Australia’s top scientists have been given a record funding boost to tackle some of the nation’s biggest health challenges, including endometriosis.
More than 800,000 Australian women live with endometriosis, causing debilitating pain and heavy bleeding, with many often dismissed.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Record $430m boost for medical research
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Marianna de Tullio, 21, knows the struggle all too well.
“It took me six years before I was diagnosed. It just feels like your body’s turned against you,” she said.
Now researchers are looking beyond surgery, developing new ways to help women through better education.
“The end goal is to decrease pain and improve quality of life for women with pelvic pain,” Dr Jane Chalmers from Adelaide University said.
Marianna de Tullio suffers from endometriosis. Credit: 7NEWS
Her project has been boosted by a $700,000 taxpayer grant, part of the federal government’s biggest ever single investment in medical research.
“There’s more we need to understand about the best possible care and support,” Health Minister Mark Butler said.
The $430 million boost will fund 234 projects nationwide, including preventing sudden heart attacks, vaping in young people, reducing dementia risk, and developing new brain cancer treatments in Queensland.
The funding will also help kids with kidney disease, improve stroke rehabilitation in Melbourne, with Tasmania looking into glaucoma.
In Adelaide, researchers will find new treatments for those hard-to-treat cancers, while in Perth, funding will tackle genetic diseases.
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