"I have lived with Endometriosis
since the age of 13. I went to boarding school in England when I was 7. I went to prep school. It was
during the first few days in secondary school that I began my periods. They
called the ambulance and I was hospitalized for 10 days because the pain
wouldn't stop. The pain was so intense I passed out. I thought I was going to
die.
Living with Endometriosis is a challenge. When
you see your doctor, your doctor tries to treat the symptoms and assumes the
pain revolves around your menstrual circle. But this is not so. The pain
affects every single aspect of your life. I have never had an examination
without my period. There are so many things I have never done without my
period. When I am happy, my period comes. When I'm depressed, my period is
there. I learned to just cope with it.
Learn more about
Endometriosis after the cut………
Until I turned 40, Nigerians
didn't know I suffered from Endometriosis. I granted an interview then and
people understood why I never drank alcohol and why I was into healthy living.
At last, it was understood why if I come to your party, by 8pm I had to go home
to take my pain killers because when you live with Endometriosis, you live with
pain. I have a library in my home about pain.
I talk about this pain now
so that mothers, when their young daughters are starting their period for the
first time and it is traumatic, they should go to the hospital and have it
checked out.
Mine was left so late in
life in spite of the fact that I grew up in England. I have had so many
surgeries I have lost count. I remember when Michael Jackson died and they
talked about a drug he had been taking. I exclaimed oh yes I have taken that
drug. You try everything to make the pain go away, so all I know is that I
don't want a child of mine to suffer Endometriosis. The only way to make sure
of that is to educate as many as I can.
One ignorant doctor told me
once to try to have a baby, because once you have a baby the pain would go
away. I thought to myself if I had a gun, I would have shot that doctor and I
would have been locked and there would have been no one to give me pain
killers. The reason for that relief is that when you are pregnant, you don't
have periods and a long gap of not menstruating actually abates the symptoms of
Endometriosis.
Women with Endometriosis do
not want to have sex because it is painful. So you do not want to have
intercourse once and it is painful, you will not want to go there. It is not
something you are going to look forward to. You are either bleeding or you do
not want. So, on the average, my friend's period is 5 days, mine, if I'm lucky
lasts 7-10 days and if I'm super duper lucky, lasts less than 7 days. If you look
at a girl's circle, 26-27 days, remove the days she's been menstruating and
remove the days she doesn't want, when she had premenstrual tension. When every
part of you is sore, on those days you are not going to want and even on the
remaining 5 or so days that you are OK, you are not going to want to have
intercourse it is going to be painful. You just don't want to, so you cannot
have a proper relationship with men.
Endometriosis is a disease.
You are not supposed to have endometrial tissue in your abdomen. Surgery
removes it. But the moment you menstruate, the pain comes back. My
understanding is that I have a uterus, every woman does. Something lines it.
Just like when you want to bake, you line your pan with baking paper. That
baking paper or lining is the endometrial tissues. But mine isn't just confined
to my uterus. It's in my fallopian tube, it's every where. Everywhere this
tissue is, when you menstruate, that tissue will be doing the same thing. and
you feel pain everywhere. Anywhere that tissue is, it behaves as if it is the
uterus. The purpose of menstruating is to shed the lining and come out. I know
someone who has endometrial tissue in her gut. Even in the brain. When you
menstruate, it also menstruates and you feel pain there.
I am almost 47 and I am
looking forward to menopause. People like us look forward to it because it give
us a breather. I have finally learned how to cope with the pain, how to live
with it and how to manage it. It takes up a huge amount of my time and life...
Source: Linda Ikeji's Blog
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