This is Halle’s Story
I first noticed my symptoms at 12 years old when I started my periods. I had always been excited to grow up and felt proud to start my period, but that excitement quickly turned into fear.
From the very beginning, my periods were extremely painful. I would vomit constantly, feel faint, overheat even in winter, and experienced extreme bloating. The pain was so severe that I sometimes couldn’t walk or stand without support, and as time went on, I began passing out during flare-ups. I sought medical attention early, but I was repeatedly told it was “normal period pain,” that I had a low pain tolerance, or that I was being dramatic. At just 12 years old, I was prescribed birth control to manage the pain, despite not being sexually active, and was told it would fix the problem. I stayed on birth control for four years, but the pain never improved - I simply learned to live with it.
Over the next six years, I had multiple GP appointments, hospital visits, blood tests, scans and MRIs, yet I was often told I was “too young” to have endometriosis and that some girls “just have bad periods”. Being dismissed for so long deeply affected my mental health and made me question my own body, leaving me wondering whether I was exaggerating or experiencing health anxiety.
At 16, after getting my first job, I began saving money to see a private specialist because I felt I had no other choice. I was finally listened to. After undergoing a laparoscopy two years later. I was finally diagnosed with endometriosis, six years after my symptoms began. Receiving the diagnosis was strangely relieving; after years of being unheard, it validated everything I had experienced.
Endometriosis has impacted my education, work, and mental wellbeing, forcing me to plan my life around flare-ups and pain, but it has also made me determined to raise awareness. No one should be made to feel that severe pain is “just part of being a woman.” If your pain is not being taken seriously, don’t give up. You know your body better than anyone. We deserve to be believed, we deserve better research, and we deserve faster diagnosis. Endometriosis is not “just a bad period,” and speaking about it is how change begins.
Thank you Halle for sharing your story.
No one should feel they have to pay to access the care they deserve. Endometriosis doesn’t wait and Halle and others like her shouldn’t have to either. The Government must take action. Call on your parliamentarians to drive down wait times and improve access to care within the NHS today using our easy online form.
