Let's put an end-o to this.

Battling with an illness that no one talks about.

Season 3 episode 2,

Let's get into this...

Summary:

A typical period: should consist of a 23-35 day cycle. Your period isn’t meant to be completely pain free and the pain should be handled with average pain relief like paracetamol or ibuprofen. An abnormally heavy flow is having to change your pad or tampon every hour or 2.

Annabel is a nurse in the NHS and has suffered for endometriosis for 11 years.

There is no cure for endometriosis but it can be treated through surgery and you can only diagnose endometriosis from surgery.

Her journey took a LONG time to finally get diagnosed, highlighting the issue with endo diagnosis. She had countless doctors and nurses dismiss her until one doctor finally took her seriously!

Whilst there is no cure, since being diagnosed, there is relief in knowing you have endo and that you aren’t being dramatic and gives power back to the patient instead to the illness.

3 things we learnt:

Endometriosis is a gynaecologist condition, where cells similar to the ones in the lining of the uterus grow outside of the uterus. Like a period when those cells break down so do these cells outside the uterus, so essentially causes internal bleeding inside the body. It can grow anywhere in your body!

Symptoms include:

Migraines

Nausea

Chronic Fatigue

Back pain

Food intolerances

Doctors and nurses aren’t educated enough in women’s health in general. Annabel sees that as a nurse with stigmatisation and judgement when women come in with pain, it isn’t always taken seriously.

Challenge:

Talk to and educate someone on endometriosis