In the realm of women’s health, there is an inaccurate yet widely accepted belief- period pain is a normal part of womanhood. For generations, women’s pain has been trivialised and often dismissed by the medical profession, society and even by women themselves, instead being told to man up or to pop a paracetamol and get through it.
No such condition has been affected by this frequent normalisation more than endometriosis, which occurs when tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows in other places such as the fallopian tube and the ovaries, resulting in heavy, painful periods, painful sex, infertility and diarrhoea amongst other debilitating symptoms. Even worse, this isn’t just restricted to that specific time of the month either, some women feel the effects of endometriosis all year round.
However, despite this, those suffering from endometriosis in the United Kingdom face an abnormally long wait time for diagnosis, with the average diagnosis coming seven and a half years after symptoms begin. Women are often turned away from their GPs or misdiagnosed due to the specialist nature of the diagnosis ( endometriosis can only be formally diagnosed after having exploratory laparoscopic surgery) and a reluctance to admit that women’s pain is genuine and not just an emotional overreaction. Additionally, doctors are far more likely to pursue other diagnoses before they land on endometriosis due to the overlap in the disease’s symptoms with other gastronomical issues and an ever-prevalent gender bias in the medical world which doesn’t extend the same care and consideration to a women’s pain tolerance as they are likely being too ‘soft’.
Indeed, many women have also fallen victim to this line of thinking. I know because I am one of them. I have suffered from painful periods since my early teens, with the first few days of that time of the month being incredibly debilitating. I can barely make it from my bed to the bathroom, let alone to campus to attend my lectures. Taking a concoction of paracetamol and ibuprofen does little to help and I usually spend these days bedridden with my boyfriend, friends and family taking care of me. I have been to the doctor about my cramps and was lucky to be seen by an excellent female doctor who believed me and my pain, yet after an ultrasound at the hospital showed nothing, I became disillusioned with my fight and resorted back to suffering in silence.
Society has always placed a taboo on anything menstruation related and this has greatly limited the amount of discourse on diseases like endometriosis, perpetuating a continuous cycle of misinformation, missed diagnosis and prolonged suffering. If you are reading this article and relate, just know that suffering in silence is not your only option and that there is help out there, you just have to keep pushing for it. Period pain is not a rite of passage, it is a genuine cause for concern, deserving of the same treatment and care as any other disease and don’t let anybody tell you differently.