This is Ella’s endometriosis story in her own words.
Hello, my name is Ella.
This month is Endometriosis Awareness Month, and I have decided to share my journey.
I have struggled with period-related pain since I was 10 years old. The first few years it wasn’t as bad, but I still had noticeably painful ovulation and menstruation. During this time, I was also struggling with my health a lot—so much so that I had to take a few weeks off from school when I was in Year 8.
We were back and forth to the doctors, who said I had ear, nose, and throat infections, IBS, and dysmenorrhea (painful periods). After many attempts with antibiotics, pain relief, and nasal sprays that didn’t really work, we decided to try a more natural approach. I decided to cut dairy and gluten and saw a huge change in my energy, pain, bloating, and congestion. This prompted us to do an intolerance test.
The test came back showing intolerances to gluten, dairy, soy, wheat, beef, and deadly nightshade vegetables, which include tomatoes, potatoes, capsicum, chilli, and a few more.
I immediately removed these from my diet and had huge success in how I was feeling. We thought everything was starting to improve until I began having worse pain with my menstrual cycle. This made me feel more dizzy and nauseous, and I had increased pain in my lower back, hips, pelvis, and lower abdomen. At times this left me bedridden in pain. The only relief I found was lying down with heat packs on my abdomen and back, as well as an ice pack or face cloth on my head to stop me from feeling faint.
We went back to the doctor, who told me this was normal and that the only thing I could do was take birth control or Panadol. After a few years of not making much progress, I decided to have an IUD inserted after doing my own research showing it could help with heavy bleeding and pain.
Once I had my IUD placed, I experienced heavy to light bleeding for six months and was very worried it wouldn’t stop. It took a while for my body to adjust, but once it did, I only had light periods and they were usually much more manageable.
After two years, I started feeling worse again and was experiencing lots of infections. I decided I would like to get my IUD removed to see if that would help. The infections did begin to slow down, but the pain was still there. After talking to a few people, I decided to start the process of finding out if I had endometriosis or PCOS.
Little did I know this would not be an easy process.
In mid-2023, I requested an ultrasound and a referral to a gynaecologist. We ended up paying to get an ultrasound privately, as we were told it would be at least six months before I was seen. The ultrasound came back inconclusive, but they didn’t believe anything was wrong.
I kept following up on the gynaecologist referral but was told I just had to wait. I finally heard back on the 22nd of February 2024 that my referral had been received, but I wouldn’t be seen for at least 16 weeks.
After a long wait and many appointments and phone consultations in between, I finally had an appointment on the 15th of August 2024. At this appointment we discussed my symptoms, and they said it was likely that I had mild endometriosis. They recommended an ovulation-suppressing pill to help, which I declined.
We also discussed that a laparoscopy would be worth considering, but there was a chance that no endometriosis would be found. I decided I wanted to go ahead with surgery so I could understand what was really going on.
During this time I was really struggling mentally and was seeing two counsellors to help me through it. I also decided to do another intolerance test, which came back showing intolerances to all legumes, apple, hazelnuts, peanuts, beer, cider, juice, and sugar. I cut these out of my diet and would only have some of them in moderation.
Then it was another waiting game to find out my surgery date. I was given the option to go on the cancellation list after not hearing anything for a while, which meant I could be contacted with as little as three weeks’ notice before surgery.
On the 15th of May 2025, I finally heard back from the hospital. My surgery had to be outsourced due to a lack of staff at Rotorua Hospital, which meant I was being sent to Anglesea Gynaecology in Hamilton. I was given a surgery date of the 9th of June 2025, which was so exciting to hear.
I immediately started crying. It was a bittersweet moment because you don’t know whether to feel happy that you finally have answers or sad that you have the condition. However, it felt like a huge relief and a weight off my shoulders knowing it wasn’t all in my head.
When I arrived at the hospital that morning, I was checked in and prepared for surgery.
My surgery was pushed to later in the day. When I woke up, disoriented, I called out to a nurse and asked, “Did I have endometriosis?” She said, “Yes honey, they found lots of it and it was very deep.”
The next morning my doctor came around and told me they had made three incisions plus the initial belly button incision, and that everything had gone well. He said my surgery took longer than expected due to the amount of endometriosis and how deeply it had penetrated.
They told me I had Stage 4 Endometriosis and that they found and removed endometriosis from both pelvic sidewalls, both uterosacral ligaments, the rectovaginal septum, the pouch of Douglas, the UV fold, and a left fimbrial cyst.
My recovery was hard. I was on gabapentin for six months, along with antibiotics, anti-nausea medication, Panadol, and ibuprofen. The gas pain after surgery was honestly more painful than the incisions themselves. Peppermint tea became a favourite during this time.
I am now eight months post-op and starting to feel a bit more like myself again. The fatigue is beginning to fade and my energy is coming back.
My recovery did take a little longer because I also had an adenoidectomy and an endoscopic inferior turbinoplasty to help with my breathing in late August 2025, which has been very helpful.
I have been back to see my specialist twice since surgery, and overall my healing is looking good. They have recommended birth control again, but I have refused because I don’t like how my body reacts to it.
Since surgery I have been struggling with nerve and bladder pain. I am now taking nortriptyline and temporarily using lidocaine cream to help relieve these symptoms.
I still struggle with ovulation and menstrual pain, but it is a lot easier to manage now. The products that help me the most are the Tap Tens Device 2.0, HotPods electric pad, Scarlet heat pack, hot water bottle, rice pack, and doTERRA Women ClaryCalm essential oil roll-on.
I have still kept all my intolerances out of my diet, but the plan is to reintroduce some of these this year to see if I have an inflammatory response to them.
Overall, this experience has been much harder than it should be. I do understand there is still limited knowledge about endometriosis, and there are not enough specialists to help everyone as gynaecologists are very busy with many patients.
I hope that by sharing my story I am able to help someone else who is struggling with similar issues.
Thank you for reading my journey.
– Ella Gardiner 💛
You can support Ella and keep up to date on the progress of her 120 Challenge here.