non-invasive therapies; guts and endo; pain education and osteopathy; and fertility fitness.

There was also a respite room set up, where attendees learnt to weave as one way to stimulate the mind, taking it off the pain.

“People living with endo can do it for pain relief and mental health,” Ms Budda-Deen said.

Throughout the day attendees had the opportunity to mingle and have one-on-one conversations with the visiting specialists. Some were even providing treatment on the day.

Ms Budda-Deen said the feedback from the event was overwhelmingly positive, with women coming away with more education, information and a greater awareness of an issue that affects one in 10 women.

“Most women who participated found it very informative,” she said.

“One lady came up and said it was brilliant, she found it amazing. Another found it wonderful to access that level of specialists in the bush. One of the other women said it was good to network and found it very informative and varied.

“It’s all about empowering our women to better understand about particular issues around women’s health.”

Ms Budda-Deen said the day exceeded their expectations.

“If we had touched 20 women we were happy,” she said.

“The aim was so we could get the message out to rural women and we hoped to have women there that are living with endo. It was also about educating health workers and GPs, so we achieved those aims.”

As part of their health promotion strategy, Pius is looking at doing similar promotional seminars targeting a range of different health issues. 

Ms Budda-Deen would like to thank EndoActive for partnering with Pius to bring the event to rural women, the NSW Ministry of Health for funding the event and the CWA women for supporting it.

“It’s a great example of the power of partnership,” she said.