mojatu.com
32 Health & Food
ENDOMETRIOSIS AWARENESS MONTH – MARCH By Abigail Sirrell People all around the world are raising awareness for an extremely debilitating condition that affects 176 million women worldwide – endometriosis. Endometriosis is a chronic disease of the female reproductive system whereby the tissue that usually lines the inside of a woman’s uterus, grows elsewhere in the body outside of the uterus. It can instead grow on the ovaries, fallopian tubes, bowel or bladder, or around the lining of the pelvis. Every month, this tissue responds to a woman’s menstrual cycle in the same way as the lining of the womb. The lining builds up and then breaks down, resulting in bleeding. However, the lining of the womb leaves a woman’s body as a period. This tissue, on the other hand, has no way of exiting the body, and so it becomes trapped. This can lead to cysts, or cause surrounding tissue to become irritated, which will eventually develop scar tissue and adhesions. Adhesions are fibrous bands that form between tissue and organs, in this case causing the female reproductive organs to stick together. Considering endometriosis is the second most common gynaecological condition in the UK, it receives very little profile and recognition, and numerous misconceptions surrounding it are still preventing women from getting the help and support they need. Research has shown that it can take patients on average over seven years to get an endometriosis diagnosis. One in ten women suffer from the condition, and the cause of it is unknown. There is no definite cure. I spoke to Nottingham Trent University student (name withheld), who was diagnosed with endometriosis last year.
Can you describe how endometriosis has affected your life? It took me about seven years to be diagnosed - both the symptoms and the countless appointments with my doctor greatly affected my school life growing up. Most days I suffer from severe stomach pain, back pain, hot flushes and mood swings. Sometimes I struggle to stand up or even move and having very little energy can make it difficult for me to go to work or university. The only thing that somewhat helps me with the pain is a hot water bottle or hot bath, but even then, the pain is still very intense, and obviously I can’t go about my day-to-day life taking hot baths whenever I’m in too much pain to move. When I was diagnosed, I was told I wouldn’t know whether I would struggle with my fertility until I start trying to conceive, so this sense of the unknown around whether I will ever be able to have children leaves me feeling like I’m left in the dark, and it’s quite upsetting. Why do you think endometriosis hardly gets spoken about and receives very little coverage as a chronic condition? I think it gets very little coverage
because only women can have it, so I personally don’t think it’s taken as seriously as some other conditions that a wider proportion of people suffer from. It’s also a very long process to become diagnosed. Hopefully in the future, more research can be undertaken into this condition to reduce the impact it has upon the lives of millions of women. What do you wish people knew about this condition? I wish people were more aware of the condition and the pain that comes with it. Women who suffer from it are still expected to go to work as usual, continue through education without disruption and carry on with every-day life like normal despite the pain. My endometriosis tends to be at its worst during my period, but I can’t just take a week off from work or university every month. I think if more people were aware of this debilitating condition, more could be done to understand and support women in the workplace or young girls at school suffering in silence. I also talked to my mother, who was diagnosed with endometriosis in 1997. I became aware of the condition after seeing at close hand her day-to-day struggles.
