My journey with chronic pain started when I was just 12 years old. From the very beginning, my periods were unbearable. We’re talking pain so bad I’d faint, vomit, and be completely wiped out. I switched my GCSE’s around due to me being in hospital all summer holiday, drop out of college, and accept the fact that I wouldn’t be able to go to university. No matter how many times I tried to get help, I was brushed off. I was told it was “just a bad period,” “IBS,” or something that would go away with age or childbirth.

As I have gotten older, the pain has gotten worse. Experiencing PMDD, pain when I’m ovulating, pain 10 days before my period, my uterus and bowel being stuck together, nerve damage in my left leg due to the adhesions pressing on my nerves, chronic fatigue, belly button pain, pain when urinating and emptying my bowels, brain fog, migraines, chest pain, the list goes on. 

At 13, I had a ruptured ovarian cyst and needed emergency surgery. Later on in 2020, I had a cyst twist on my ovary that also required surgery. The trauma didn’t just come from the physical pain, but from being ignored and having to fight just to be believed. Don’t let any doctor lie to you and tell you that you’re ‘too young’ to be experiencing your symptoms. 

It wasn’t until 13 years later at age 26, after multiple hospital visits, two surgeries for ovarian cysts, trying all the medications in the world such as naproxen, co-codmol, codeine, amitryptline, ibuprofen, 3 birth control pills including  and years of being dismissed , that I was finally diagnosed with both endometriosis and adenomyosis. By then, the emotional damage had already been done.