Indigenous doctor's work to break taboo on periods

Dr Talila Milroy said a sense of ‘shame’ around menstruation sometimes prevented Indigenous Australian women from talking with their doctors.

The Yindjibarndi and Palyku woman created brochures and posters for GP clinics and other health settings as part of her PhD with UWA looking at Aboriginal women's perspectives on menstrual health and management in primary care.

The project has seen her explore the lived experience of Aboriginal women with their menstrual health. Dr Milroy was named the Australian Indigenous Doctors' Association 2026 Indigenous Doctor of the Year for her work in this area.

"There wasn't a lot of work in this space in Australia when I started my PhD. The work that was done was fantastic, but mainly focussed on rural communities, whereas we were working with a metropolitan community in Perth," Dr Milroy said.

To inform the resources she was involved in yarning groups where Indigenous women were invited to talk about their experiences with menstrual health including accessing care, their understandings and about where women get their information from.

"One of the findings of that part of the project was that women find it hard to access information, but also that the information they've been given has been inconsistent at times, or not accurate," Dr Milroy told Medical Forum.

"They might have been told that the amount of bleeding they were having, or the amount of pain they were having, was normal and to be expected, rather than something to be managed or investigated further."

The patient education resources she created were put together through a co-design process and focus on three areas; first periods, periods after pregnancy and menopause.

Dr Milroy said her work had shown her that GPs need to have a proactive approach to talking about menstrual health with Indigenous women.

"We found there is this sense of shame and stigma that women may not feel comfortable in bringing the topic up," Dr Milroy said.

"Once that kind of trust and rapport is built with a patient, bringing it up in a way which is non-judgmental and normalises this as a discussion within the overall healthcare of the patient is really important."

The resources incorporate Indigenous artwork by First Nations artist Erika Fernandez and use accessible language.

"We know that Aboriginal people would prefer to access information which is designed more specifically for them and written in a way that is more accessible," Dr Milroy said. 

The next phase of her PhD is soon to be published. It is the result of interviews Dr Milroy undertook with primary care providers about menstrual health and working with Aboriginal women in primary care settings.

The menstrual health resources are currently available by emailing talila.milroy@uwa.edu.au and will soon be on the Babbingur Mia Maternal and Child Health website.