Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / Stop Telling Girls to Put Up With Period Pain [with Anthea Rhodes]

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Stop Telling Girls to Put Up With Period Pain [with Anthea Rhodes] · Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families

0:05
Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to the Happy Families podcast, Friday edition. Today, unfortunately, Mrs.
0:10
Speaker 1: Happy Families can't be with us, but that's okay. I
0:12
Speaker 1: have somebody else who's filling in who's got so much
0:15
Speaker 1: to talk to us about that is going to make,
0:17
Speaker 1: I think, a really big difference for anyone raising a
0:19
Speaker 1: tween or teen girl. Every month, half of Australian teens
0:24
Speaker 1: who get periods are missing out on parts of their lives,
0:26
Speaker 1: whether it's school or sport or catching up with friends
0:28
Speaker 1: and special events. I remember when I was in high school,
0:30
Speaker 1: way back last century, I can't believe it was that
0:32
Speaker 1: long ago. One of my best friends, one of the
0:35
Speaker 1: girls was not participating in the swimming carnival. She was
0:37
Speaker 1: a great swimmer.
0:38
Speaker 2: I had no idea why.
0:39
Speaker 1: And because I was an insensitive and uneducated, not very
0:43
Speaker 1: smart teenage boy, I was like, why, why, why, why, why?
0:45
Speaker 1: And then finally her friend whispered to me that it
0:48
Speaker 1: was that time of the month and that's why she
0:50
Speaker 1: couldn't do it. And I realized all of a sudden
0:52
Speaker 1: that I'd been insensitive and gotten it wrong. Anyway, the
0:54
Speaker 1: whole reason why I'm having a conversation about this today
0:56
Speaker 1: is because that's the headline finding from brand new research
0:59
Speaker 1: released by the Royal Children's Hospital in In the last
1:01
Speaker 1: couple of weeks, the latest RCH National Child Health Poll
1:04
Speaker 1: surveyed 1,600 teens and more than 2,200 parents. And they
1:08
Speaker 1: said they found that 9 in 10 teens with periods
1:11
Speaker 1: say they regularly have period pain. That's 9 in 10.
1:16
Speaker 1: And for around half of them, it's moderate or severe.
1:18
Speaker 1: There's a whole lot more stats after the break. We're
1:20
Speaker 1: going to talk about that and what we as parents
1:22
Speaker 1: can do to support our daughters and also our sons
1:25
Speaker 1: who are probably oblivious to what's going on to support
1:28
Speaker 1: girls through these challenges.
1:30
Speaker 2: That's next.
1:31
Speaker 1: Stay with us. Hello and welcome to the Happy Families podcast,
1:36
Speaker 1: Real Parenting Solutions every single day. Australia's most downloaded parenting podcast.
1:40
Speaker 1: I'm Dr. Justin Coulson. My guest today is Dr. Anthea Rhodes,
1:43
Speaker 1: a pediatrician at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne and
1:45
Speaker 1: the director of the RCH National Child Health Poll. Anthea,
1:50
Speaker 1: it's so good to have you on the Happy Families
1:52
Speaker 1: podcast again. Thanks for being here.
1:54
Speaker 2: Great to be back.
1:55
Speaker 1: Let's talk about these findings. Why did the poll take
1:58
Speaker 1: on periods? What made this feel like it was something
2:02
Speaker 1: that you wanted to investigate? Because we don't really talk
2:03
Speaker 1: about it that much.
2:05
Speaker 2: We don't talk about it enough, I think, Justin. That's
2:07
Speaker 2: something we found in the study, which we can talk
2:09
Speaker 2: a bit more about. But certainly this is obviously a
2:12
Speaker 2: very common, normal part of life for a large number
2:15
Speaker 2: of teenagers, around 50% of young people who do experience periods.
2:20
Speaker 2: And yet we didn't have a good sense of how
2:22
Speaker 2: much that might be affecting quality of life, what level
2:24
Speaker 2: of knowledge young people have, whether that's boys or girls,
2:29
Speaker 2: when it comes to periods, and also what sort of
2:31
Speaker 2: symptoms they might be experiencing and how it's impacting life.
2:34
Speaker 2: We do have quite a lot of research in Australia
2:37
Speaker 2: that has looked at young people who have presented with problems.
2:40
Speaker 2: So they've come to the hospital or they've come to
2:42
Speaker 2: a clinic or the GP because they're having problems with
2:45
Speaker 2: periods and period pain or other symptoms sometimes. But what
2:49
Speaker 2: we didn't know was, well, what about if we just
2:51
Speaker 2: ask everyone out there, you know, how much of an
2:54
Speaker 2: issue is it? And so we were really struck to
2:56
Speaker 2: learn just how common pain is, which, you know, you've
2:59
Speaker 2: highlighted I think 90%, 89% of young people who have
3:03
Speaker 2: periods said they regularly experience pain and around half the
3:06
Speaker 2: time it was either moderate or severe. But perhaps more
3:09
Speaker 2: concerning was just how often our young people are missing
3:12
Speaker 2: out on things. And when we say things, we mean school,
3:15
Speaker 2: we mean sport, we mean, you know, social occasions. because
3:19
Speaker 2: of their period, whether that's to do with pain or
3:22
Speaker 2: other symptoms, which also often happen, nausea, fatigue, all kinds
3:27
Speaker 2: of things that can show up at that same time. Yeah.
3:30
Speaker 1: And Thea, I remember just a few months ago, I
3:32
Speaker 1: think it was Carrie Bickmore made national news headlines because
3:36
Speaker 1: she was talking about periods. And there were some people
3:38
Speaker 1: who were just like, what are you talking about? It's
3:40
Speaker 1: completely inappropriate. As a dad of six daughters, I was like, yeah,
3:43
Speaker 1: we need to. I don't know how long I was oblivious,
3:46
Speaker 1: even as a dad of six daughters, to But I
3:48
Speaker 1: remember at one point, one of my daughters particularly experienced
3:53
Speaker 1: ongoing significant challenges and severe pain around the period. And
4:00
Speaker 1: as a guy who doesn't get it, it was, what's
4:03
Speaker 1: the word?
4:03
Speaker 2: Tempting?
4:04
Speaker 1: Tempting. No, I probably, I struggled with this because I'm
4:08
Speaker 1: just like, can you just get on with it? Can
4:09
Speaker 1: you stop your whinging? Like, seriously, this is a normal
4:11
Speaker 1: part of human biology. So surely it can't be that bad.
4:15
Speaker 1: You must be banging it on. You've got to be
4:17
Speaker 1: overdoing it. And it took a very sympathetic, compassionate wife
4:20
Speaker 1: to sit me down and say, you haven't had one.
4:24
Speaker 1: You don't have a voice here. If she says it's
4:25
Speaker 1: that bad, it really is that bad. What I would
4:29
Speaker 1: like to ask you is if 89%, 9 in 10,
4:32
Speaker 1: for rounding up sake, report having regular pain and half
4:36
Speaker 1: of them are saying it is moderate or severe, as
4:39
Speaker 1: either the the girl who's going through it or is
4:42
Speaker 1: the parent who's grappling with a child who's complaining about it,
4:45
Speaker 1: how do you tell normal period pain from pain that
4:48
Speaker 1: needs a closer look? Asking for a friend.
4:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, look, I mean, pain is one of those
4:54
Speaker 2: things that is subjective. Everyone's going to have a different
4:57
Speaker 2: experience of pain, regardless of the cause of that pain.
5:00
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter whether that's a headache, a stomachache or
5:03
Speaker 2: period pain. But the question really is about whether it's
5:06
Speaker 2: impacting someone function in terms of everyday life and getting
5:10
Speaker 2: on with things. So if you have pain that is
5:12
Speaker 2: stopping you from participating in what we would consider to
5:15
Speaker 2: be regular aspects of daily life for your young person,
5:19
Speaker 2: that means going to school, means participating in sport. It
5:22
Speaker 2: doesn't mean going to school and spending three, four, five
5:26
Speaker 2: days of the week at sick bay. You're there but
5:28
Speaker 2: you're not actually in class or learning anything. It doesn't
5:31
Speaker 2: mean going to school but sitting on the sidelines in
5:34
Speaker 2: the sport lesson all of the time. It means fully participating,
5:38
Speaker 2: actually being able to concentrate on what you're there for,
5:42
Speaker 2: feel like you're present, not being distracted and dealing with
5:46
Speaker 2: something else. If your young person is impacted by their
5:50
Speaker 2: pain to the extent that that's a problem, then that's
5:53
Speaker 2: enough for it to be an issue. And we really
5:55
Speaker 2: don't know how strong or severe that pain feels from
5:58
Speaker 2: one person to the next. So really we use that
6:01
Speaker 2: marker of, well, if it's enough to get in the
6:03
Speaker 2: way then that's when you need to be doing something
6:06
Speaker 2: about it. And there are plenty of things you can do.
6:08
Speaker 2: I think there's a couple of big myths that really
6:10
Speaker 2: came through in the study, which one is which, well,
6:14
Speaker 2: this is normal, so we just ignore it and get
6:16
Speaker 2: on with it. We just have to put up with it.
6:19
Speaker 2: Just because something's common doesn't mean there aren't things that
6:22
Speaker 2: you can do to actually make that better. So that's
6:26
Speaker 2: the number one thing. Yes, two things can be true.
6:28
Speaker 2: This is common. Yes, it does happen a lot for
6:31
Speaker 2: lots of young people, but also you don't just have
6:34
Speaker 2: to put up with it. There are things that we
6:36
Speaker 2: know a lot more about than we did perhaps a
6:38
Speaker 2: generation ago. Often I'll sit in clinic with a young
6:41
Speaker 2: person who might be there to deal with some problems,
6:44
Speaker 2: very heavy flow, perhaps a lot of pain, perhaps they're
6:46
Speaker 2: having nausea, fatigue, headaches at that time when they're menstruating.
6:52
Speaker 2: And we say, look, you could try this, this or this.
6:55
Speaker 2: And a parent will say, gee, I wish I'd known
6:57
Speaker 2: about that for the past 30 plus years. I've been
7:01
Speaker 2: putting up with this too. So there's a really important
7:05
Speaker 2: piece there where we have to go, actually, let's just
7:07
Speaker 2: stop and think about what are we basing our knowledge
7:10
Speaker 2: and information on here as parents? Is this whatever you
7:13
Speaker 2: were told when you were 12? Is it what you
7:16
Speaker 2: read back in the day? Is it what you've seen
7:18
Speaker 2: on social media that you may or may not know
7:20
Speaker 2: to be trustworthy or evidence-based? Or are you getting that
7:24
Speaker 2: information that is the latest, that is up to date,
7:27
Speaker 2: and making sure your young person is as supported as
7:30
Speaker 2: they can be?
7:30
Speaker 1: Anthea, there seems to be a real knowledge gap for
7:34
Speaker 1: young people, especially boys, but also for a lot of adults.
7:39
Speaker 1: I want to talk about that knowledge gap right after
7:40
Speaker 1: the break. Plus, it even seems that when teens, based
7:45
Speaker 1: on what I saw in the RCH poll, Seems a
7:49
Speaker 1: lot of teens, even when they ask for help, they
7:52
Speaker 1: don't quite know how to ask. They find it hard
7:54
Speaker 1: to talk to either their parent or their caregiver or
7:57
Speaker 1: their doctor. Even when they feel supported, they still find
7:59
Speaker 1: it hard to talk. So let's address that right after
8:01
Speaker 1: the break. The knowledge gap, boys, and getting proper help.
8:06
Speaker 1: Stay with us.
8:06
Speaker 2: That's next.
8:15
Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast.
8:16
Speaker 2: Dr.
8:17
Speaker 1: Anthea Rhodes from the Royal Children's Hospital Child Health Poll
8:21
Speaker 1: is with me today talking about periods and period pain.
8:24
Speaker 1: I want to talk about boys for a sec because
8:25
Speaker 1: boys are involved in pretty much every story at the moment.
8:29
Speaker 1: And importantly, you found that a third of teenage boys
8:33
Speaker 1: say that they know nothing at all when it comes
8:35
Speaker 1: to girls and period pain. I certainly, as a teenage boy,
8:39
Speaker 1: was one of those boys. And part of me kind
8:42
Speaker 1: of thinks, well, if boys can just stay out of
8:44
Speaker 1: the way, keep their mouths closed and mind their own business,
8:47
Speaker 1: that's probably okay, right? That's the old school Gen X
8:50
Speaker 1: in me. But the 2026 version of me says, well,
8:53
Speaker 1: it probably does actually matter a bit that boys have
8:55
Speaker 1: an understanding of what's going on. How do you think
8:57
Speaker 1: that we can address this gender disparity since boys really
9:01
Speaker 1: aren't going through any of it themselves? They're just watching
9:02
Speaker 1: it from a distance.
9:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. They're not going to have the same
9:05
Speaker 2: lived experience as, you know, a girl is experiencing a period.
9:10
Speaker 2: But that doesn't necessarily mean they don't have a role
9:13
Speaker 2: to play or it isn't important for them to understand
9:15
Speaker 2: what's going on. We could apply that to all kinds
9:18
Speaker 2: of things for both genders. And it really would not
9:21
Speaker 2: be very progressive of us to say, well, that's never
9:23
Speaker 2: happening to me. I don't need to know anything about it.
9:24
Speaker 1: Right.
9:25
Speaker 2: So I think the first thing is, you know, what
9:28
Speaker 2: do we learn at school? We do know it looks
9:30
Speaker 2: a bit different across each state and territory in Australia
9:32
Speaker 2: as to what is sort of officially part of the
9:35
Speaker 2: curriculum when it comes to learning about periods and all
9:39
Speaker 2: kinds of things that relate to sexual health, menstruation. But,
9:43
Speaker 2: you know, theoretically something is being covered at some point
9:46
Speaker 2: for school-aged kids across Australia. But what we know from
9:50
Speaker 2: this study is that is it really actually landing in
9:52
Speaker 2: a way that young people are hearing it, understanding it,
9:55
Speaker 2: taking away information that's meaningful. And I think you know,
9:59
Speaker 2: it's probably delivered in a whole variety of ways. We
10:02
Speaker 2: know that already school teachers are under an enormous amount
10:06
Speaker 2: of pressure to actually cover so much and then they
10:08
Speaker 2: get thrown in, oh, by the way, can you cover
10:10
Speaker 2: this as well? And it may or may not be
10:12
Speaker 2: something that is their area of expertise. It may or
10:15
Speaker 2: may not be something that they've, you know, had adequate
10:18
Speaker 2: professional development in. And it might not be delivered in
10:21
Speaker 2: a way that really resonates for young people. So I
10:24
Speaker 2: think what we know from this study is that even
10:26
Speaker 2: though we're trying to do a good job of teaching
10:30
Speaker 2: young people at school, many of them are not hearing
10:33
Speaker 2: the facts when it comes to understanding something that is
10:36
Speaker 2: as common and part of regular life as periods, even
10:41
Speaker 2: some girls, but more commonly boys. So we need to
10:44
Speaker 2: make them understand that it is relevant, that they are
10:47
Speaker 2: going to need to be there to support young people
10:49
Speaker 2: in their lives over the full journey who might be
10:51
Speaker 2: experiencing periods and all the problems that can come with
10:54
Speaker 2: that and present it in a way that it's relevant
10:56
Speaker 2: and that kids are able to absorb it and not
10:58
Speaker 2: just kind of tune out. We can see as well that,
11:02
Speaker 2: and we know that, you know, there's learning that happens
11:04
Speaker 2: at school, but it doesn't start and end there. Lots
11:07
Speaker 2: and lots of things, really. We learn them at home.
11:10
Speaker 2: And so for parents, there's a big message there as
11:12
Speaker 2: well about what are we doing at home to address this?
11:15
Speaker 2: And we see 10% of dads or male caregivers in
11:19
Speaker 2: the study say they know almost nothing or very little
11:22
Speaker 2: about periods. So there's a knowledge gap from the parent
11:26
Speaker 2: side as well that really is about understanding, well, actually
11:30
Speaker 2: this is something that maybe I can take on board
11:32
Speaker 2: and it's not just, okay, I'll leave all that to
11:34
Speaker 2: my partner and I'm not getting involved. I had two
11:38
Speaker 2: sisters growing up, three of us, no brothers, and notoriously
11:41
Speaker 2: my dad said he reckons he didn't come upstairs for
11:44
Speaker 2: five years because he just didn't really know what was
11:46
Speaker 2: going on and he thought that was going to be easier.
11:48
Speaker 2: And so I really think that, you know, you probably
11:51
Speaker 2: had no idea, but we can do better than that
11:54
Speaker 2: today and we know that young people can access lots
11:58
Speaker 2: of information. They're actually much more progressive at talking about
12:02
Speaker 2: topics than perhaps we were back in the day. They
12:04
Speaker 2: don't have to wait a month for the Dolly Sealed section.
12:07
Speaker 2: to rip it open and find out what's going on
12:09
Speaker 2: they've got information at their fingertips so what we've done
12:12
Speaker 2: at the RCH is actually put together some really great
12:15
Speaker 2: resources we know if parents are finding things hard that
12:17
Speaker 2: you know giving them some tools can help so our
12:20
Speaker 2: teen health info fact sheet kid health info fact sheets
12:24
Speaker 2: and also we've got a whole suite of resources under
12:27
Speaker 2: our pelvic pain clinical network all of that's available through
12:31
Speaker 2: RCH Melbourne and where parents can go in and have
12:33
Speaker 2: a look at, here's how I might ask about this.
12:35
Speaker 2: Here's how I might bring it up. Here's something you
12:37
Speaker 2: could say, but also give you a bit of knowledge
12:40
Speaker 2: and information about what you can do to help. So,
12:43
Speaker 2: you know, periods in particular and period pain, we found
12:47
Speaker 2: the most common treatment that people are using is paracetamol.
12:51
Speaker 2: I mean, we all turn to that for pain, but
12:53
Speaker 2: what they don't know is that actually anti-inflammatories, so ibuprofen,
12:59
Speaker 2: get it over the counter at the chemist, get it
13:00
Speaker 2: at the servo, 7-11 a lot of the time that
13:04
Speaker 2: is far more effective because period pain is an inflammatory
13:08
Speaker 2: process if young people anyone an adult with period pain
13:12
Speaker 2: takes ibuprofen regularly three times a day for three days
13:16
Speaker 2: from the start of a period they can reduce pain
13:18
Speaker 2: and flow problems by a third so there's really simple
13:22
Speaker 2: practical measures that you don't even need to be seeing
13:26
Speaker 2: the doctor for that you can be trying at home
13:28
Speaker 2: if you have the knowledge and information And then obviously,
13:31
Speaker 2: if you're not sure if things aren't improving, there are
13:34
Speaker 2: many more things that the GP can do to help
13:36
Speaker 2: as well. Great.
13:37
Speaker 1: So this is my opportunity to both flex and virtue
13:40
Speaker 1: signal just a little bit. Many years ago, I decided
13:42
Speaker 1: that I was going to be one of those dads
13:43
Speaker 1: that didn't avoid going upstairs for five years. And so, Anthea,
13:47
Speaker 1: what I did as a dad was I made sure
13:49
Speaker 1: that in my glove box in my car at all
13:51
Speaker 1: times was a little pencil case with a handful of
13:54
Speaker 1: necessary items, a pad, tampon or two, some wipes, and
14:00
Speaker 1: some ibuprofen just in case. Never got used, but the
14:04
Speaker 1: girls always knew that it was in the car just
14:06
Speaker 1: in case. It seems that they were well enough prepared
14:09
Speaker 1: and didn't need it, but But sometimes it.
14:12
Speaker 2: Is about as well addressing, okay, it's interesting that it
14:14
Speaker 2: never got used. Maybe it never got used that you
14:16
Speaker 2: knew about.
14:17
Speaker 1: This is fair.
14:19
Speaker 2: But part of that issue of finding things difficult to
14:21
Speaker 2: talk about, so young people said a third of the
14:23
Speaker 2: time they find it hard to talk about periods with
14:25
Speaker 2: their family. So sometimes it is about saying, okay, I'm
14:29
Speaker 2: putting this here. This is where it's going to live.
14:31
Speaker 2: This is my part. I'm going to keep this topped up.
14:34
Speaker 2: I'm going to have these supplies here. They're going to
14:36
Speaker 2: live in these three or four places. And, you know,
14:38
Speaker 2: you let me know if you need something else, but
14:40
Speaker 2: then you don't have to come asking for it every time.
14:42
Speaker 2: You know, there doesn't have to be an awkward conversation
14:45
Speaker 2: every minute. It's just setting some stuff up at the start.
14:48
Speaker 2: And sometimes it's also about going, look, I know this
14:49
Speaker 2: is a bit awkward, but this is what I'm going
14:51
Speaker 2: to do. Listen to the podcast this week and this
14:54
Speaker 2: is what they suggested. So here you go, this is
14:55
Speaker 2: what I'm going to do. And just start that process
14:58
Speaker 2: of making things normal. You know, it's the same as
15:00
Speaker 2: having access to sanitary products in bathrooms, in all kinds
15:04
Speaker 2: of places, school for a start. so that you don't
15:07
Speaker 2: have to have a barrier where someone's got to walk
15:08
Speaker 2: up awkwardly to the office and ask some random person
15:12
Speaker 2: for help. They just might not because it's just all
15:14
Speaker 2: a bit too difficult. So let's see what we can
15:17
Speaker 2: do even at home or in the car or wherever
15:19
Speaker 2: it is to say, okay, we're going to actually just
15:21
Speaker 2: take the awkwardness away. We're going to make things a
15:23
Speaker 2: little bit more practical and just take some steps to
15:27
Speaker 2: make things part of normal everyday life because this is
15:31
Speaker 2: part of normal everyday life for, you know, a good 50%
15:34
Speaker 2: of the population.
15:36
Speaker 1: Dr. Anthea Rhodes from the National Child Health Poll out
15:39
Speaker 1: of the Royal Children's Hospital. Thank you so much for
15:42
Speaker 1: shedding some light on this and bringing it out in
15:44
Speaker 1: the open. I think these conversations matter so much.
15:46
Speaker 2: Pleasure. Great to be talking about periods. And let's put
15:49
Speaker 2: the P word off the dirty list. This is something
15:51
Speaker 2: we can all talk about. So today's been a good
15:53
Speaker 2: step towards that. 100%.
15:54
Speaker 1: Really appreciate your time. The Happy Families podcast, sound audio
15:58
Speaker 1: engineering from Justin Rule on Bridge Media. M. Hammonds looks
16:00
Speaker 1: after our additional support. We will link to the resources
16:03
Speaker 1: from the Royal Children's Hospital website that Dr. Rhodes was
16:06
Speaker 1: talking about in the show notes. So if you do
16:09
Speaker 1: have kids and you want to be able to have
16:10
Speaker 1: better conversations with them or equip yourself more effectively, check
16:13
Speaker 1: the show notes. We'll make sure that there's some useful
16:15
Speaker 1: resources there for you. And of course, to make your
16:17
Speaker 1: family happier, you'll find a whole lot more at happyfamilies.com.au.
16:21
Speaker 1: Have a great weekend.