37-year-old Georgie Wileman just won a BAFTA. Her documentary film, This is Endometriosis, depicts the reality of living with the full-body inflammatory condition, which affects one in ten people assigned female at birth and involves tissue similar to the uterine lining growing on other areas of the body, where it causes symptoms such as inflammation, scarring and severe chronic pain.
It’s a condition deeply connected to trauma in more ways than one. To begin with, research involving over one million women shows that adversity in childhood increases risk of endometriosis after menstruation begins, thanks in large part to the prolonged, low-grade inflammation that trauma leaves in the body. Given that endometriosis is an inflammatory condition, trauma has the power to worsen symptoms and potentially even trigger onset.
