A woman was diagnosed with an incurable condition after being rushed to hospital with a suspected ruptured appendix. Chrissie May Smith, 42, started experiencing "severe lower abdominal pain", back pain and irregular periods when she was 17.
The Echo reports that doctors dismissed it as "bad periods", but after collapsing at home "feeling like a knife had cut across her stomach", the woman from Netherley in Liverpool was taken to hospital with a suspected ruptured appendix. As doctors went to remove it, they found the culprit - a ruptured cyst caused by endometriosis .
That was eight years after the transport worker's symptoms first started, the average time it takes for people to be diagnosed with endometriosis. Affecting one in 10 women and some trans and non-binary people, endometriosis can damage internal organs and the lives of people with the condition.
Emma Cox, chief executive of the Endometriosis UK Charity, said: "Being in severe, chronic pain, and not being able to function properly, has an impact on your whole life. If that's when you're in your formative years at school or early in your career, that will have an impact on how you succeed in life."
Chrissie also has a related condition called adenomyosis, which involves tissue lining the uterus growing into the muscular wall of the uterus. It is the less common and less understood, half of what Emma calls "the evil twins".
Chrissie's treatment options are limited. She's taken the contraceptive pill and had a hormonal Zoladex implant to manage the pain, but a laparoscopy, pinhole surgery, or hysterectomy have not been attempted.
The tissue has grown to her bladder and diaphragm, and wrapped Chrissie's bowel around her uterus, a common result of unchecked endometriosis. The pain has left her bedbound on holiday in Lanzarote, she's lost jobs because of missing work and the damage from endometriosis tissue means she can't have children.
Chrissie said: "It literally broke me knowing that I would never have children. It's horrible because I think I could have been helped a lot earlier if I would have been listened to."
Endometriosis UK wants to see the Government reduce the time it takes to get a diagnosis from more than eight years to one. It is already a goal north of the border in Scotland.
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