So this post is a little different, its a post on where I want this blog to go, your own contributions…

Endometriosis, is the unspoken subject that , no-one really understands..

Endometriosis is a condition where tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows in other places, such as the ovaries and fallopian tubes.

Endometriosis can affect women of any age, including teenagers.

It’s a long-term condition that can have a significant impact on your life, but there are treatments that can help.

Date 18th Sept 2023 , Source,https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/endometriosis/

I mean do Doctors, educate us on Endo Belly? Do they advise us what to do, when we have a tampax in, and an overnight pad for day time use?? Do they advise us what else we can do than set 2 hour alarms each night? No… they don’t! So with sharing awareness we can look to educate each other..

I have taken the time to speak to a few of you, and share a few of your own experiences on just how Endometriosis can make you feel..

‘Endometriosis and PCOS have controlled my entire, teenage and adult life, and for the past year or two, I have suffered in extreme silence and hidden my struggle with everyone in my life. I was told by GP’s to basically ‘Man up’,and that I was lying because everything looked ‘Normal’ , that I was too. young for anything to be wrong, and most of all met with ‘Just go on the pill'(Don’t even get me started on this), worst of all the surgery I had done in 2019, hadn’t even been done properly! LADIES, PARENTS, SIBLINGS, EVERYONE… EXTREME PERIOD PAIN IS ‘NOT’ NORMAL!! If you feel you need the help, fight for it. Don’t wait like me until you’re in the back of an ambulance, not wanting to live through the pain any more. There is no award for suffering in silence. Today re-found many cysts and endometriosis adhesions in multiple areas of my body. … So yes , that pain causing my body to collapse and fit, the 24/7 chronic fatigue, and mental health struggles, ARE NOT NORMAL. Yes my diagnosis is a good, but the relief is indescribable

@parisaysabelle

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Since I was a teenager I’ve always had painful periods and was just told this was normal and to get on with it. I then started expecting painful intercourse as I got older and just knew something wasn’t right. I got diagnosed when I was 19 and have just had my 3rd surgery at age 25. Learning about Endo has been such a journey as it’s so under researched and I try to promote its awareness as much as I can. For me I used to suffer with the bloating, pain so bad I couldn’t stand, random bleeding, painful intercourse, and fatigue. Through trial and error I found out caffeine and vodka really trigger a flare up, I’ve also tried a keto diet to reduce my carb intake to help reduce the bloating. I’m now cycle syncing and have recently come off my contraceptive implant to try and control my symptoms more naturally and so far I’m doing okay but it’s all a big learning curve. The biggest thing for me is professionals almost don’t want to know and don’t often take you seriously 

I’ve helped raise money and awareness for Endo through photo shoots for an organisation my friend set up called making the invisible visible. It’s about showing the effects of invisible illnesses and we write words on our body that represent how our illness makes us feel but also how it makes us feel despite having the illness. I try not to let Endo define me as there is so much more to me than that but it’s so important to raise awareness for something that impacts 1 in 10 women 💛

@Charleyrodgers

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I have endo and adeno and it’s ruining my life it is under researched they just think it’s period pain and then their only solution is surgery which may relieve some symptoms not all as it grows back and they mistake for a hormone disorder when it’s a pain disability I can’t breathe properly walk sleep chest pains back pains bowl pain chronic fatigue and look physically sick when it flares up sending love and healing xxx 

@Christinajb_

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Endometriosis sucks! Sorry to be blunt, but some days I do not even want to get out of bed! I struggle to have sex, most positions kill me off, and I refuse, to leave my house until day 3/4! Men do not get it, Doctors do not get it, friends do not get it! It feels like people just think ‘It is a period, get over it’. It feels like people don’t want it to exist, and my work do NOT get it at all, no surprise, it is run by men!

Anon

The above is just 4 of the stories I was sent, and you can feel the hurt and anger that lies behind the misunderstanding of this illness.

Endometriosis for me is on my womb, my bladder, my bowel, its inside the cavity of the womb walls (adenomyosis), its fused my left ovary to the back of my womb, its left a ridiculous amount of scar tissue, making such a mess inside, its caused fibroids/ polyps, its led to a big mass (benign) on my right ovary, and cysts, its led me to 6 miscarriages, and it leaves me flooding with a simple sneeze. I cannot thank my ex enough, and any woman reading this who has a boyfriend, I think this illness, shows you just how good of a man you have, if they can help you shower, when you’re weak, scrub the mattress when you flood, and sit with you for hours in A&E, and understand his fave sexual position, may be your most painful, a good man is fundamental with this illness, because the anger, the pain, the passing out, the flooding, and the infertility is just to hard to deal with on our own, but we do because we’re women, and any shit life throws at us, we get through it, in all our glory, because we are WOMEN!