Things I Hate About (My Partner) Having Endo

Diet restrictions

My partner has a pretty good idea of what foods trigger flare-ups of her endo pain and we do our best to avoid these. Unfortunately for me, these are some of my favourite things! I can and do eat these things when I’m eating alone or with friends, but I hate that I can’t share my favourite foods with my favourite person!

Going to bed early

Sometimes, a guy just wants to stay up till 4am watching animal videos. However, that doesn’t help fatigue very much. Having a consistent, early bedtime is without a doubt the most effective lifestyle change we have made to tackle this particular symptom, so I don’t hate that, but man, sometimes there just aren't enough hours in the day to get through all those new shows.

Painful sex

Endo can be a real pain in the libido! There are few things less arousing to me than actually seeing pain and discomfort in my partner’s face when we make love. Some positions are pretty excruciating to my partner and best not attempted, and if she’s “only a little” sore afterwards, it’s all gone pretty well.

Surgeries

As above, I hate seeing my partner in pain, so it goes without saying that I hate seeing her wheeled off to be put to sleep and cut open with a scalpel. I want to protect her from going through this kind of procedure, but sometimes a laparoscopy is the best course of treatment. And then there’s the recovery – I hate seeing the discomfort and fatigue that my partner gets during post-surgery recovery.

That we don’t know what the future holds

As with many illnesses, we don’t really know how it will progress in the future. How many more surgeries will be needed? Will the pain get worse? Will it lead to other, related conditions? What about fertility? Are we going to have to always live near a specialist hospital? We are doing our best to manage the condition, but is it enough? There’s so much that we can’t know and that can be frustrating when you want to make plans for the future.

That I’m powerless

The thing I hate most about endometriosis is that I’m pretty powerless to stop it. Sure, I can help with lifestyle changes, I can be there for moral and emotional support, and I can raise awareness amongst my friends and family and be part of the online endo community. But at time of writing, there is still no cure, and no matter how hard I try or wish or pray, there’s nothing I can do to stop it... and I HATE that!

Seriously though – this is a rant and whilst true enough, not reflective of my normal thoughts or feelings towards endo. Please check out some of my other, more constructive posts, to see ways my partner and I manage her endo together. Read more here