Deeplish event told “decent endometriosis care will only stem from your openness”

A campaign with its roots in Rochdale encouraged Asian women in Deeplish to talk openly about a medical condition too often shunned as 'normal'.

Affecting a staggering one in ten women globally, endometriosis can lead to chronic pelvic pain and even spread to the lungs and brain.

But females of Pakistani descent have told a new survey that they have been taught to bear it, as it is just part of being a woman.

The stigma-busting session was brought to the Deeplish Community Centre by Dr Anita Sharma, founder of the Endometriosis Awareness North campaign. She said: “We began our drive after learning of the ignorance and mental and physical pain endo brings. Each day has been a learning exercise, and when it comes to our Asian community, husbands opening and discarding medical letters to their wives, and superstitions around chronic pain being a routine part of a woman’s cycle have been challenged.

At every event we have held, as it was in Deeplish, the women have warmly welcomed the experience of being able to talk about this and other issues such as breast cancer and the menopause.”

Endometriosis sees cells normally situated in the womb appear elsewhere in the body. Sometimes these cells adhere to vital organs and there have even been recent reports of endo causing pain in the teeth and gums!

The wearing condition has meant that 82% of so-called “endo warriors” are not able to carry out normal activities and yet so ignorant is the rest of society (including some medics) that respondents to one of the campaign’s surveys thought it was a throat infection.

The National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD) showed that more than half of endo patients said that they had to visit their GP several times before any investigations were undertaken or treatment initiated.

That reticence to learn plus scant resources put into research, have meant that there is no current cure and diagnosis of endometriosis can take a decade.

Dr Sharma’s response has been to organise education sessions at schools and run events for everyone from junior doctors to the women of Deeplish.

Indeed, their next session on injections that have shown promising signs of treating endo, occurs at Norden Bowling Club on the 17th of February (see close of release).

A study into Equalities in Health and Social Care showed that Pakistani women in particular were taught pain is pain and should be tolerated and not complained about (1).

Dr Sharma concluded: “This philosophy is deeply concerning. Around half of women with endo have dark thoughts and their mental health is decimated by people who doubt the condition even exists. I can assure you it does and events such as Deeplish are the first step in getting endometriosis and women’s health in general, treated decently, respectfully and seriously.”

Learn more about Endometriosis Awareness North’s event in Norden at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gnrh-injections-whats-the-point-tickets-1220906768009?aff=oddtdtcreator

Aside from forming the campaign, Dr Anita Sharma is the chair of the Rochdale Inner Wheel charity.
For more on Endometriosis Awareness North, go to https://endometriosisawarenessnorth.com/