I’ve broken the sabbatical from any kind of personal writing
to discuss the chronic condition, endometriosis. It’s endo (as you’ll know it,
if you suffer from it) awareness month and there is a distinct lack of
information and awareness online, considering this.
Endometriosis, in my own words, is kind of like the cells of
your womb want to have a party and so grow, everywhere inside your body, mainly in places where you don’t want
them to. This causes pain, chronic fatigue, general disillusionment with life
and sometimes, for me, an intense struggle to walk up stairs/ move my body/ try
and do normal things without crying. I mean, don’t even get me to try and
party, I am in bed by 10pm, and that’s a late one. Chronic fatigue is a social
life killer.
The actual medical explanation is so;
“In endometriosis, you have cells that
would normally line your womb (endometrial tissue) elsewhere in your body. This
tissue will also thicken and break down with your menstrual cycle, but it has
no way of leaving your body. This can lead to pain, swelling and scarring. If
you have endometriosis on your fallopian tubes or ovaries, it can lead to
fertility problems.
Endometriosis is most common on your
ovaries, fallopian tubes and the tissues that hold your womb in place. You can
also get it on or around other organs in your pelvis and abdomen (tummy), such
as your vagina, bladder or bowel. Rarely, endometriosis can occur in other
places such as your lungs or breast.”
For myself, my endometriosis, as
they found during a laparotomy (basically a C-section) is currently (as far as
I know) attached to the walls of my womb and my bowels. This diagnosis however,
was a year ago, so it could, really, be anywhere by now. This makes life, sometimes, very painful. I’m
trying not to delve too deeply into the question of fertility, as I’d honestly,
rather just avoid the potentially emotionally painful and life changing effect,
that is infertility, of this stupid disease.
Symptoms differ from person to
person, so I’m going to do some more plagiarism from the BUPA website. If you
do have any of these symptoms, I would suggest going to get it checked out…
However, there is no way of definitive diagnosis apart from laparoscopy
(keyhole surgery) and there is no cure…
•
pain during sex
•
changes to your periods, such as heavy
bleeding
•
extreme tiredness
•
unexplained difficulties becoming
pregnant
After my surgery, to remove an 18x14cm cyst, the
gynaecologist tried to put me on Zoladex, which are painful injections, into
your stomach, which inadvertedly freeze your ovaries, inducing early menopause.
If you’re reading this, then you probably know me, and you know that me, with
extra hormones, or hormone withdrawal would be an absolute nightmare. Even if I
had have opted for this method, it is only a temporary solution, there is no
cure for endometriosis, just different hormone therapies for pain management.
There’s definitely a lot more to write about the disease,
but this is just a brief, brief outline, to raise a tiny bit of awareness, in
my social circle.
