Deakin University trial on endometriosis and yoga

Ms Katz has endometriosis - a chronic and largely misunderstood illness affecting one in 10 Australians who were assigned the female gender at birth.

She is encouraging Ballarat women with the crippling condition to consider alternative and complementary therapies to improve quality of life.

Yoga and cognitive behaviour therapy are under close watch in a Deakin University study on holistic pain management for people living with endometriosis.

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Ms Katz has tried a wide range of supportive methods from Chinese medicine and acupuncture to Bikram yoga and dance. Not all are helpful and Ms Katz was conscious different treatments work for individuals - and said this too added to a lack of guidance in treatments.

Nutrition and cycle tracking have helped Ms Katz, who no longer relies on the contraceptive pill or intrauterine devices. She is also studying dance and movement therapy in the hope it might also support endometriosis management.

"There is a tendency to put people on medication and sent them away or to be told it's just period pain, it's normal, and you should just deal with it," Ms Katz said.

"I was lucky to have a gynecologist and know about it because my Mum had [endometriosis]. In some ways I didn't have the same frustrations as a lot of women in diagnosis but I did in a struggle on how to treat it.

"...Endometriosis does get marginalised and that is the most frustrating part in a way. I think what women want is to be heard and have alternatives."

Ms Katz experienced excruciating pain from her first menstruations. While managing at first, she later required ongoing surgeries with long recoveries.

Endometriosis is a disease where tissue similar to that which lines the uterus grows outside the uterus. Like many with the condition, Ms Katz has missed huge amounts of school and work due to pain affecting different parts of her body.

This is a condition Ballarat's Bridget Hustwaite, a triple j radio presenter, candidly shared on air and in a book detailing her personal struggles, How to Endo, released last year.

Ms Hustwaite told The Courier she quickly realised a lot of how you accessed care depended on where you lived.

Deakin is keen to tap into regional areas for the study.

Researching menstruation and endometriosis was not a field Elesha Parigi had expected to find herself in.

Ms Parigi arrived at Deakin's Mind-Body Research in Health Laboratory with a background in oncology. She had seen the holistic shift in cancer treatment at Geelong's Andrew Love Cancer Centre, similar to Ballarat Regional Integrated Cancer Centre's wellness programs, but said taking a closer look at yoga and endometriosis had really opened her eyes.

"A lot of work needs to be done understanding pain in general," Ms Parigi said. "Someone might have stage four endo but someone with stage one might have just as much or more pain. There's no real scale...A study like ours is wide but hopefully it will give women ideas and options for treatment."

Ocean Grove-based yoga therapist Jill Harris, who is working with women in the Deakin trial, is aiming to promote self-empowerment.

Ms Harris has taught yoga for 20 years, moving into specialisation in yoga therapy in nareas such as anxiety and depression. She said the key was gentle movement and breathing to manage pain and tension. How this worked varied for individuals.

"Like anything, some have been able to embrace it and some are unable to," Ms Harris said. "...Ultimately the real juice of it is women learning about themselves, moving the body and moving the breath and how those two things work for them."

Anyone with a diagnosis of endometriosis for at least six months can join the trial. Participants must be at least 18 years old, not pregnant, have no serious injuries and have not recently completed a therapist-led course of yoga or cognitive behavioural therapy. Details: thehappistudy@deakin.edu.au.

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