Ashleigh L's Story

My Story About Endometriosis

When I was 13 I had my first attack of Endometriosis, I was on a family camping trip and it was one of the most horrible nights of my young life. After this I knew my period pain was so much more  extreme than normal. I can’t count the times I would be crouched over in the foetal position breathing my way through the pain, pain that if you didn’t take medication for would just get worse and worse until it was unbearable. At the age of 16 I had my first laparoscopy. In the ongoing years i would end up having 4 all up. When I was 20 I had an attack so bad the ambulance was called and they thought I was possible having a miscarriage, when I got to the hospital I passed so much blood that I was taken to hospital and had emergency surgery where I had had a cyst removed the size of a lemon they said the one the burst would of been the size of a baseball. The type of cyst I had was called a “chocolate clot” this was a direct result of the endometriosis.

Years later  by the grace of God fell pregnant with my first child i was so happy. When I was 20 weeks pregnant i had horrible pains in my stomach i was rushed to hospital where I went into emergency surgery to remove my appendix, later when they had it examined by pathology it was said to be riddled with endometriosis. After this my pain never came back as bad and I’m now 30 and for the first time in my life have a regular period. I now have two beautiful girls and only rarely have the pain i used to. I hope my story can inspire other women that even thou you are in the trenches there is hope, hope that one day it may be possible to live a life of not being crippled with pain and you can have children. This is my story of living life with endometriosis.