Bethany

I first experienced endometriosis symptoms at age 12. I had severe pain and at one point passed out at school due to this. My mum has endometriosis so she had her suspicions and took me to the doctor. Unfortunately a lot of doctors advised that I was "too young" to have endometriosis and I was therefore given a variety of different contraceptive pills to try throughout my school years. As I got to 16/17 my symptoms worsened and I ended up in hospital several times and eventually was given a referral to a gynaecologist. I underwent a laparoscopy which resulted in a diagnosis of endometriosis.

After my diagnosis I was offered more hormonal treatment including the Mirena coil and the depo injection. Unfortunately it seems I am someone whose body does not get on well with hormone treatments as I had severe side effects from both. Luckily when I moved to university I found myself nearby an endometriosis specialist, after some pushing I managed to get a referral and had my first excision surgery in 2019. 

My excision offered me total relief for about a year, however my symptoms did slowly creep back, I was referred to gynaecology again and tried Prostap, this worked whilst I was on it, however it did stop my periods for about 2 years afterwards, and once they returned the endometriosis symptoms had returned too (with an additional diagnosis of PCOS). I am now under the endometriosis specialist again, and hoping for another excision surgery as my endometriosis symptoms are very severe at this point.

Undergoing this journey has made me realise how lucky I am to have such understanding friends and family, and as a result I want to make sure that anyone else in a similar situation feels supported too. Endometriosis is a journey but if you have someone to talk to and support you throughout, the journey gets that little bit easier.