Endo vs. Emmanuelle
‘Endometriosis.’ Usually, I have to repeat it twice, because most people have never heard about this disease. Strange, if you consider 1 out of 10 women suffer from it. (which is approximately 176 million women in the world) We have the same number of patients who suffer from asthma or Diabetes, which are of course much better known by the General public. I suffered from period pain, since I was 16, which was getting worse and worse, as time went by. At 34, I arrived at a point where I was having bowel problems, for at least 10 days a month. I could be having loose stool 3-4 days before my period, cramps during period and I was constipated up to 4-5 days after my period ended. Numerous doctor appointments and hospital visits, unfortunately brought nothing. Everyone said, it was normal to suffer during period… and I believed it.
Finally getting a diagnosis
At 35, after a horrible IVF cycle which led to an endometriosis-outburst, I finally received a correct diagnosis and received proper surgery… This was 6 months ago. I still find it very hard to accept, that there are still many women who have to go through this and I really hope we can all help raising awareness about our illness by speaking up.
You can read more about Emmanuelle on her blog here.
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