Anna C's Story

My Story

When I first started getting my period it was very regular, to the day. But by the time I was 19 I was experiencing immense pain even when it wasn’t that time of the month. When I was 21 the doctors thought I had kidney stones because of how I was describing the pain but eventually found out I have a ovarian cyst. Since then my periods were very irregular and I was constantly in pain. Not many people took my pain seriously and brushed it off as normal period pain and everyone is different. I finally saw a specialist who listened, and after hearing that my mum had endometriosis she decided that I needed a laparoscopy to see if I also might have endo. She only found a small amount and couldn’t explain why I was in so much pain. I have since been on hormone suppressants and have recently began another medication to counteract the side effects. It’s a strange feeling to rely on medication to stop something that is part of being a women at the age of 23. I am still experiencing significant pain but at least I finally found some answers.