Dealing with endometriosis

*****Possible trigger warning for those affected by this disease*** Endometriosis; it effects an estimated of 1 in 10 women. I am just one of these women. This disease has affected me since I was 16 years old and thankfully I got diagnosed at an earlier age than most. Not only did it affect my school life, work life and social life but also my personal life. 

I was 16 years old, 6 months into having my monthly war with my body I noticed that the pain was getting worse and worse each month it came. I felt nauseous, sore and just really down in the dumps. 18(ish) months on and I finally went to the doctor and they finally recognised the pain I was in every month. A couple of ultrasounds later they diagnosed me with endometriosis, my treatment consisted of, monitoring of the cysts I currently had, nurofen, ponstan, heat packs and rest for that week I was ill.

After awhile I honestly felt like I wasn’t being taken seriously and was finally referred onto a specialist to do a laparoscopy operation. After months of being on a waiting list I FINALLY got into my specialist and 6 months later I found out I was going to have a baby, much to my specialist surprise. This then put everything on hold and my symptoms went away for the 9 months of pregnancy. About 3 weeks after Xavier was born I got the dreaded monthly war back again and basically it was hell from there. I was back seeing specialist again and now currently on the waiting list AGAIN for the lap operation. Currently I’m taking a combination of nurofen, ponstan, tramadol, tranexamic acid, endep and the highest estrogen pill they can get me on as my treatment until I go under for my laparoscopy, hysteroscopy and d&c (yep all 3 surgeries in the one go whoohoo!). It’s a monthly struggle and the only time I really feel any relief currently from the pain is the 3/4 days I have before I’m fertile. Luckily enough I have plenty of support from my partner who lets me complain about how much pain I’m in (I’ll honestly give him a lot of credit for listening to me ramble on about it!). He heats up my heat packs, gets me my pain meds and offers to help out with the kids when I’m in pain so I can lay down and rest. The only thing that can really get you through these crappy times is having supportive people around you.

I live in a constant worry of what this disease is doing to my organs and most of all my reproductive organs which at my young age of 23 I shouldn’t have to even worry about. I always have that worry that in the back of my mind that I won’t be able to have more children, which is really upsetting as I want nothing more than to give two little boys a sibling and to have a baby with the person I consider my soul half. I can’t wait for the day I no longer have to complain about pain and no longer have to worry about having the opportunity to hold another little tiny bundle of joy in my arms that’s half me and half William. But for now I’ll get through this sh!t time, focus on the good things I have going in my life and keep positive thoughts about one day having the chance to feel baby kicks again. 

I urge everyone who feels unsure or uncertain about the period pain to get it checked and don’t give up on having the proper diagnosis!!!

The basic ‘run down’ of this disease is, endometrium tissue (basically the lining of the inside of the uterus) is found outside the uterus. This causes inflammatory which then leads to scar tissue that causes damage or cysts that can either be removed by a laparoscopy operation/s or some have more long term damage which result in the need to take reproductive organs out (hysterectomy) . 

https://youtu.be/MEh0egZJf58  (video link to 'endo & us' video which I personally really urge female's to watch.)

The scar tissue or cysts cause immense amount of pain (I’m talking childbirth like or sometimes I could say it’s worse than popping out a newbie) in your pelvic area where your uterus and ovaries sit. The pelvic pain then leads to lower back pain which basically makes it hard to do any physical task.

There are a lot of symptoms to this disease and it occurs differently to everyone. Some notice or have severe pain as a teenager/young adult and some may not experience any pain until they’ve finished having kids. This disease affects women in so many different ways. Many go undiagnosed as there is a lack of information and research on why this happens and how it happens.

Thankfully there is more and more research and diagnoses happening each year and slowly it is becoming more of an apparent disease rather than a ‘normal period type pain’ which I myself got for 2 years before finally being taken serious after much whining about how I was struggling to get to work for that week once a month, each month. 

 Im really passionate about this disease becoming more aware to women!

There are a lot of events going on for endometriosis awareness month which is the month of March. Please visit http://www.endometriosisaustralia.org/for more information on these events and more information on this disease.