When Endometriosis Interferes With Your Life

When my health began to interfere with my life, I never imagined that it would completely change everything.

Beyond bad periods, which started at the age of 12, I never really had any issues with the disease until it started to cause pain during sex. This is what led to my diagnosis at the age of 21. Now, at 35, I can't imagine a life which isn't ruled by this illness.

Endometriosis is unpredictable

Because of the way endometriosis works, you never really know what's around the corner. You can be feeling fine one minute and then the next be completely crippled with pain. It can come at the most inconvenient of times. This can make it difficult to arrange and keep plans.

I've reached the point where I know what my body can and cannot handle and I plan activities around this. But it took a long time to learn this. I know now that I cannot handle a night out on the town with friends, drinking in to the small hours like I used to do. I can no longer go on all day shopping trips. I can't handle standing to cook my family dinner every night. It can make life become monotonous with having to plan everything.

And then there is the whole other side, where you have to cancel plans. You can make every effort to go somewhere or see someone and then pain strikes and you have to rearrange it all. And then you have the feelings of guilt and disappointment to deal with. The feelings others may place upon you because they feel let down and think you are flaky when you are actually anything but.

Slowly, over time, all these little issues can start to niggle away at your relationships with others. Whether it be with a partner, family member, friend, or even your co-workers - endometriosis likes to get in the way. Being unable to keep plans, the lack of understanding surrounding endometriosis and how poorly it can make you, stopping you from being intimate with your partner, and having to take countless days off work, it likes to wheedle it's way in to your life and create complications.

My life revolves around illness

Endometriosis is pretty much all I think about. If I'm not attending medical appointments, I'm having to order, keep a check on, and take medicines, think about my activity levels and rest. If I have plans coming up, I have to rest before, during, and after. I have to think about what foods I eat and how they will effect me. I have to plan my weeks with how my son can be looked after and think about whether or not he will be bored silly staying in the house with a poorly Mama.

And that's the thing, endometriosis is so much more than an illness. It's all encompassing. There isn't a single part of your life it doesn't effect.

... And to think some people believe it's "just a bad period"!