I was 11 when I got my first period. I bled for 4 weeks straight, and from then on it was heavy and painful, always lasting 4 weeks. At 13 endometriosis nz came to my high-school and talked about endometriosis and it’s symptoms and I thought “that’s me!”.
It took another 6 years of pain and a severe anaemia diagnosis before I got my first surgery, and it was lifechanging. They cut off the endo, cut the bowel adhesions, and put a mirena in and I had a few years of bliss.
Then when I was 25 I had severe pelvic pain, I went into the hospital but was told that it just period cramps. The next day I went back in even more pain and they admitted me overnight, not really believing anything was wrong. I had a ct scan looking for kidney stones and they saw blood in my abdomen. I had ovarian torsion and because it had been 3 days, the ovary was dead. I was rushed into surgery and lost 2L of blood and an ovary that day. That ovary had an endometrioma on it that burst and caused the torsion, and to be honest that ovary sucked anyway as it was covered in endo. I’ve been much more pain free without it
Now I follow the low fodmap diet and exercise to control the pain and have never felt better. After lots of anxiety around fertility with endo and only one ovary, I had my son last year. He’s perfect but I can’t help but worry if I have a daughter next will I pass endo onto her? I’m glad that if I do, Endometriosis NZ and the wonderful endo community is supporting women through their health journey and making awareness and diagnosis more obtainable