Warning as guide for toxic chemicals in water updated
PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of 15,000 highly toxic, synthetic chemicals used for their resistance to heat, stains and grease.
They are sometimes called "forever chemicals" because they break down extremely slowly, including in humans.
Emerging evidence has linked some of the chemicals to cancer, leading to tighter regulation of the substances, particularly in drinking water.
Australia's National Health and Medical Research Council on Wednesday updated its guidelines, limiting perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) at 200 nanograms/litre, perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) at 8ng/L, perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS) at 30ng/L and perfluorobutane sulfonic acid (PFBS) at 1000ng/L.
The final values are the same as its draft guidelines except PFOS, which changed its limit from 4ng/L to 8ng/L.
Industry body Water Services Association of Australia described the new guidelines as very conservative, erring on the side of safety and reflecting the latest evidence, saying recent national testing showed a "vast majority" of treated water sources would meet the new limits.
Executive Director Adam Lovell said the water sector is highly regulated, and water utilities will continue to test and take immediate action to isolate, treat and protect drinking water supplies if they are near or exceed the guidelines.
Chemical levels have been scrutinised in the past year after their discovery in the drinking water in Sydney's world-heritage listed Blue Mountains, home to 30,000, and at a national park downstream of a former quarry used by manufacturer 3M.
Ian Wright, an environmental science professor at Western Sydney University, said data is still lacking to indicate a safe level of PFOS in Australian drinking water.
"These guidelines, I can accept that they are reasonable at this point, but I don't think we've done enough research to know without doubt what the safe level is," Dr Wright told AAP.
The associate professor, who is working with the Blue Mountains community, said authorities won't understand the true risks unless they study people impacted in detail.
Blue Mountains anti-PFAS campaigner Jon Dee labelled the new guidelines a "national disgrace", saying Australia's standards were up to 50 times higher than the American equivalents.
"This decision makes Australia a global outlier on PFAS," Mr Dee said.
"Our health authorities are putting water utility convenience ahead of public health."
The NSW government has confirmed all public drinking water supplied across metropolitan and regional areas meets the updated guidelines, and it is working with suppliers to equip them with long-term solutions to manage risks from the chemicals.
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The Advertiser
8 hours ago
- The Advertiser
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
- Perth Now
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 Advertiser
12 hours ago
- The Advertiser
Female-founded AI tool aims to transform women's health
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." 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."
