Research to unlock the mysteries of one of the country’s most prevalent and debilitating conditions, endometriosis, in underway in Perth. Two students, who suffer from the condition are leading the study. They say more needs to be done to help future generations of women.
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00:00Medical student Akiti James is on the front line of research into endometriosis.
00:09She knows first hand what it's like living with the severe pelvic pain that comes with the condition.
00:16You'll be lying on the floor, maybe in the shower, pain going down your legs as well.
00:22And if you don't get on top of that pain quickly, it really gets out of control.
00:28It happens when tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows elsewhere.
00:33In one age group, about one in seven women and those assigned female at birth are affected.
00:41Ms James has set up a biobank of tissue donated by women who've had surgery in Perth.
00:47We want to really understand how and why endometriosis occurs
00:51so that we can find better treatments and better ways to diagnose people with endometriosis that aren't so invasive.
00:59Here we keep the cells in the incubator so that they can grow.
01:03Science student Sarah Walsh is studying the cells grown from the tissue as part of her PhD.
01:09So we get to characterise it and try and figure out what actually is in the lesions.
01:15She's got high hopes of what can ultimately be achieved.
01:18If we can figure out something like a blood test, like you have this marker, you could potentially have endo.
01:24And if we can figure out what these guys are doing, we can treat endometriosis.
01:28Right, so these are pretty much my everyday painkillers.
01:32Teagan Phillips has tried everything to treat the pain she's had since her early teens.
01:37It impacts on relationships, your sense of self, your ability to pursue hobbies, to pursue opportunities at work.
01:46So you can see, this is your uterus up here.
01:48She's now preparing to have surgery again because the symptoms returned shortly after her initial operation to diagnose and remove the endo in 2018.
01:59It's never ideal to be having rape hate surgeries, but I feel like there's only so many non-surgical options that are available and effective.
02:07This is patient 41 and two samples that she gave us were her ovary and her uterus.
02:12Doctors say the biobank, one of a number nationally and part of an international network, is a vital component in trying to understand the enigma of endo.
02:22The more biobank samples we have throughout the world, the more researchers can unlock the secrets.
02:29Investment in research has increased in recent years, but endo still receives less funding than other chronic diseases.
02:37Sarah Walsh has to process the samples for the biobank as a volunteer.
02:42If we did have someone who was paid to be a research assistant, we could really broaden the number of samples that we process and also take them from different sites.
02:53A bank of hope for future generations.