Michelle's condition 'ruined' her. Treatment was life-changing, but it has a concerning label
Michelle Watts, 60, once suffered from heavy menstrual bleeding that made everything seem "impossible to do". Source: SBS News A $793 million investment into women's health has been celebrated, but there are concerns over a lack of specific reference to a condition affecting many women. is often excluded from discussions around women's health despite it being a disruptive, and sometimes crippling, condition. "I'd get out the door and I would flood to the point where I'd have to come back and change again," said Michelle Watts, as she recounted a ski trip — one of many occasions where she bled through layers of clothing. "And I'd literally just sit down and cry and think, 'I can't do this anymore', because it was ruining every aspect of my life," the 60-year-old said. For 18 months from 2021, Watts suffered from heavy menstrual bleeding, which the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC ) defines as excessive menstrual blood loss that interferes with a woman's quality of life. "I was about as sad as I could ever be because everything was impossible to do in my eyes by the end. I couldn't go swimming with my friends anymore, swimming became challenging, going to the gym became challenging," Watts said. "All those things that I loved to do, I just couldn't do."
After many failed treatments, Michelle finally underwent a uterectomy, traditionally known as a hysterectomy. Dr Talat Uppal is a gynaecologist and director at Women's Health Road and is in the process of changing the language, which she says was inaccurately used to explain women's emotional and physical concerns. "Often when I'm using the word hysteroscopy or hysterectomy it brings back that association of centuries-old myth which is something that is important to defuse and re-word to a more anatomical one", Dr Talat said. Also in the push to change the medical language is the CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, which is responsible for updating global standards for clinical terminology.
Katrina Ebril is the Interoperability Lead with the Australian e-Health research centre at the CSIRO and says this change is a first when it comes to women's bodies. "It's definitely time to change ... and we do this for other procedures," Ebril said. "It is a uterectomy, let's call it what it is, and start to use that much more positive language and much more language that aligns to what the actual procedure is." For women like Watts, removing taboos around menstruation is key to making treatment more accessible, and encouraging others to seek help.
One in four people who menstruate suffer from heavy menstrual bleeding, according to the ACSQHC, and two thirds of those experience iron deficiency. Yet the commission notes less than half of women suffering from the condition visit a doctor. "Traditionally or historically, women have been left out of research, and sometimes even the animals in the labs were male animals," Uppal said. "And so this is a long historical background of disadvantage of not including women, and we really want to change that narrative when it comes to heavy bleeding." "I think it's just part of that silence around heavy menstrual bleeding ... and I don't think it's deliberate, I feel it's just a culture where it's not front of mind," she said.
Watt believes a lack of awareness is why she struggled to receive adequate care for months. "It's just been so normalised ... and I don't think it should be, I don't think it's normal," Watt said. "And it's really hard to get any information because it's just taken as: 'Well, you're a woman, this is what happens.'" She can't imagine what her life would have looked like without undergoing the procedure, now relishing the active lifestyle she was once forced to sacrifice. "My ability to participate in skiing, running, swimming ... all of the things that I wanted to enjoy, that's all possible again, I never have to worry about that ever again, it's like an absolute new lease of life," she said.
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