Although endometriosis is a much more publicized disease, it is often reduced to severe period pain and a risk of infertility. However, there are many other symptoms that affect patients on a daily basis, not just during menstrual cycles.
Interviewed by Slate magazine, Pauline, 28 years old and suffering from endometriosis, explains having seen her trial period interrupted because of her disease. Not because she was absent a few days a month to have her period, but because endometriosis inflicts chronic pain on her. Ditto for Eléonore, 25, to whom her manager asked her to leave because she had not “shoulders broad enough.” Suffering from endometriosis, she has already had to go through surgery but still suffers from chronic pain that makes her less efficient in the eyes of her company, before, during and after her menstrual cycle.
Endometriosis is a chronic disease that affects 1 in 10 women of childbearing age. This pathology is characterized by the presence of endometrial-like tissue (the lining that lines the inside of the uterus) outside the uterine cavity. If the most common symptom of endometriosis is still a painful period, according to gynecologist Isabella Chanavaz-Lacheray at auféminin, this can also change. “When the lesions are deep, they are also painful outside of menstruation.”
From the uterus to the diaphragm, endometriosis can creep in anywhere
The endometrium can be found both in the intestines or the rectum, resulting in chronic digestive problems. But also, more rarely, on the diaphragm, which can be a source of pain in the upper body. Pauline explains to Slate that this so-called diaphragmatic endometriosis made him suffer in the shoulders. The endometrium had actually caused a lump on his diaphragm.
Because their disability is invisible, people with chronic pain do not always meet the benevolence of their employer, school or their relatives. They are forced to deliver the same level of results with additional physical constraints. “Living a normal day demands phenomenal energy”, Pauline confides.
See also: Julie Gayet, poignant, commits to endometriosis
Better management of future endometriosis
On March 16, 2021, the Minister of Health Olivier Véran launched a mission to develop the national strategy to better support patients suffering from endometriosis. However, his press release is content to summarize the disease “pain during menstruation, pain during intercourse (dyspareunia), frequent pelvic pain. ” Appellations “Chronic Pain” Where “handicap” are not mentioned anywhere.
This mission was entrusted to the MEP (LREM) and doctor of gynecology Chrysoula Zacharopoulou. The latter knows the subject well as the founder of the Info-Endometriosis association with the actress Julie Gayet. Expected for the end of April 2021, the conclusions of this mission have not yet been made public.