At just 21, with a Paralympic gold medal and world records to her name, Katja Dedekind is on the path to leaving a legacy in Australian swimming.
She laughed when considering that prospect.
"I don't think about myself having a legacy," Dedekind said.
"In all honesty, I'm quite a humble person in that I don't talk about myself and my achievements very much.
"But what I do talk about is my struggle with endometriosis. Because it annoys me and I'm annoyed other people are going through the same thing."
Endometriosis affects at least one in nine women across Australia.
But those figures are just an estimate due to under reporting and misdiagnosis, according to Dedekind's gynecologist, Dr Graham Tronc of City Fertility.
Dr Tronc first started treating Katja, after the tell-tale signs of endometriosis were spotted by another one of his patients.
"The other swimmer found her in the change sheds of the swimming pool, curled up in a ball, pale, vomiting, and having a period and the other swimmer said this isn't normal," Dr Tronc told ABC Sport.
"She not only has endometriosis, but she's also got a sister disease, or I call it a sister disease, called adenomyosis, which is even harder to treat and that's endometriosis in the muscle of the uterus."
Katja Dedekind explained the validation and "sanity" that came with her diagnosis.
She'd struggled with intolerable pain since first getting her period at nine years old.
"My body was already going through those changes, and it was just so rough," she said.
"I had principals telling me when I was in sick bay, like 'stop trying to get out of class … you already get special treatment because you're vision impaired, stop trying to get out of it'."
Dedekind has since undergone surgeries to treat the condition, yet her pain management is limited due to anti-doping regulations in sport.
"I fully understand it, but there are times when I wish I could have taken the strong stuff just to knock out the lower half of my body, and just be able to get through a training session," Dedekind said.
Too often, she recalled having to motivate herself to simply get out of bed, let alone compete at the highest level.
"If I didn't push through at the World Championships and Comm Games, I wouldn't have got that world title, I wouldn't have got the two silver medals that came afterwards, I wouldn't have got that world record at Comm Games," she said.
"And even though the price for those medals and those accolades was being in bed for a day and a half afterwards, and not enjoying my time in the village, it was somehow a little bit worth it."
Dedekind told ABC Sport she believes there are "hundreds of athletes" still suffering with endometriosis, fearing what a diagnosis would mean for their performance.
Dr Tronc says there is still countless misconceptions about the condition.
"I've got another athlete who is an Olympic medallist, who got out of the pool and was telling her mother that her period, she had her period at the time and was in terrible pain, and yet she still won a medal," he said.
On International Women's Day — like Dedekind — Bindi Irwin shared her decade long battle with endometriosis, hoping her story would validate the feelings of women silently suffering.
Bindi's revelation attracted worldwide attention.
Katja Dedekind shares her sentiments, frustrated by the sheer number of women still enduring the symptoms alone.
"It's dumb. It's stupid," she said.
"Why are we suffering in silence? When did anyone say we have to? It's only because it's a taboo subject. Why is it a taboo subject? It shouldn't be."
