The government has promised extra funding for the treatment of complex gynaecological conditions.
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The Health Minister was to announce that women would have access to longer specialist consultations covered by Medicare.
From July 1 next year, two new items will be added to the Medicare Benefits Schedule to enable extended consultation times and increased rebates for specialist gynaecological care.
The government said that these items would ensure that women received "timely and appropriate assessments and were no longer left waiting for critical diagnoses and treatments".
The government said the investment would provide "approximately 430,000 more services to help women across the country with complex gynaecological conditions to receive consultations of 45 minutes or longer".
One of the conditions covered - endometriosis - is estimated to affect at least one in nine Australian women.
"It has an extensive, devastating impact on daily life," the government said.
"Women are suffering unnecessarily. They're having their experiences dismissed, being called hysterical and accused of drug shopping. Women's pain is real and it's time we stop telling women to just suck it up," Health Minister Mark Butler said.
The money would come in a $49.1 million allocation in the upcoming budget.
Steve Evans
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
