The Pain is Excruciating: Stories of Women Living With Endometriosis

The first time I knew something was wrong was in Venice, with my family. I’d had a stomach ache all day, unlike any I’d experienced before. I thought that it might be food poisoning or a stomach ulcer.

The pain was dull, constant and persistent. I tried food, sleep, pain killers, and I even tried an Aperol Spritz. Nevertheless, I ended up in the foetal position on my bed in the hotel room, wishing the pain away.

That was six years ago. It has taken me that long to get the diagnosis; I have endometriosis.

Endometriosis is a disorder where tissue, similar to the tissue that forms the lining of your uterus, grows outside of your uterine cavity, causing extreme pain and hormonal imbalance.

It turns out that one in nine Australian women live with this disease – a disease I knew nothing about.

Although excruciating and crippling, the amount of times I was told by a health professional that my experience is “normal” astounds me. I have taken countless pain medications, tried various methods of contraception, changed my diet and my lifestyle, yet the pain has only ever increased.

I would call into work sick, feeling guilty and weak. I would cancel on friends, family and events. Doctors would tell me that hormones can be “temperamental”; that they “vary depending on mood”.

I eventually found a doctor who had experience in women’s health and believed in my pain, which was a relief.

Being a strong, independent, working woman, I found it difficult to have my life so affected by something I’d been taught nothing about, and felt I had no control over.

But I know I’m not alone in this, as many other women battle through the same condition.

Here are stories of two other women and their struggle with endometriosis...

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Left-Right: Laura, Halle & Tilly are women who live with endometriosis.