On Tuesday morning a huge advertising campaign appeared across the country and on social media for Women's Health: Breaking the Taboos that was set to air Tuesday 10 August at 7pm.
Newspapers and billboards were lit up with "Endometriosis is as common as diabetes - It's time to talk about it".
Endometriosis is a chronic menstrual condition that can take people in the UK on average 8 years to get a diagnosis.
It's debilitating and can completely destroy every element of a woman's day to day life.
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| Endometriosis is a chronic menstrual condition that is as common as diabetes. |
Naturally people with endometriosis were thrilled at the opportunity to have our voices heard, to share our experiences and reveal the realities behind a condition that can be completely debilitating.
The Women's Health:Breaking the Taboos was sold by Channel 5 as a documentary that would be talking about Endometriosis and how there is not nearly enough research and support to people with the condition.
This programme had a huge advertising campaign behind it with Endometriosis UK sharing on Facebook: "we’re delighted to see #endometriosis on the front page of @metro.co.uk and across Billboards including Waterloo and Stratford station!".
But Channel 5 and Lambent productions completely missed the mark and people across the country were left devastated.
A post from @jen.dometriosis on shared a post on Instagram perfectly summed up how a lot of people with endometriosis were left feeling after the programme.
Endometriosis was featured in the Women's Health documentary for just seven minutes in the 55 minute episode.
Just seven minutes for a complex condition that takes people on average eight years to get a diagnosis.
The documentary focussed on painful periods, which perpetuates the myth that that is all endometriosis really is.
Endometriosis has a host of symptoms with NHS UK describing the main symptoms as including:
- pain in your lower tummy or back (pelvic pain) – usually worse during your period
- period pain that stops you doing your normal activities
- pain during or after sex
- pain when peeing or pooing during your period
- feeling sick, constipation, diarrhoea, or blood in your pee during your period
- difficulty getting pregnant
Endometriosis can also cause heavy bleeding, which can cause people to bleed through tampons, pads or other menstrual products at an abnormal rate.
It is difficult to get help and people face years of battling with doctors to be listened to and get the help they need.
There was nothing on the fight to be heard, the fight for adequate care and the stigma people fight on a daily basis.
There was no mention on how many GP's will dismiss people as "just something some women have to deal with" (as I was once told at 23 years old after fainting from the pain and heavy bleeding).
Focusing on "painful periods" just perpetuates a condition that can be life destroying. The term "painful periods" in itself downplays what can cause women to be hospitalised with pain.
It personally has caused me to be bed bound every cycle, to pass out from the pain, faint and make me feel like something was horrifically wrong with me, I've had periods where I genuinely thought I was giving birth because that was the only way to describe the level of pain I was in.
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| People can be left in excruciating pain with many ending up hospitalised |
Women's Health: Breaking the Taboos glossed over the surgeries and how women face these surgeries being done gynaecologists who aren't adequately trained in identifying the disease, let alone treating the condition.
The documentary even covered treatments that most people had never heard of, including Endermologie, which honestly sounded made up when I first heard the term.
Many people don't have the luxury to the treatments discussed in the documentary and was not an accurate representation of the care the NHS provides.
Endometriosis, like many menstrual conditions is vastly under researched and many gynaecologists aren't adequately trained to treat people with the condition.
At my last hospital I was belittled for knowing more about the treatments of endometriosis than the staff, being called a "stupid girl" by a nurse for researching the difference between ablation (burning off the endometriosis) and excision (cutting out the endometriosis).
When the nurse went to talk to a doctor about me being anxious about the surgery she was informed that I was right, there was no apology despite the fact the had just belittled me for researching my condition.
I was told at that hospital that there was an 80% chance my gynaecologist wouldn't find anything and that if that was the case I would be discharged from their care.
Why is it that only the 20% should receive treatment but I should be left with this debilitating condition, if the surgeon isn't trained to actually know what they're looking for?
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| Many people find it hard to be listened to at a doctors without being belittled or having their symptoms undervalued. |
I mentioned the surgeries above too, how there are different ways to treat endometriosis and with more research excision is showing to be a better method of treating the illness, yet many doctors are not trained in this surgery.
In the UK there are a handful of doctors who are trained to excise endometriosis if it's found, despite research suggesting that this gives people a better potential outcome.
As people with Endometriosis it is up to us to research and be informed about our illness, to join groups, read research papers and know everything we can so that we can fight for answers when we need them.
In the documentary, the true reality of Endometriosis was glossed over, it was disguised under "painful periods" and not really ventured into.
The programme acknowledged the fact that "there is no cure" and yet was given just seven minutes to discuss such a complex condition.
How are people supposed to get information and guidance if what is advertised as an endometriosis documentary just glosses over the condition itself?
This condition is exhausting, it affects people's quality of life and we're still fighting to be heard.
Channel 5 and Lambent Productions, please do better. Consider a longer documentary just for the condition itself.
Do research, talk to more women than just five about their experiences and explore the true realities of living with endometriosis.
If you really want to "break the taboos" then you need to do better.
