Not diagnosed with endometriosis until I fainted and taken to the ER

by Ash
(Madrid)

I got my first period at 11 and they were pretty painful from day 1. But around the age of 15 it got so bad that I would have to stay home from school with a hot water bottle.

I was put on various forms of the pill but nothing changed. The most telling symptom looking back, but one which was ignored, was the diarrhoea. I couldn't eat during my period or I'd get stabbing pains and end up on the loo.

Turns out I had adhesions inside my intestine and my intestine was fused to my uterus. Anyway, one day when I was 20 I collapsed with pain and was brought to hospital. I didn't have my period that day but had had intercourse that morning.

After about a day and a half of testing for other things, I finally saw my wonderful gynaecologist and surgeon and she knew straight away. I was on the verge of losing the ovary - hence the pain. It was literally about to burst. I was operated on successfully and put on 6 months of hormone-suppressing injections (artificial menopause!!) to allow my body to heal and my system to "reboot".

I've been on the pill ever since - this was fifteen years ago - and have yearly check ups and all is fine now. I tried several brands before settling for Yasmin, then Yasminelle, then Yaz (as I got bad PMT during the 7-day break and Yaz is a 4 day break.

Everybody's different but I don't notice bad side effects with these brands (or their generic equivalent, depending on my doctor!)