Endometriosis Zone editorial advisor

Deborah Bush QSM

Patient Advisor
The Oxford Clinic Endometriosis Treatment Centre
PO Box 3932
Christchurch
New Zealand

CEO 
New Zealand Endometriosis Foundation (co-founder)

Deborah Bush, in conjunction with the gynaecologists at The Oxford Clinic, helped initiate the Endometriosis Treatment Centre at The Oxford Clinic in Christchurch and acts as their patient advisor. She developed the curriculum for this a role based on patient needs. All patients presenting with symptoms in line with endometriosis or having been diagnosed are referred to her for this very specialised service, which plays an integral part of the multi-disciplinary holistic patient treatment programme.

Deborah is passionate about helping girls and women, who suffer from endometriosis and believes in empowerment so that understanding is enhanced and informed decisions can therefore be made with the gynaecologist or health professional, on the most appropriate treatment and management options. 

The position evolved from her experience as co-founder and CEO of the NZ Endometriosis Foundation established in 1985 in Palmerston North, NZ and registered as a Charitable Trust in January 1994. 

She has been instrumental in raising awareness of endometriosis and its far reaching consequences on quality of life and fertility, and is well known for her lively presentations at conferences and meetings in NZ and overseas.

Deborah has a teaching background and has developed a successful and internationally acclaimed Endometriosis Education Programme for adolescents, which has now reached over 60,000 students in Canterbury, Marlborough, and the greater Manawatu regions, in NZ. She has also presented the programme in Mumbai, India, with resounding success. 

This programme and the other services provided by the NZEF was the basis for the Foundation receiving the Commonwealth Award for Excellence in Women’s Health, an outstanding achievement.

She believes in education for doctors and specialists to reduce the unacceptable statistics associated with the disease, namely diagnostic delay, bring about improved quality of life, reduce physical suffering and emotional morbidity and ensure that a woman’s fertility is not compromised.

She is excited about the initiatives the NZEF has developed and is looking forward to pursuing other projects, which will continue to bring about change for sufferers of this debilitating condition and those who treat it.