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AAP
AAP
Politics
Andrew Brown and Maeve Bannister

Women's health boost ahead of federal

Scott Morrison said $58 million in funding would help support women living with endometriosis. (AAP)

More than $80 million has been set aside in the federal budget for those planning for pregnancy to access genetic testing, as the prime minister focused on women's health.

The $81.2 million package will allow for a Medicare rebate for couples planning pregnancy to access genetic testing for cystic fibrosis, spinal muscular atrophy and fragile X syndrome.

It comes as the government also announced a $58 million package for endometriosis treatment, ahead of Tuesday night's budget.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the funding would help to support women living with the condition.

"One in nine Australian women and girls suffer from endometriosis, and they suffer, I can't underscore that more strongly," the prime minister told reporters in Sydney on Friday.

"It is a disease that you suffer with, and constantly, and regularly, and it is unrelenting."

The funding will go towards building treatment centres, improving telehealth services and offering Medicare rebates for MRI scans related to the disorder, which affects one in nine Australian women.

More than a quarter of the funding amount will go to establishing specialised endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics in each state and territory.

The clinics will host GPs who specialise in women's health and pain management, nurses, allied health professionals and educators.

More than $5 million will help grow endometriosis research capacity and address research gaps.

The support for endometriosis treatment has been backed by Mr Morrison's wife Jenny, who revealed she was diagnosed with the condition when she was 26, after struggling to conceive.

Mrs Morrison told the Nine Network on Friday she started experiencing pain when she was in year eight, but the condition went undiagnosed for years.

"Nothing helped, and then it got really severe. So, people with endometriosis, it's not just like a few cramps or something like that, it's actually really debilitating," she said.

"When specialists told me, 'you should give up (trying to conceive)' and 'it's never going to happen for you', when you hear that I was broken, I was really very upset."

Ms Morrison then ended up having surgery for endometriosis before giving birth to two children naturally.

The prime minister said the announcement would enable people with endometriosis to be as pain-free as possible and diagnosed earlier.

"There is no cure for this. But all the time, they're learning better ways to how people can live with it and try and minimise the impact it has on their lives that the rest of us take for granted," Mr Morrison said.

"It's important that we get the education and the awareness so clinical professionals and others know and can pick up on it and connect people to services."

Meanwhile, the Royal Flying Doctor Service will be bolstered with $80 million of additional funding over the next decade.

Alongside the financial boost, the government will enter a 10-year partnership with the regional health service worth almost $1 billion.

Regional Health Minister David Gillespie says the partnership will give more long-term support to the organisation.

The new funding agreement will start from July 1 this year and it's expected the 10-year strategic agreement between the government and the service will be put in place shortly afterwards.

"Our new formal agreement will give the RFDS certainty and allow it to offer more flexible services that are responsive to local patient's needs," Dr Gillespie said.

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