Personally, I don’t have endometriosis (also called endo) and I have only ever met one woman with endometriosis (that I know of), but I have seen women talking about it on Facebook groups and I have often wondered what is endometriosis, from what some women say it sounds awful.
What is Endometriosis?
The World Health Organisation states that:
” Endometriosis is a disease where tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus, causing pain and/or infertility.”
It is very difficult to diagnose and often goes undiagnosed. The best way to diagnose it is via a laparoscopy, which is keyhole surgery into your tummy where a camera is often inserted or a biopsy is taken (a sample of cells) to see what is going on. There is, unfortunately, no cure for endo and treatment is usually about controlling symptoms, although surgery can be done to remove endometriosis lesions, adhesions, and scar tissue with the goal to reduce pain and increase fertility chances.
Last week I went to a Let’s Talk Gynae event, where endo was discussed and we watched this short (15 minute) video on it. Now, this isn’t one of the awful videos that we saw in school about sex education, it is actually a story, a drama about two sisters who both have endo. I wanted to share this video with you, so that anyone who like me knows next to nothing about endometriosis or if you suffer from it hopefully it will reduce the taboo around it if we all start talking about it.
How Many Women Have Endo?
According to the World Health Organisation around 10% of all women/girls globally of reproductive age suffer from endo, this is around 190 million! It is HUGE. And yet it is hardly spoken about, it wasn’t until I started on my fertility journey that I even heard of it. In theory 1 in 10 of my friends have it and yet I have only ever met 1 woman (that I know) with it, and that was last week when I went to watch the film above.
If you think that you might have endo, check out this pain and symptom diary from Endometriosis UK, it will help you monitor what you are feeling and that can be used for a diagnosis, to manage symptoms or to use if you need time off from work school etc.
Please let us know in the comments if you have any other questions about endo, as it is a topic we think more women need to be educated on.
