Research led by a pioneering Aboriginal GP and PhD student at The University of Western Australia has led to the development of culturally safe Aboriginal women’s menstrual health resources.
The seed for the resources emerged from Dr Talila Milroy’s conversations with Aboriginal women who said they often didn’t feel taken seriously when they discussed period pain and other menstrual health issues with primary care health providers.
Taking the topic up as part of her PhD at UWA, Dr Milroy undertook yarning circles with Aboriginal women in partnership with the Babbingur Mia Maternal and Child Health Aboriginal Corporation, with additional support from the Moorditj Koort Aboriginal Corporation.
“One of the things that came out of that yarning was a desire for more reliable and trustworthy education and information about period health,” Dr Milroy said.
“We wanted to focus on what period wellbeing looks like for Aboriginal women so we went back to the community and worked with them to design some resources that not only aligned with what women wanted but were useful, easy to understand, and looked really nice.”
Launched during 2026 Women’s Health Week and featuring artwork by local Aboriginal artist Erika Fernandez, the culturally safe, co-designed resources include booklets and flyers about first periods, periods after pregnancy, and menopause, along with posters for display in clinical areas.
Dr Milroy said accessing culturally safe healthcare was often challenging for Aboriginal women, making it even harder for them to bring up sensitive gynaecological issues.
“Having a provider you can trust and open up to is really important, but that hasn’t been everybody’s experience. For the people who do bring it up, they’ve been told ‘period pain is normal’ or ‘that level of bleeding is normal’, but it really isn’t a lot of the time.”
Dr Milroy, a Yindjibarndi and Palyku woman who is the first Aboriginal GP to work in the Rockingham-Kwinana area, was this month named 2026 Indigenous Doctor of the Year by the Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association, partly in recognition of her contributions to Aboriginal women’s menstrual health.
The new menstrual health resources, to be made available soon on the Babbingur Mia website, were launched at an event attended by local Elders, representatives from the Moorditj Koort Aboriginal Corporation, Babbingur Mia, Aboriginal Health Council WA, South West Metropolitan Health Service, Family Planning WA, RACGP WA, and Labor MPs Magenta Marshall (Member for Rockingham) and Madeline King (Member for Brand).
Image above: Dr Talila Milroy with some of the resources, featuring artwork by local Aboriginal artist Erika Fernandez