WOMEN, girls, and female identifying people across the country were asked to put their health first this week in honour of Jean Hailes Women’s Health Week.

With the theme ‘It’s all about you’, Women’s Health Week aims to remind female identifying people that it is okay to put yourself first, and focuses on the top five concerns in women’s health: menopause, pelvic health, mental health, movement, and health checks.

Western District Health Service women’s health nurse, Jenaye Kerr, said it provided a platform to reinforce important health messages and initiate conversations.

“Although I believe we have come a long way, there is still a lot of stigma, shame, and secrecy surrounding the female body and anatomy,” she said.

“Women’s Health Week is a great way to start the conversation between friends, family, and work colleagues – men included.”

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, women experience an overall higher burden of disease rates compared to males, with higher rates of cancers, poor cardiovascular health and musculoskeletal diseases.

This week, women and people with a cervix are reminded to complete their required health checks, such as a monthly self-breast exam, mammograms every two years for those aged 50-74 years old, and cervical screening every five years from 25-72 years old or once you are sexually active, regardless of the gender of your sexual partner.

GenHealth director and pelvic health physiotherapist, Jessica Fishburn, said Women’s Health Week was also an important reminder for all women to take care of their pelvic health by completing their pelvic floor exercises.

“Because we actually physically can’t see the pelvic floor as it is internal, it’s often forgotten,” she said.

“Pelvic floor exercises can be done in any position, wherever, and you don’t need equipment to do them.

“I always say they’re not hard to do, they’re hard to remember to do.”

Ms Fishburn said there should be more conversations surrounding pelvic health and how to correctly complete pelvic floor exercises, as not doing them can result in incontinence, prolapse, pelvic pain, and constipation.

“Pelvic floor exercises have a role to play in all of these and those things can worsen as we age if we don’t look after our pelvic floor, especially perimenopause and postmenopause,” she said.

“They’re a lifelong sentence for us as women, post puberty.

“It’s not a narrative ever talked about when realistically we should be talking about them in schools.”

Ms Fishburn said another important message for women was that pelvic pain and sexual pain isn’t normal and should be addressed with a pelvic health physiotherapist, and that soap and cleaning products should not be used on the vulva or vagina as it disturbs the natural pH balance and can lead to thrush, a urinary tract infection, or complex pelvic pain conditions such as vulvodynia.

Local women can access regular health checks and ask questions at their GP or women’s health nurse, with local pelvic health services also available.