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I’ve been delaying talking about this for at least a month. As This EndoLife is all about endometriosis, I don’t really feel like it’s okay to share what’s going on personally for me - but equally, I am a real person behind EndoLife and I’ve been quiet for a reason, which I also feel needs explanation. So, here goes... ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ We’ve moved, again. Twice in two months. The situation with the domestic violence (and general noise levels) above us got worse, we were sleeping on our mattress in our living room because the noise in our bedroom and office was so loud we couldn’t sleep/work. Of course we did what we could to help our neighbour but in the end it resulted in us also being unsafe through trying to help. Thankfully our landlords had a spare flat (still in the same building as him but different entrances) which we have moved into until the new year. It’s not what we would have chosen, but we are thankful to be out. 🙏 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ On top of this, I’ve been undergoing investigations for breast cancer - which I can happily say I have recently received the all clear for. 🙏 Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the health of our immediate family and Chris and I are going through some incredibly difficult times with family illness. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ The above is the tip of a big iceberg that we’ve battling in the past two months. I’m hoping that things will become a bit easier for us over the next few weeks and I can begin dedicating more time to EndoLife again. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I feel like this happens every now and then, something stressful comes up in life and I can’t keep all the balls in the air. Instagram can make you feel like you need to keep juggling, but actually sometimes, it’s okay to put one down for a while. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I’m simply posting this as an explanation of where I’ve been. It didn’t feel right to be vague or to make up an excuse, so apologies for giving a bit of a life story - but I promise it’s back to endometriosis after this! 💛 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ P.S. This is our new bedroom ✨ Anyone else in love with afternoon light? #endometriosis #endosister #endo
So there’s been a few reasons why I’ve been quiet this month and I’ll save most of them for another time, but one of the more exciting reasons is that I’ve been busy supporting @endometriosis.uk with their petition and campaign to get menstrual wellbeing taught in schools... ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Tomorrow, on November 7th, the deadline for the Sex & Relationship and PSHE review feedback closes and we have until then to get noticed. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Children are now starting their periods as young as seven years old, with the average age being 9-11. Yet 14% of girls have admitted they didn’t know what was happening and 1 in 4 girls stated they didn’t know what to do when they started their period (Plan International UK). Endometriosis UK’s petition calls for menstrual wellbeing to be taught in schools so that no child has to start their period without understanding menstruation, no teenager has to be shamed into silence, and no one has to go undiagnosed with menstrual related conditions for decades because they haven’t been taught what’s normal. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ They’re submitting a report, full of your stories, to the Government today. To make sure this report has as much impact as possible, they’re asking for your help. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Please share the petition everywhere and anywhere you can. On social media, with your friends and family, with your work colleagues. This petition affects everyone, especially the future generations. ❤️ If every one of you signed, we’d hit our next milestone of 25,000 signatures! 🙏 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Find the link to the petition in their bio. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Picture by the seriously wonderful @pink_bits
Coconut Quinoa Porridge... 🥥 Recipes are back! You’ve been asking, so here they finally are... I’ll be bringing you one endometriosis friendly recipe every month. 🤗 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ You may remember that I have been balancing my hormones using the guidance in the book WomanCode and so I am eating to support each phase of my cycle. I still follow the anti-inflammatory style nutrition guidance listed in most endo books and resources, but I now just eat more of certain foods depending on my which phase I am in - and I’m feeling good so far! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ This coconut quinoa porridge can be eaten any time of the month, but I make it specifically for ovulation. The ingredients are quinoa, almond milk, coconut yoghurt, pecans, almond butter, pumpkin seeds with an optional topping of figs, cacao nibs and coconut flakes. Get the full recipe and method over on the blog, link in bio. 😘 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ If you make this breakfast, tag me in your pictures! I’d love to see all of our cycle supporting creations! P.s. for anyone who avoids these groups for endo, the recipe is gluten free, dairy free and refined sugar free (plus super low sugar if you omit the figs)!
I once had a manager comment on how much I yawned. 🙈 I tried to hide it the best I could, but there’s only so much you can do to stifle a yawn (especially when you have fatigue)! Thankfully, after years of working with my body, my fatigue is under control as long as I manage my stress levels and continue with all the endo management tools that work for me. As part of my series on endometriosis and fatigue, I’ve written a column for Endometriosis News that’s all about dealing with chronic fatigue in the moment. When you’re stuck in a situation where going to bed isn’t possible, and you may have to last one or a few more hours until you can rest. Of course, with fatigue it’s so so so important that you don’t push yourself to the point of burn out, so I believe resting when you need to is best, but sometimes life gets in the way. So for those moments, I’ve pulled together a list of the personal techniques I use to help me get through the day and energise myself as best I can (and yes, it may seem counter intuitive, but going for a walk is up on my list)! I hope it helps you. ❤️ Let me know your favourite ways to boost your energy below - I’m always looking for new tips! Link in bio. 💛
How many of you have experienced pain during sex? How many of you have expressed your concerns to your doctors? Have you had any support, advice or referrals? Painful sex is often just another one of those endo symptoms that’s recognised but not addressed. It’s almost just a part of living with endo that we’ve been taught to grin and bear. I opened up about my experience of this with @womenshealthmag recently and now I’m taking it further. I’ll be interviewing a very exciting guest for Season 4 all about living with and healing from painful sex, how to talk about it, rediscovering your sexual identity after pain and even how yoni mapping and yoni massage can help... So I want to know, what are your questions? How can I make this episode as useful to you as possible? Share your experiences, comments, questions - all that good stuff below!
I'm going to admit something I don't talk about too much, last year I went through a period of months, perhaps half a year, where I spiralled cognitively and energetically due to endometriosis. By the end of this period, I was signed off work with anxiety and then had no job. I'm not quite ready to go into all the details, and it was my choice to walk away and into my long-term goal of being self-employed (it just came a lot faster than I anticipated!), but the impact of living with fatigue and the resulting brain fog and anxiety was 100% the cause of that role coming to an end. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I was managing my pain well, and all my other symptoms, but trying to stay on top of those and hold down a job with fatigue lingering in the background suddenly took its toll. I just couldn't get a grip on my energy levels and the way they affected my cognitive abilities. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Thankfully, I experience endo fog much less. I get it when I’m stressed, anxious or I haven’t slept well. Changing my lifestyle was one of the biggest factors to recovering from brain fog, but there are also other natural ways I've learnt to reduce it over time. Going self-employed seemed to be the key thing that pulled it altogether, but of course, not everyone wants to do that, so I've written a list of more accessible and affordable ways to reduce your endo brain fog. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ As always, what may work for me might not work for you and this list is by no means exhaustive - in fact, when I was drafting it I already thought of 3 other things I’d add to the list now! So expect another one at some point! I hope it helps you on your journey. 💛 Link in bio.
“I’m 30 now, and while I’ve battled through and achieved a lot, I didn’t finish university, I left my first business, and I left three jobs all because of fatigue. It’s awful leaving a business you started because you can’t keep up with the pace or your team. That’s a very hard wound to heal.” ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Hands up if fatigue/low energy/exhaustion is one of your endo symptoms... 🙋‍♀️ Yep, that’s my story above. Recently I was interviewed by @thefemedic after a study showed that at least 50.7% of those with endometriosis have frequent fatigue, and called for fatigue to be treated as a serious symptom. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Fatigue has been my longest standing endometriosis symptom and started years before my pain began. It’s also been my longest battle. Thankfully, after two decades, it seems I am on the other side of it - but stress and not looking after myself can cause it to creep back in again (as I’ve learnt recently!). Balancing my blood sugar has made the biggest difference to me, but there are also other ways I manage it too (I’ve got an entire article dedicated to this on Endo News, will share soon). ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Head over to the link in my bio to read about the impact of fatigue, the lifestyle change I made to begin healing from it, and why it needs to be treated as a real symptom of endometriosis. Love to you if you are experiencing this battle right now. 💗
The final episode of This EndoLife Podcast Season 3 is out today, with Alice Smith! Alice is the 23 year old Trustee and Young Ambassador for Endometriosis UK causing a well deserved stir in education... The UK Government is reviewing what should be taught in Sex & Relationship and PSHE lessons in England, and Alice thinks it's about time that menstrual wellbeing made it on the agenda. 14% of menstruators are starting their periods in the UK without knowing what they are and 1 in 4 said they did not feel they knew what to do when they started their period. This is a big problem. If young people aren't being sufficiently educated about what to expect from an 'average' period, how will they know when something's wrong? ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Alice and @endometriosis.uk have launched a petition to get menstrual wellbeing taught in schools. They want the stigma and shame of periods to be broken, and for all pupils to understand what's 'normal' and what's not when it comes to menstruation, so people can recognise sooner the signs and symptoms of endometriosis, PCOS, fibroids and other menstrual related conditions sooner. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I chatted to Alice about the petition, their social media campaign, her own experience of menstrual education in school and what we all can do to make a difference to future generations and end period shame. Listen by following the link in my bio or by downloading the episode in your podcast app!
One of the worst days of my endometriosis journey was a few years back, sitting at home at my desk, in a state of pure despair and hopelessness. Having spent most of the day trying to work through tears, I was on the phone to my third helpline, feeling desperate. It was so bad in that moment, it’s hard to believe a couple of days later that incredibly dark fog lifted as I entered my menstrual phase. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ My pre-menstrual phase or my inner autumn, was threatening to consume me and was seriously putting my wellbeing at risk each and every month. I found the strain of living with endometriosis, anxiety, depression and trying to make life work with all of this going on, always came to a peak in this phase and threatened to swallow me whole. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ It was only when I began understanding my cycle and how my hormones played such a significant part in my mental wellbeing, did I realise how to handle this stage. I began learning how to slow down and rest, how to recharge, how to listen to the painful feelings that were rising during this time and respond to them appropriately, rather than trying to push through harder and faster, ignoring them and ending up in a tearful heap on the floor when they crashed over me. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Whilst some of us do have PMDD and that’s a much more serious issue which usually requires medical attention and support, in terms of PMS and the struggles we face during our pre-menstrual phase, there are ways to understand it, work with it and make peace with it. For me I found that everything endometriosis affected became exaggerated at this time, but now I actually look forward to it, because my body and mind knows it’s time to take it a little bit slower, and my endometriosis seems to like that. I couldn’t have got to this better place without understanding this phase fully and how it affects us both biologically, emotionally, mentally and even spiritually. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ So if you struggle with this phase or it makes endometriosis feel 10 times worse, I’ve written a piece to help you understand it and work with it, hopefully making your endo healing journey that little bit easier. Link in bio. 💛 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Image by Rachel Levy
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