When the sharp, stabbing pain in her abdomen became so severe she had to be substituted at half-time during a match last season, Katja Snoeijs knew what she was experiencing was not “normal period pains”.
The 29-year-old Everton and Netherlands striker has since been diagnosed with endometriosis, which affects roughly one in 10 women of reproductive age. She says she counts herself lucky because she received her diagnosis within 12 months and was shocked to learn the average wait in the UK is nine years.
