Endometriosis : What the bloody hell is it?

Welcome to my first blog post! I am a bit scared about writing this first one but recently lots of people have started to speak out and I wanted to add my voice and perspective to these, to really try and emphasise how severe this illness is. I've struggled massively mentally and physically for years. It's so often dismissed by friends, the workplace and even doctors as "just period pains" but it's far from that.

So what the bloody hell is it?

Let’s start with the basics, endometriosis is a bit of a mouthful. Even I struggled to say it when first diagnosed. It’s pronounced end-oh-mee-tree-oh-sis. The oh-sis at the end is very fitting for this condition, because oh-sis let me tell you it’s horrible. 

Endometriosis occurs when tissue similar to the womb lining starts to grow outside of the womb in other areas, such as the ovaries. This causes pain, inflammation, scar tissue and sometimes cysts.  

The main symptoms can include chronic pain (often debilitating), infertility, pain during or after sex, bowel and bladder problems, fatigue, and depression. Oh, and the cherry on the cake, there’s no cure!

Endometriosis UK states that worldwide there are approximately 176 million sufferers of this condition, which equates to about 1 in 10 people with a uterus. They also recently released a statistic that 54% of people within the UK have not even heard of endometriosis. I hope you will agree with me that this needs to change. 

I hope this has clarified what the condition actually is, of course if you have any questions then please do get in touch, I'm always happy to help. I'm by no means a doctor but I can touch on my own personal experiences.

So now you've read this you can go and tell someone about endometriosis. Go on, let's spread the word.