Verdict on cancer risk of ‘forever chemicals'
However, after thoroughly reviewing the evidence, experts say the health effects appear to be small and individual blood testing offers no clear medical benefit.
The NSW Health Expert Advisory Panel on PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) has released its final report, delivering clear guidance on the health effects of these widely found 'forever chemicals', the value of blood testing, and the best ways to communicate risks to communities.
PFAS have been used since the 1940s in products resistant to heat, stains, grease, and water, but concerns have grown worldwide about their presence in the environment and potential health impacts.
The panel, made up of leading clinical experts across toxicology, oncology, cardiology, public health, and risk communication, evaluated the latest Australian and global research to inform health advice.
While acknowledging the body of research for health effects related to PFAS is 'large and still growing', the panel concluded that the health effects of PFAS 'appear to be small'.
It noted links between PFAS exposure and conditions including high cholesterol, reduced kidney function, immune system changes, hormone alterations, liver enzyme changes, menstruation issues, lower birthweight, pregnancy high blood pressure, and some cancers.
However, the panel stressed the evidence was inconsistent, with 'limited evidence of a dose-response relationship' and difficulty separating PFAS effects from other factors that can affect health, especially in studies with PFAS levels similar to the general population. It also highlighted the influence of bias and confounding factors such as smoking, diet, and age. A $3.5 million mobile PFAS treatment system installed at the Cascade Water Filtration Plant on the outskirts of Sydney. Supplied Credit: Supplied
Addressing widespread public concern about cancer, the panel said it remained confident that the absolute cancer risk from PFAS was low based on the human epidemiological studies and levels of exposure in the Australian population.
The panel noted that while the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified PFOA as 'cancer causing' and PFOS as 'possibly cancer causing', IARC's findings didn't specify safe exposure levels, how much exposure increases risk, or how big that risk might be.
PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) and PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonate) are specific types of PFAS.
The panel stressed that, despite these hazard classifications, the actual cancer risk from PFAS in Australia was low based on studies and typical exposure levels.
One of the panel's strongest messages is that there is 'no clinical benefit' for an individual to have a blood test for PFAS.
The report stated that PFAS chemicals appeared in more than 95 per cent of people tested, showing widespread exposure from multiple sources. PFAS contamination in water sources remains a key concern. NewsWire / Gaye Gerard Credit: News Corp Australia
Because PFAS are so common, the expert panel said blood tests were hard to interpret and didn't predict health outcomes, so it didn't recommend individual testing.
Although levels have been declining over the past 20 years, high background exposure makes studying health effects challenging. The panel supports ongoing population monitoring to track changes
This stance differs from 2022 guidance by the US National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), which suggested blood testing might guide clinical care.
The NSW panel pointed out limitations in NASEM's approach, including reliance on studies with small effects and possible bias, and noted that US agencies like the CDC and ATSDR have not adopted NASEM's recommendations for individual blood testing. PFOA, PFOS, and PFHxS (perfluorohexane sulfonic acid) are the three main PFAS types historically used in aqueous firefighting foams. Credit: News Corp Australia
The panel also advised against interventions such as phlebotomy or cholesterol-lowering medications to reduce PFAS in the blood, calling their benefits 'uncertain' and warning they 'may cause harm' like anaemia or medication interactions.
Instead, clinicians are urged to focus on 'usual preventative health interventions' to support patients.
Recognising 'genuine concern' in parts of the community about exposure to PFAS and the potential health impacts, the panel stressed that risk communication must be 'tailored to the diverse levels of concern' and continued transparency maintained.
The panel stated that reliable epidemiological studies required 'well characterised' exposures, measured confounders, and sufficiently large populations; conditions 'not currently met in the Blue Mountains population or in other communities in NSW'.
It urged authorities to avoid using currently available human epidemiological studies to derive threshold levels due to the higher risk of bias and confounding.
Instead, it supported continuing Australia's conservative approach of setting exposure limits based on animal studies with safety factors, such as those by the National Health and Medical Research Council.
NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant said updated NSW Health advice provided consumers with guidance on how to reduce PFAS exposure.
'There is considerable concern, particularly in the Blue Mountains community, about exposure to PFAS through drinking water, and NSW Health takes these concerns very seriously,' Dr Chant said.
'NSW Health will continue to support local clinicians with information for GPs who may be managing patients with concerns about PFAS exposure, including evidence about potential adverse health effects, counselling patients, the utility of blood tests for PFAS and the role of further investigations.'
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The Advertiser
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Scientists identify 'deceptively cute' ancient whale
The chance discovery of a 25 million-year-old fossil on an Australian beach has allowed palaeontologists to identify a rare, entirely new species that could unlock mysteries of whale evolution. Researchers last week officially named Janjucetus dullardi, a cartoonish creature with bulging eyes the size of tennis balls, in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. Unlike today's whales, the juvenile specimen was small enough to fit in a single bed. Boasting fiendish teeth and a shark-like snout, however, this oddball of the ocean was nasty, mean and built to hunt. "It was, let's say, deceptively cute," said Erich Fitzgerald, senior curator of vertebrate palaeontology at Museums Victoria Research Institute, and one of the paper's authors. "It might have looked for all the world like some weird kind of mash-up between a whale, a seal and a Pokemon but they were very much their own thing." The rare discovery of the partial skull, including ear bones and teeth, was made in 2019 on a fossil-rich stretch of coast along Australia's Victoria state. Jan Juc Beach, a cradle for some of the weirdest whales in history, is becoming a hotspot for understanding early whale evolution, Fitzgerald said. Few family trees seem stranger than that of Janjucetus dullardi, only the fourth species ever identified from a group known as mammalodontids, early whales that lived only during the Oligocene Epoch, about 34-to-23 million years ago. That marked the point about halfway through the known history of whales. The tiny predators, thought to have grown to three metres in length, were an early branch on the line that led to today's great baleen whales, such as humpbacks, blues and minkes. But the toothy ancestors with powerful jaws would have looked radically different to any modern species. "They may have had tiny little nubbins of legs just projecting as stumps from the wall of the body," Fitzgerald said. That mystery will remain tantalisingly unsolved unless a specimen is uncovered with more of its skeleton intact, which would be something of a miracle. Even the partial skull that allowed the initial identification this week was an astonishing discovery. Janjucetus dullardi was named by researchers after an amateur fossil hunter who does not mind its looks in the slightest. "It's literally been the greatest 24 hours of my life," said Ross Dullard, who discovered the skull while fossil hunting at Jan Juc Beach. After Wednesday's confirmation of the new species, the school principal walked like a rock star on to campus with "high fives coming left, right and centre", he said. His friends and family are probably just relieved it is over. "That's all they've heard from me for about the last six years," he said. Dullard was on a regular low-tide hunt at Jan Juc the day he spotted something black protruding from a cliff. He knew enough to recognise it was unlikely to belong to a dog or a seal. "I thought, geez, we've got something special here," he said. Dullard sent photos to Museums Victoria, where Fitzgerald saw them and immediately suspected a new species. Confirming the find was another matter. This was the first mammalodontid to be identified in Australia since 2006 and only the third on record in the country. Fossils of sufficient quality, with enough of the right details preserved to confirm uniqueness, are not common. "Cetaceans represent a fairly miniscule population of all life," Fitzgerald said. Millions of years of erosion, scavengers and ocean currents take their toll on whale skeletons too. "It's only the chosen few, the vast minority of all whales that have ever lived and died in the oceans over millions of years, that actually get preserved as fossils," he added. Finds such as Janjucetus dullardi can unlock insights into how prehistoric whales ate, moved, behaved - and evolved. Researchers said the discoveries also helped to understand how ancient cetacean species adapted to warmer oceans, as they study how today's marine life might respond to climate change. The chance discovery of a 25 million-year-old fossil on an Australian beach has allowed palaeontologists to identify a rare, entirely new species that could unlock mysteries of whale evolution. Researchers last week officially named Janjucetus dullardi, a cartoonish creature with bulging eyes the size of tennis balls, in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. Unlike today's whales, the juvenile specimen was small enough to fit in a single bed. Boasting fiendish teeth and a shark-like snout, however, this oddball of the ocean was nasty, mean and built to hunt. "It was, let's say, deceptively cute," said Erich Fitzgerald, senior curator of vertebrate palaeontology at Museums Victoria Research Institute, and one of the paper's authors. "It might have looked for all the world like some weird kind of mash-up between a whale, a seal and a Pokemon but they were very much their own thing." The rare discovery of the partial skull, including ear bones and teeth, was made in 2019 on a fossil-rich stretch of coast along Australia's Victoria state. Jan Juc Beach, a cradle for some of the weirdest whales in history, is becoming a hotspot for understanding early whale evolution, Fitzgerald said. Few family trees seem stranger than that of Janjucetus dullardi, only the fourth species ever identified from a group known as mammalodontids, early whales that lived only during the Oligocene Epoch, about 34-to-23 million years ago. That marked the point about halfway through the known history of whales. The tiny predators, thought to have grown to three metres in length, were an early branch on the line that led to today's great baleen whales, such as humpbacks, blues and minkes. But the toothy ancestors with powerful jaws would have looked radically different to any modern species. "They may have had tiny little nubbins of legs just projecting as stumps from the wall of the body," Fitzgerald said. That mystery will remain tantalisingly unsolved unless a specimen is uncovered with more of its skeleton intact, which would be something of a miracle. Even the partial skull that allowed the initial identification this week was an astonishing discovery. Janjucetus dullardi was named by researchers after an amateur fossil hunter who does not mind its looks in the slightest. "It's literally been the greatest 24 hours of my life," said Ross Dullard, who discovered the skull while fossil hunting at Jan Juc Beach. After Wednesday's confirmation of the new species, the school principal walked like a rock star on to campus with "high fives coming left, right and centre", he said. His friends and family are probably just relieved it is over. "That's all they've heard from me for about the last six years," he said. Dullard was on a regular low-tide hunt at Jan Juc the day he spotted something black protruding from a cliff. He knew enough to recognise it was unlikely to belong to a dog or a seal. "I thought, geez, we've got something special here," he said. Dullard sent photos to Museums Victoria, where Fitzgerald saw them and immediately suspected a new species. Confirming the find was another matter. This was the first mammalodontid to be identified in Australia since 2006 and only the third on record in the country. Fossils of sufficient quality, with enough of the right details preserved to confirm uniqueness, are not common. "Cetaceans represent a fairly miniscule population of all life," Fitzgerald said. Millions of years of erosion, scavengers and ocean currents take their toll on whale skeletons too. "It's only the chosen few, the vast minority of all whales that have ever lived and died in the oceans over millions of years, that actually get preserved as fossils," he added. Finds such as Janjucetus dullardi can unlock insights into how prehistoric whales ate, moved, behaved - and evolved. Researchers said the discoveries also helped to understand how ancient cetacean species adapted to warmer oceans, as they study how today's marine life might respond to climate change. The chance discovery of a 25 million-year-old fossil on an Australian beach has allowed palaeontologists to identify a rare, entirely new species that could unlock mysteries of whale evolution. Researchers last week officially named Janjucetus dullardi, a cartoonish creature with bulging eyes the size of tennis balls, in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. Unlike today's whales, the juvenile specimen was small enough to fit in a single bed. Boasting fiendish teeth and a shark-like snout, however, this oddball of the ocean was nasty, mean and built to hunt. "It was, let's say, deceptively cute," said Erich Fitzgerald, senior curator of vertebrate palaeontology at Museums Victoria Research Institute, and one of the paper's authors. "It might have looked for all the world like some weird kind of mash-up between a whale, a seal and a Pokemon but they were very much their own thing." The rare discovery of the partial skull, including ear bones and teeth, was made in 2019 on a fossil-rich stretch of coast along Australia's Victoria state. Jan Juc Beach, a cradle for some of the weirdest whales in history, is becoming a hotspot for understanding early whale evolution, Fitzgerald said. Few family trees seem stranger than that of Janjucetus dullardi, only the fourth species ever identified from a group known as mammalodontids, early whales that lived only during the Oligocene Epoch, about 34-to-23 million years ago. That marked the point about halfway through the known history of whales. The tiny predators, thought to have grown to three metres in length, were an early branch on the line that led to today's great baleen whales, such as humpbacks, blues and minkes. But the toothy ancestors with powerful jaws would have looked radically different to any modern species. "They may have had tiny little nubbins of legs just projecting as stumps from the wall of the body," Fitzgerald said. That mystery will remain tantalisingly unsolved unless a specimen is uncovered with more of its skeleton intact, which would be something of a miracle. Even the partial skull that allowed the initial identification this week was an astonishing discovery. Janjucetus dullardi was named by researchers after an amateur fossil hunter who does not mind its looks in the slightest. "It's literally been the greatest 24 hours of my life," said Ross Dullard, who discovered the skull while fossil hunting at Jan Juc Beach. After Wednesday's confirmation of the new species, the school principal walked like a rock star on to campus with "high fives coming left, right and centre", he said. His friends and family are probably just relieved it is over. "That's all they've heard from me for about the last six years," he said. Dullard was on a regular low-tide hunt at Jan Juc the day he spotted something black protruding from a cliff. He knew enough to recognise it was unlikely to belong to a dog or a seal. "I thought, geez, we've got something special here," he said. Dullard sent photos to Museums Victoria, where Fitzgerald saw them and immediately suspected a new species. Confirming the find was another matter. This was the first mammalodontid to be identified in Australia since 2006 and only the third on record in the country. Fossils of sufficient quality, with enough of the right details preserved to confirm uniqueness, are not common. "Cetaceans represent a fairly miniscule population of all life," Fitzgerald said. Millions of years of erosion, scavengers and ocean currents take their toll on whale skeletons too. "It's only the chosen few, the vast minority of all whales that have ever lived and died in the oceans over millions of years, that actually get preserved as fossils," he added. Finds such as Janjucetus dullardi can unlock insights into how prehistoric whales ate, moved, behaved - and evolved. Researchers said the discoveries also helped to understand how ancient cetacean species adapted to warmer oceans, as they study how today's marine life might respond to climate change. The chance discovery of a 25 million-year-old fossil on an Australian beach has allowed palaeontologists to identify a rare, entirely new species that could unlock mysteries of whale evolution. Researchers last week officially named Janjucetus dullardi, a cartoonish creature with bulging eyes the size of tennis balls, in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. Unlike today's whales, the juvenile specimen was small enough to fit in a single bed. Boasting fiendish teeth and a shark-like snout, however, this oddball of the ocean was nasty, mean and built to hunt. "It was, let's say, deceptively cute," said Erich Fitzgerald, senior curator of vertebrate palaeontology at Museums Victoria Research Institute, and one of the paper's authors. "It might have looked for all the world like some weird kind of mash-up between a whale, a seal and a Pokemon but they were very much their own thing." The rare discovery of the partial skull, including ear bones and teeth, was made in 2019 on a fossil-rich stretch of coast along Australia's Victoria state. Jan Juc Beach, a cradle for some of the weirdest whales in history, is becoming a hotspot for understanding early whale evolution, Fitzgerald said. Few family trees seem stranger than that of Janjucetus dullardi, only the fourth species ever identified from a group known as mammalodontids, early whales that lived only during the Oligocene Epoch, about 34-to-23 million years ago. That marked the point about halfway through the known history of whales. The tiny predators, thought to have grown to three metres in length, were an early branch on the line that led to today's great baleen whales, such as humpbacks, blues and minkes. But the toothy ancestors with powerful jaws would have looked radically different to any modern species. "They may have had tiny little nubbins of legs just projecting as stumps from the wall of the body," Fitzgerald said. That mystery will remain tantalisingly unsolved unless a specimen is uncovered with more of its skeleton intact, which would be something of a miracle. Even the partial skull that allowed the initial identification this week was an astonishing discovery. Janjucetus dullardi was named by researchers after an amateur fossil hunter who does not mind its looks in the slightest. "It's literally been the greatest 24 hours of my life," said Ross Dullard, who discovered the skull while fossil hunting at Jan Juc Beach. After Wednesday's confirmation of the new species, the school principal walked like a rock star on to campus with "high fives coming left, right and centre", he said. His friends and family are probably just relieved it is over. "That's all they've heard from me for about the last six years," he said. Dullard was on a regular low-tide hunt at Jan Juc the day he spotted something black protruding from a cliff. He knew enough to recognise it was unlikely to belong to a dog or a seal. "I thought, geez, we've got something special here," he said. Dullard sent photos to Museums Victoria, where Fitzgerald saw them and immediately suspected a new species. Confirming the find was another matter. This was the first mammalodontid to be identified in Australia since 2006 and only the third on record in the country. Fossils of sufficient quality, with enough of the right details preserved to confirm uniqueness, are not common. "Cetaceans represent a fairly miniscule population of all life," Fitzgerald said. Millions of years of erosion, scavengers and ocean currents take their toll on whale skeletons too. "It's only the chosen few, the vast minority of all whales that have ever lived and died in the oceans over millions of years, that actually get preserved as fossils," he added. Finds such as Janjucetus dullardi can unlock insights into how prehistoric whales ate, moved, behaved - and evolved. Researchers said the discoveries also helped to understand how ancient cetacean species adapted to warmer oceans, as they study how today's marine life might respond to climate change.
Perth Now
8 hours ago
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Scientists identify 'deceptively cute' ancient whale
The chance discovery of a 25 million-year-old fossil on an Australian beach has allowed palaeontologists to identify a rare, entirely new species that could unlock mysteries of whale evolution. Researchers last week officially named Janjucetus dullardi, a cartoonish creature with bulging eyes the size of tennis balls, in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. Unlike today's whales, the juvenile specimen was small enough to fit in a single bed. Boasting fiendish teeth and a shark-like snout, however, this oddball of the ocean was nasty, mean and built to hunt. "It was, let's say, deceptively cute," said Erich Fitzgerald, senior curator of vertebrate palaeontology at Museums Victoria Research Institute, and one of the paper's authors. "It might have looked for all the world like some weird kind of mash-up between a whale, a seal and a Pokemon but they were very much their own thing." The rare discovery of the partial skull, including ear bones and teeth, was made in 2019 on a fossil-rich stretch of coast along Australia's Victoria state. Jan Juc Beach, a cradle for some of the weirdest whales in history, is becoming a hotspot for understanding early whale evolution, Fitzgerald said. Few family trees seem stranger than that of Janjucetus dullardi, only the fourth species ever identified from a group known as mammalodontids, early whales that lived only during the Oligocene Epoch, about 34-to-23 million years ago. That marked the point about halfway through the known history of whales. The tiny predators, thought to have grown to three metres in length, were an early branch on the line that led to today's great baleen whales, such as humpbacks, blues and minkes. But the toothy ancestors with powerful jaws would have looked radically different to any modern species. "They may have had tiny little nubbins of legs just projecting as stumps from the wall of the body," Fitzgerald said. That mystery will remain tantalisingly unsolved unless a specimen is uncovered with more of its skeleton intact, which would be something of a miracle. Even the partial skull that allowed the initial identification this week was an astonishing discovery. Janjucetus dullardi was named by researchers after an amateur fossil hunter who does not mind its looks in the slightest. "It's literally been the greatest 24 hours of my life," said Ross Dullard, who discovered the skull while fossil hunting at Jan Juc Beach. After Wednesday's confirmation of the new species, the school principal walked like a rock star on to campus with "high fives coming left, right and centre", he said. His friends and family are probably just relieved it is over. "That's all they've heard from me for about the last six years," he said. Dullard was on a regular low-tide hunt at Jan Juc the day he spotted something black protruding from a cliff. He knew enough to recognise it was unlikely to belong to a dog or a seal. "I thought, geez, we've got something special here," he said. Dullard sent photos to Museums Victoria, where Fitzgerald saw them and immediately suspected a new species. Confirming the find was another matter. This was the first mammalodontid to be identified in Australia since 2006 and only the third on record in the country. Fossils of sufficient quality, with enough of the right details preserved to confirm uniqueness, are not common. "Cetaceans represent a fairly miniscule population of all life," Fitzgerald said. Millions of years of erosion, scavengers and ocean currents take their toll on whale skeletons too. "It's only the chosen few, the vast minority of all whales that have ever lived and died in the oceans over millions of years, that actually get preserved as fossils," he added. Finds such as Janjucetus dullardi can unlock insights into how prehistoric whales ate, moved, behaved - and evolved. Researchers said the discoveries also helped to understand how ancient cetacean species adapted to warmer oceans, as they study how today's marine life might respond to climate change.
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"Ovum is really about addressing the structural, integrated and research barriers ... we have decades (of medical research) to catch up on and AI will help us do that," she says. "We are creating a safe space for women and solving the health data gap by feeding information back into the research." Women are taking control of their health with a game-changing artificial intelligence tool to help navigate a medical system that has historically gaslit, dismissed and ignored their symptoms. More than half of Australian women live with a chronic health condition and wait years to be diagnosed, often as a result of being dismissed by health professionals. Mary Spanos first started experiencing painful symptoms of endometriosis when she was 12 years old but was not officially diagnosed until she was in her 20s. "It's a ridiculously long time to be experiencing those debilitating symptoms and there were countless emergency room visits and specialist appointments where I was completely dismissed," she tells AAP. Ms Spanos is one of countless women who have suffered in silence. "I honestly thought it was all in my head and had so many negative thoughts because the people who were supposed to know what was going on medically were telling me it was fine," she says. It's a similar story for Grace Lam, who started to experience debilitating health symptoms as she approached 50. A former senior fashion editor of Vogue China, Ms Lam was used to thriving in fast-paced, high-powered environments. Yet seemingly overnight, she began to experience insomnia, low libido, extreme brain fog and driving anxiety. "My symptoms hit me like a rocket overnight ... it felt like every day my brain was outside my body and I would wake up feeling so strange," Ms Lam says. "The rage was also something else. I am a feisty Asian woman, so that's nothing new, but this type of rage was just very different." When she raised these symptoms with her GP, the doctor prescribed her sleeping pills but would not discuss any management plans for perimenopause. "I didn't want to rely on the sleeping pills, so that's when I went down the rabbit hole of perimenopause symptoms online," Ms Lam says. "I learnt more about perimenopause online than from my doctor." A newly launched AI health partner Ovum wants to disrupt the health landscape and end gender health inequity across Australia. The app has been four years in the making, with two clinical trials at The Royal Hospital for Women and St George Hospital. It was founded by Ariella Heffernan-Marks, who had the idea while training as a doctor and witnessing the healthcare issues facing women. "I observed the structural barriers in our health care and realised we needed to look at integrated data rather than having it spread across multiple physicians and specialists," she says. "Women are feeling the bias in the healthcare system ... they have not been included in clinical trials for decades and this is impacting diagnostics and treatment." After suffering chronic migraines during medical school, Dr Heffernan-Marks personally experienced being dismissed by specialists and decided something needed to change. "We need to redefine women's health to not just be about reproductive health because there are so many chronic conditions facing women," she says. "All the fem-tech tools on the market are not catering to what women actually need." The AI behind Ovum draws from female-centric medical literature to understand and learn from a wide range of health factors. It helps identify patterns, log symptoms, collate reports and create questions for women to raise with their doctors at their next appointment. It is not a diagnostic tool but rather provides a starting point for discussion with a medical professional. Users can opt to share their information anonymously as part of a wider database researchers can use to develop new medications and treatments or better understand conditions. With access to sensitive personal data, Dr Heffernan-Marks says Ovum is nationally and globally compliant with stringent standards to protect users. "Ovum is really about addressing the structural, integrated and research barriers ... we have decades (of medical research) to catch up on and AI will help us do that," she says. "We are creating a safe space for women and solving the health data gap by feeding information back into the research." Women are taking control of their health with a game-changing artificial intelligence tool to help navigate a medical system that has historically gaslit, dismissed and ignored their symptoms. More than half of Australian women live with a chronic health condition and wait years to be diagnosed, often as a result of being dismissed by health professionals. Mary Spanos first started experiencing painful symptoms of endometriosis when she was 12 years old but was not officially diagnosed until she was in her 20s. "It's a ridiculously long time to be experiencing those debilitating symptoms and there were countless emergency room visits and specialist appointments where I was completely dismissed," she tells AAP. Ms Spanos is one of countless women who have suffered in silence. "I honestly thought it was all in my head and had so many negative thoughts because the people who were supposed to know what was going on medically were telling me it was fine," she says. It's a similar story for Grace Lam, who started to experience debilitating health symptoms as she approached 50. A former senior fashion editor of Vogue China, Ms Lam was used to thriving in fast-paced, high-powered environments. Yet seemingly overnight, she began to experience insomnia, low libido, extreme brain fog and driving anxiety. "My symptoms hit me like a rocket overnight ... it felt like every day my brain was outside my body and I would wake up feeling so strange," Ms Lam says. "The rage was also something else. I am a feisty Asian woman, so that's nothing new, but this type of rage was just very different." When she raised these symptoms with her GP, the doctor prescribed her sleeping pills but would not discuss any management plans for perimenopause. "I didn't want to rely on the sleeping pills, so that's when I went down the rabbit hole of perimenopause symptoms online," Ms Lam says. "I learnt more about perimenopause online than from my doctor." A newly launched AI health partner Ovum wants to disrupt the health landscape and end gender health inequity across Australia. The app has been four years in the making, with two clinical trials at The Royal Hospital for Women and St George Hospital. It was founded by Ariella Heffernan-Marks, who had the idea while training as a doctor and witnessing the healthcare issues facing women. "I observed the structural barriers in our health care and realised we needed to look at integrated data rather than having it spread across multiple physicians and specialists," she says. "Women are feeling the bias in the healthcare system ... they have not been included in clinical trials for decades and this is impacting diagnostics and treatment." After suffering chronic migraines during medical school, Dr Heffernan-Marks personally experienced being dismissed by specialists and decided something needed to change. "We need to redefine women's health to not just be about reproductive health because there are so many chronic conditions facing women," she says. "All the fem-tech tools on the market are not catering to what women actually need." The AI behind Ovum draws from female-centric medical literature to understand and learn from a wide range of health factors. It helps identify patterns, log symptoms, collate reports and create questions for women to raise with their doctors at their next appointment. It is not a diagnostic tool but rather provides a starting point for discussion with a medical professional. Users can opt to share their information anonymously as part of a wider database researchers can use to develop new medications and treatments or better understand conditions. With access to sensitive personal data, Dr Heffernan-Marks says Ovum is nationally and globally compliant with stringent standards to protect users. "Ovum is really about addressing the structural, integrated and research barriers ... we have decades (of medical research) to catch up on and AI will help us do that," she says. "We are creating a safe space for women and solving the health data gap by feeding information back into the research." Women are taking control of their health with a game-changing artificial intelligence tool to help navigate a medical system that has historically gaslit, dismissed and ignored their symptoms. More than half of Australian women live with a chronic health condition and wait years to be diagnosed, often as a result of being dismissed by health professionals. Mary Spanos first started experiencing painful symptoms of endometriosis when she was 12 years old but was not officially diagnosed until she was in her 20s. "It's a ridiculously long time to be experiencing those debilitating symptoms and there were countless emergency room visits and specialist appointments where I was completely dismissed," she tells AAP. Ms Spanos is one of countless women who have suffered in silence. "I honestly thought it was all in my head and had so many negative thoughts because the people who were supposed to know what was going on medically were telling me it was fine," she says. It's a similar story for Grace Lam, who started to experience debilitating health symptoms as she approached 50. A former senior fashion editor of Vogue China, Ms Lam was used to thriving in fast-paced, high-powered environments. Yet seemingly overnight, she began to experience insomnia, low libido, extreme brain fog and driving anxiety. "My symptoms hit me like a rocket overnight ... it felt like every day my brain was outside my body and I would wake up feeling so strange," Ms Lam says. "The rage was also something else. I am a feisty Asian woman, so that's nothing new, but this type of rage was just very different." When she raised these symptoms with her GP, the doctor prescribed her sleeping pills but would not discuss any management plans for perimenopause. "I didn't want to rely on the sleeping pills, so that's when I went down the rabbit hole of perimenopause symptoms online," Ms Lam says. "I learnt more about perimenopause online than from my doctor." A newly launched AI health partner Ovum wants to disrupt the health landscape and end gender health inequity across Australia. The app has been four years in the making, with two clinical trials at The Royal Hospital for Women and St George Hospital. It was founded by Ariella Heffernan-Marks, who had the idea while training as a doctor and witnessing the healthcare issues facing women. "I observed the structural barriers in our health care and realised we needed to look at integrated data rather than having it spread across multiple physicians and specialists," she says. "Women are feeling the bias in the healthcare system ... they have not been included in clinical trials for decades and this is impacting diagnostics and treatment." After suffering chronic migraines during medical school, Dr Heffernan-Marks personally experienced being dismissed by specialists and decided something needed to change. "We need to redefine women's health to not just be about reproductive health because there are so many chronic conditions facing women," she says. "All the fem-tech tools on the market are not catering to what women actually need." The AI behind Ovum draws from female-centric medical literature to understand and learn from a wide range of health factors. It helps identify patterns, log symptoms, collate reports and create questions for women to raise with their doctors at their next appointment. It is not a diagnostic tool but rather provides a starting point for discussion with a medical professional. Users can opt to share their information anonymously as part of a wider database researchers can use to develop new medications and treatments or better understand conditions. With access to sensitive personal data, Dr Heffernan-Marks says Ovum is nationally and globally compliant with stringent standards to protect users. "Ovum is really about addressing the structural, integrated and research barriers ... we have decades (of medical research) to catch up on and AI will help us do that," she says. "We are creating a safe space for women and solving the health data gap by feeding information back into the research."
