It’s Tuesday morning and I’m on my period. I have a nerve stimulation (Tens) machine attached to my abdomen, anesthetic tapes around my hips, and a heating pad secured to my back. None of this touched the sides of my pain. Because I have it endometriosisA debilitating condition in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows elsewhere in my body. While my symptoms are most severe during my period, this disease affects my entire body at all times and in every aspect of my life.

At least one in 10 women in Britain Living with endometriosis. If this comes as a surprise to you, you probably know as much about this condition as the average NHS doctor, based on the figures released this week and my own experiences seeking treatment. A report from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists published on Monday found that at least 630,000 women are currently on waiting lists. gynecological careThis is more than double the figures in 2021; This reflects the fact that there are very few doctors with specialized knowledge of my disease and other women’s health conditions.

My health struggles started when I was just 11 years old and my period started. I was losing tremendous amounts of blood, which meant I had to be near the bathroom at all times, and the intense cramps meant I would spend a lot of time in bed. We were taught about the menstrual cycle at school, but heavy, debilitating periods weren’t normal, so I didn’t understand the difference between normal bleeding and what was happening to me.

Worse than the pain was how alone I often felt; While my friends would go to the movies or the park, I would have to cancel plans at the last minute, lying in my room in paralyzing pain.

This intense pain was something I had conditioned myself to endure. After all, my doctor told me that periods must be painful and that I was unlucky. It wasn’t until 2002, when I had to leave university for a year because I started fainting from pain, that I realized things might not be normal. My younger cousin, who had a friend diagnosed with endometriosis, suggested that I might have the condition, too. My parents and I had never heard of it, assuming my terrible periods were something I had to deal with every month.

That’s when I asked my doctor to refer me to a specialist. I was deceived after explaining my symptoms birth control pill To “regulate” my periods: first the combined estrogen and progesterone pill, then just progesterone, then the birth control shot, and finally the coil.

Nothing helped and in fact they all made my symptoms worse. I also had to deal with numerous side effects: mood swings, weight fluctuations, and migraines, all in addition to the pain. Endometriosis is a condition that affects my entire body: My symptoms also meant that I was often uncomfortably bloated and was always either constipated or dealing with severe diarrhea. Still, the doctors insisted that I was unlucky and that some people have a harder time than others. I began to doubt my own pain and symptoms and wonder if I was actually just a hypochondriac.

During visits to different GPs in my 20s, I was repeatedly told that I “had a low pain threshold”, that it was all in my head, or that I just needed to change my diet. It took me two years to beg doctors for my first laparoscopy, a keyhole surgery that allows doctors to explore your abdomen to find endometriosis.