New guidelines for the NHS aim to reduce delays in diagnosis and save ladies years of unnecessary distress and woe.
Crippling pain
Amelia firstly clarified her symptoms to her GP and then a few different physicians, but they couldn’t find anything wrong.
“Finally, they agreed to send me to hospital for the purposes of an ultrasound scan.
“So, there I am sitting outside the hospital waiting area in full academy uniform with papa laugh and joking about to try and retain me calm. It felt like people in that waiting area were giving me dirty gazes, and presuming I was there for teenage pregnancies scan or something. I seemed judged.”
The scan revealed she had a cyst on her ovary, plus endometriosis.
When a woman with endometriosis menstruates, the lost womb tissue hemorrhages too, making crippling ache and some rather unusual symptoms.
Some girls pee blood at their time of the month. Others even cough up some blood if the rogue tissue is in their lungs.
Over time, the bleed can annoy their own bodies and to be translated into scarring or adhesions – tough cords of fibrous tissue that can cause more sorenes and establish organs stick to each other and cause complications.
Amelia’s doctor advised her to take an oral contraceptive pill to help alleviate her symptoms.
She currently takes the mini pill and hasn’t had a date in two years.
But Amelia , now 18 and living in south London, says her endometriosis still causes her daily sorenes. She’s been writing a blog about her experiences.
“Sometimes it can be really bad still. I get flare-ups and that’s really difficult.
“I get the phrase, ‘At least you’re not succumbing, ‘ quite a lot.
“I know it’s said most of the time by good friends who are trying to be nice and reassure me. But endometriosis for me is the prospect of a long life full of suffering. I sometimes feel like people are measuring my degree of struggle against others’ and that doesn’t feel exhibition. It’s daunting.”
Caroline Overton, the expert consultants gynaecologist who helped write the new guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence said: “There is no cure for endometriosis, so helping affected females manage their symptoms is imperative.
“As one of the more common gynaecological cancers in the UK, it is vital that endometriosis is more widely recognised.”
Emma Cox, from Endometriosis UK, said: “The impact a delayed diagnosis has on a woman’s life – her education, task, relationships and personal life – can be huge. On crest of coping with the disease itself, females have to was put forward with being told, sometimes for years, that what they have is ‘in their heads’ or ‘normal’, when it isn’t.”
Endometriosis facts
You can’t “catch” endometriosis and good-for-nothing you did attain you get wise
Women and girls of childbearing age and of any ethnicity can have it
It’s a long-term condition that can be difficult to diagnose at first
Common symptoms include pelvic ache, date agony, tiredness and sorenes during and after sexuality
Your GP may not be able to see any signs that you have endometriosis and some experiments may not show up the problem
You may need a procedure called a laparoscopy( where a surgeon passes a thin tube with a camera into your body through a small cut in your skin) to confirms the diagnosis
Medication( including the contraceptive pill) is available that can be used control the suffering and symptoms
Some wives have surgery to get rid of some of the tissue or a hysterectomy to remove the womb
Women with endometriosis can still try for a babe – it’s approximated up to 70% of women with mild or moderate endometriosis will be able to was pregnant without birthrate care
Sep, 28, 2017