In 2020, the Department of Health and Aged Care statistics said 81 per cent of Australian Women between the ages of 16 and 40 used some form of contraception.
Liz Lang, general manager of health and medical at LUMA, a WA women’s healthcare clinic, says the conversation about contraception changes as a woman ages.
“People need to be educated early in their youth but also late in menopause, women’s hormones change throughout their life, so they need to be informed about what the best thing is for them,” she says.
“Women will use a contraceptive, whatever their choice is, and they’ll stick with it because that’s what they’ve been given but it’s not always the best option for them.”
Carly Still, GM Business Services finance Manager, says contraceptive methods such as the pill were a very negative experience for her and other women in her family.
“Once I’d gone off the pill, I looked back and it was like I was a different person. I looked back and couldn’t believe the decisions that I had made”.
Carly Still
Ms Still is not alone in her experience, with data from medical group HealthLine saying approximately between 1 in 10 and 1 in 4 users report issues such a breast tenderness, mood swings, headaches, particularly in the first few months of using the pill.
“The decisions we made during those years probably affected the rest of our lives because we probably didn’t understand that we weren’t in a strong enough mental space,” she says.
As an independent not-for-profit organisation, LUMA aims to offer a safe space for women such as Ms Still to share their stories and openly discuss contraception, among other health and wellbeing concerns.
“I think historically in medical realms, women have just been on a receiving end of medical care and not really been empowered to ask questions and make informed choices and continue the conversation,” Ms Lang says.
Ms Lang says International Women’s Day encourages us to start the conversation surrounding women’s health, but starting the conversation and continuing it requires knowing how to ask the right questions.
“Utilising awareness days like International Women’s day is so important as people are more open to being educated,” she says.