A Northern Ireland makeup artist and influencer has opened up on how she had to fight for years for an endometriosis diagnosis.
Olivia McVeigh, 24, from Co Tyrone, who also recently fought to receive her alopecia diagnosis, started her periods at the age of ten - which she says were 'extremely heavy and painful' causing her to faint on a number of occasions.
When she was 16, Olivia decided to go to the doctor to get to the root cause of her pain but didn't receive an answer until she went private. Her formal diagnosis was on January 19, 2022 when she underwent surgery.
Read more: NI women's excruciating pain from the ages of 12 and 13 caused by endometriosis
The Eglish woman is now in induced menopause to help keep her symptoms at bay.
Olivia told Be: "I have been going to the doctors about ovary pain since I was about 16. I first got my period when I was ten, I was really young and from when I was about 10 or 11, the bleeding was really, really heavy.
"I just assumed this was normal. The main issue that everyone has at the minute with endo and trying to get a diagnosis is that this isn't talked about at schools. You think your pain is normal.
"I was in excruciating pain and I think I got to about 14,15,16 and every month I was either fainting in school or bleeding through my skirt, things like that.
"When I was about 16, my mummy took me to the doctors and they were basically like, 'No, this is just your age, it's just irregular'."
The 24-year-old also said she has never had regular periods - and has ended up in A&E at times because the pain was so bad.
"The last time I had a period was 11 months ago, up until that I would have maybe had two periods a month and then not have one for three months, or maybe regular for two months and not get one for three months.
"It was all over the place. I was on the pill, off the pill and put on iron tablets because I was losing so much blood each month.
"I was doing my A-Levels and had gone back a few times and was in A&E when I was about 18 with a cyst, well they said it was a cyst but did nothing about it. There was no further investigation. They just sent me home," Olivia added.
At this point, the Co Tyrone woman thought she must have 'just had bad periods'.
"I specifically remember going to the doctors when I was about 19 or 20 and they said to me, 'This is in your head, this is what it is like to be a woman, do you want me to put you on anxiety medication?'
"She was basically letting on that I was imagining this pain. Which I knew wasn't right.
"I came off the pill then when I was about 20. I was always in pain and would have got a numbness down my leg and up my back because it was that bad," Olivia said.
The makeup artist went back to the doctor for answers in around July 2021 and said she was mainly going about her hair loss.
"At that point my doctor turned around to me, even to see her I think I went through three rounds of blood tests, which came back clear, I went in to see her and she was like 'there is nothing coming up here'."
Olivia was then told the next step was a scan, but was advised to go private due to waiting lists. She was then diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome and endometriosis.
She said: "I went in October 2021 and my consultant looked at me and was like, 'oh you have androgenetic alopecia'. Then she scanned me, the first scan I ever had, and said it looked like I had endometriosis.
"The saddest part about it is that I have never been to relieved and happy in my whole life, I had been gas-lit that entire time being told there was nothing wrong with me.
"I was so glad because I was thinking I was wasting her time. My doctors had made me feel like I was wasting their time."
Olivia was then told to go for urgent surgery which happened in January 2022. This is when she received her formal endometriosis diagnosis.
"I was booked in for a laparoscopy, they were just going to have a wee look about and maybe remove some stuff but when they went in I had to have an ovarian cystectomy.
"I had two cysts removed and my left ovary was attached to my bowel with endo, so they cut away all the endo and remove my ovary from my bowel.
"After the surgery I didn't walk for two and a half weeks," she told Be.
Unfortunately, the 24-year-old's pain returned at the end of March 2022.
Olivia continued: "With endo, there is that added aspect of fertility. You are thinking, 'if this goes wrong, I might not be able to have children'. You think the worst."
In July, the blogger's mum found her in a fetal position in their hallway due to 'unbearable pain'.
"There were days I was walking with a stick. Insane. I then went back to my consultant and she told me I had a big cyst on my left ovary and that it was sitting into my digestive system, my intestines.
"She told me it looked like endo growing back. She goes to me, 'the only thing we can do is put you into menopause for six months to see if we can treat this'."
Olivia has now been in menopause for three months.
"That is supposed to hopefully shrink the cyst and treat the endo symptoms, so give me a bit of relief. Unfortunately I haven't seen any difference yet. I get injections every 28 days to keep me in menopause.
"It is a waiting game. I'm left thinking when I come off this, is it going to come back again? I'm not 100% sure what the next steps are," she said.
The influencer speaking out comes as a recent report by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists found that by December 2021, 36,900 women in NI were on a gynaecology waiting list, the longest in the UK.
This is a 42% increase since the start of the pandemic.
Olivia continued: "It is a stage of neglect. Women are being neglected. Their health is being neglected.
"Not once in this time have I been offered to speak to someone. I have been put into induced menopause. It is a major life change.
"There needs to be more awareness so people can actually know the signs and symptoms.
"The long term affects are awful. Fertility is a big part of it but I don't want to live my life in pain.
"Women are going and getting seen to and doctors are not helping them. I hear women every single day.
"You shouldn't have to push for your own health and beg for people to scan you.
"There is just not enough support for women in this country."
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