Mum on battle with endometriosis

Hythe mum Amy Simkins on her battle with endometriosis and fight to raise awareness of the condition

Transcript

00:00 I've found in my experience there's not enough knowledge or resources within the

00:07 NHS to support women with conditions like endometriosis, women's health as a

00:14 whole. There's times I've had to go into hospital because that flare-up is too

00:21 severe to be managed in the community and just due to lack of knowledge my

00:28 local hospital didn't know enough and they still don't know enough to support

00:34 me. They acknowledged it was a mistake, they mistakenly labelled me a drug

00:38 seeker, refused me treatment. There were times where even after my GP has sent me

00:45 in they've made that clinical decision to say she needs IV fluid, she's very

00:51 dehydrated, she's bleeding a lot, she's not keeping anything down orally. To them

00:58 to say no we're not going to treat that. So there were times I was left bleeding

01:03 through my clothes, you know, unable to keep even water down and I'm being

01:10 refused treatment because these professionals, these consultants in A&E

01:17 don't know enough about a condition. I think traumatic is the word, you know,

01:24 because I'm doing everything I'm being asked to do. I don't act, it's not

01:29 something any woman wants to do, to you know go to your GP and be told look you

01:35 need to go up there just so we can do X, Y, Z. Day to day it's hard to explain

01:43 because I can have a week, two weeks, I can you know have days where people would

01:52 look at me and say you're not sick because they can't see internally but I

01:58 can have flare-ups where I'm bleeding very heavily, my stomach is visibly

02:05 swollen, I can't keep food or drink down let alone pain relief down. Even with

02:13 anti-sickness medication if the flare-up is that aggressive that's the outcome

02:20 you know it's it's not a case of you don't look sick so you're not sick.