Anyone who has suffered from health issues related to their reproductive health will tell you of the battle it can be, with illnesses such as endomitosis taking on average eight years to diagnose.
Neelam Heera Shergill is fighting to change this narrative through Cysters, a charity dedicated to "taking up space" and pushing for better healthcare for marginalised communities.
The 33-year-old was named the Grace Woman of the Year for International Women's Day 2023 in recognition of her work to create an inclusive space that empowers people of all faiths, backgrounds and genders to speak up about the issues they face around fertility.
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Neelam, based in Birmingham, had suffered from extremely painful periods since her teens but blamed her lifestyle and puberty for her symptoms.
To make matters worse, she was prescribed the contraceptive pill for her pain but told by her doctor "really flippantly" that taking it "doesn't mean that you can go around having sex with everyone".
It took several years of fighting and two blackouts before medical professionals discovered she had a chocolate cyst - an indicator for endometriosis.
She said: "We’re always told to give six to three months worth of calendar dates of pain as a way of proof. And I started realising that, you know, not only are period sexualized, our pain levels aren't really listened to.
"Cysters came from a place of real anger and hurt from my own journey. But I wanted to find out if other people struggled with them as well. And it kind of went from a one woman band talking about these problems to essentially a group of as a collective almost a system of other people."
Neelam, who is Sikh, credits her faith with inspiring her to help others and mentioned the Sikh principles of working for the good of all and ‘seva’, which means selfless service.
Everyone is welcome to join the 'Cysterhood', regardless of race, religion, gender or sexuality as Neelam explained it is "just a place for your to belong, without having to justify your existence in that space".
She added: "Our doors are open, the Cysterhood is yours, if you ever need it. And people sometimes need it for a specific period in their life when they're going through a diagnosis, some people might need it during fertility. It's not something that you have to commit to be in every meeting.
"And that also goes for our trans and non binary members, because there's not many safe spaces for people who have different intersects with gender and sexuality to have safe spaces, a place which they call their own.
"Quite often when I spoke about menstrual health, I was the only brown person speaking about it. What I want to do is take everyone on the journey with me because I don't want to be the face of this organisation. I want it to be a collective of people."
Cysters' journey hasn't been easy with Neelam receiving hundreds of abusive messages, trying to silence her for talking about sex. Recently, the 33-year-old was invited to 10 Downing Street to talk about reproductive health and is incredibly proud to have been named Grace Woman of the Year.
The awards were set up by Grace newsletter, to celebrate inspirational women on International Women's Day and Neelam has won the top prize of £500.
"It's taken seven years to get to this point where we're actually being listened to on a Government level, and we're being heard at a Government level," she said.
"So it is a really proud moment, for me, is a really proud moment that I've not only just won this Grace award, but I've actually got a space to actually say to my community that we've got a seat at the table at Downing Street to have a conversation about your health, to think make things better for you.
"What makes me more happy is the fact that somebody in Cysters, who has been on this journey for a long time with us, has taken the time and thought and energy to put this into somebody like me and thought that I was worthy of this."
Neelam was chosen by a panel of four judges at Reach - Alison Phillips, editor of The Mirror; Dr Rebecca Whittington, online safety editor; Lynda Moyo, head of emerging content at The Mirror; and Jacqui Merrington, Reach discovery director and editor of Grace.
The five runners-up in the Grace Women of the Year Awards were:
- Jess Siegertsz, who runs a ladies only skating group in Stoke-On-Trent
- Hannah Payton, Britain's only practising Zumba instructor with Down's Syndrome
- Kath Sansom, founder of Sling The Mesh
- Karen Harvey, who founded the UK's first initiative against hygiene poverty
- Jean Lindsay, founder of Preston Black Women's Group
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