I wrote about my gynae hell – and whoa did you respond!
Your tales of dismissal and gaslighting make for a catalogue of horror
Last week I decided to repost a piece I wrote a couple of years ago about discovering I had adenomyosis (what?!), polyps and fibroids, after decades of heavy periods and fruitless conversations with doctors. I was prompted by a conversation I had with British journalist and broadcaster Naga Munchetty about her own three-decade battle with period agony.
It took over two decades to get my painful periods diagnosed
I know I’m far from the only woman to have lost a lifetime of time and energy to agonising periods, bleeding buckets and, let’s be frank, to have got through an absolute ton of towels and sheets (and…
I knew it would get a response, because I know thousands (hundreds of thousands, if not more) of women have battled to get help for gynae problems and been dismissed, told “it’s normal”. What I didn’t expect, was the avalanche of response I got. From all over the world. So many women prepared to share their experiences. Some had managed to get help, many hadn’t. Here are just a handful of their replies…
(I’m putting this behind the paywall, not to exclude anyone, but to give some privacy to the women whose experiences are included below.)