‘€œI remember I was at home and it came like cramps, but felt like knife stabs. It was so sore. I went to the chemist and bought Myprodols, which are very strong pain killers. I got home and drank them and it didn’€™t work. That didn’€™t worry me because I knew I would fall asleep and wake up the next day fine because I have always had bad period pains’€.

29- year old Vuyo Jebe is a working mother of one. Vuyo was diagnosed with endometriosis two years ago. Endometriosis is a condition where the tissue that lines the womb grows outside of the womb. It can grow anywhere outside of the womb, either on the bladder, on the bowel, on the tubes or the ovaries. It has also been found in the liver and the lungs. Vuyo says the symptoms came as an unbearable pain preventing her from walking.

‘€œAt 2 o’€™clock that night I woke up because the pain was worse and I went to Carstenhof Hospital. The doctor told me something was wrong with my bladder and that I need to get it sorted. He gave me pills and I went home. Those pills were meant to make me better, but, instead I threw up and the pain was not getting any better. The next day a friend of mine took me to another doctor who asked me all sorts of questions about my pain and he said he suspected I have a condition, but needs to do tests to be sure’€, she explained.

The tests were done and the result showed that Vuyo had endometriosis. Despite regular visits to the gynaecologist, Vuyo’€™s gynaecologist did not pick up that she was developing the condition. She said that the news brought on a lot of sadness.

‘€œThe doctor sat me down and explained my condition and how it will affect me. He said I might not be able to have babies. He thought it was still the early stage because my womb was still intact and the lining was fine. We just needed to treat it. He even suggested that if I want to have babies I should have them now because there is just no cure for it. You feel distressed. I was only 27 when I found out and I thought I still want to have kids, I’€™m too young, and I want to be a mommy’€.

One in 8 women will develop endometriosis. Specialists in the medical field say the numbers are higher in women who are infertile, with one in four women or 60% of them suffering from it. However, he says many women may also not be aware that they have endometriosis because the signs may not be visible. Specialist in reproductive medicine, Dr Mervin Jacobson, says endometriosis can make life unpleasant for the individual, even if it is not classified under the ‘€œdangerous diseases’€ category.

‘€œIt can compromise a woman’€™s comfort with sex because it leads to painful intercourse, it may lead to pain with other body functions, like the bladder while passing urine. It can lead to pain during a bowel action, it depends where it is and how much it is. Sometimes it can even block off the bowel. So, they’€™ll have progressive pain trying to have a bowel action and they can’€™t. So, it can be very obstructive to them. Having a bowel obstruction is a very serious condition and very unpleasant’€.

Endometriosis can affect any woman, but those who are at more risk are the working class, who often encounter more stress than average. Dr Jacobson says in severe cases or if untreated it can lead to the removal of ovaries or a removal of the womb. He says the only treatment that is advisable is surgery to remove the tissue.

‘€œThe only correct treatment is surgery and the correct type of surgery is excision surgery. In other words, you cut out what you can see. At first we used to do ablative surgery – either burn it or laser it. That  worked well, but often caused as much damage in terms of scar tissue as the endometriosis because if you burn something you leave dead tissue that now has to heal and it scars or if you vaporise something you leave scar tissue that has to heal. But if you cut it out cleanly and well, then you may not have that kind of problem and the scarring is much less’€, Jacobson says.

But, he says, irrespective of the surgery there is a 10% chance of recurrence within a year. This is because surgeons can only remove what they can see, which means there may be microscopic areas that can be missed. Some of the symptoms women should look out for include irregular bleeding, excruciating pain on the lower abdomen, menstrual problem or persistent pain.