This is such an important story to share Claire and I am SO sorry it’s been yours to have and experience. I cannot tell you how many women I have seen and asked treatment after treatment “tell me more about this “not that bad pain” “ because we are so conditioned to internalise minimise justify with all the things. It’s also so very tiring to continue to advocate for ourselves when the systems are not supportive. Sending you and your glorious messy pelvis much love ❤️
Ahhh thank you, Keri! You gorgeous woman. Yes, it appears I’m better at encouraging my clients to see their GP about pain than I was with myself - although that said, I was seeing her semi-regularly for other things, so it wasn’t complete avoidance, just that quiet self-gaslighting I didn't realise I had become so good at.
Pain is such a slippery, subjective thing… and as you say the conditioning runs deep. Even the word "pain" is a funny one, because I would really describe my experience more as "pelvic discomfort", not necessarily "pain". Not consistently anyway.
And yep - advocating for ourselves over and over and OVER again can be so bloody exhausting. I’m really lucky that when I finally said, “I need to see an OBGYN,” my GP was amazing and things moved quickly from there.
Thank you for your kind words and for all the work you do in helping women name and investigate and listen to their bodies. x
Gosh Claire, your words, your summarising and relatability of straddling the medical and spiritual/wellness world.
Welcome to the best club that no one wants to be apart of. (Best because the people are so supportive, were words echoed to me). My reminder is always, you can roll a shit in glitter, it’s still shit. When you do all the things, acupuncture, rest, herbs, healing, somatic. But sometimes still at the end of the day something is growing and spreading within your pelvis and that needs to be removed. Thinking of you and your journey. ❤️
Hahaha the shit rolled in glitter is so accurate and such a wonderful visual! Thank you for that! And thanks for the welcome to this bloody club, here I am I guess. Sorry you're here too, but glad to have your love and support. It's been both comforting and sad to learn just how many others there are, like yourself, who resonate. Thanks for commenting!
It makes me so sad to think of all the women (myself included) who have gone through the absolute wringer in both the medicine and wellness worlds. And how we've been made to feel like we should minimise our symptoms or positive think our way out of them... and just shut up and get on with life.
The more we talk about our personal experiences, the more awareness we all have, which will - hopefully - lead to significant, positive change in all the ways.
Thank you for opening up the conversation and giving us a safe space to share and the words to use, should we need them. x
Yes, the personal narrative piece is something I've been thinking about a lot these past weeks - something that I know is important to you, too. I know that there is more research happening on the female body now than there has been before, but that research is going to take time to have a direct impact on our lives. And so, what can we do now? Tell stories. Of course I would prefer that no one needs to hear stories like these! But they do. And so I'm grateful to you for reading, as always.
Oh gosh Claire, what a rough experience for you, I’m so sorry. So much of the messaging around women’s health within both the alternate/complementary and the western medicine circles drives me bonkers - I too have endo, and had less than a handful of symptoms other than struggling to get pregnant.
Traditional Chinese Medicine was so amazing for changing my perspective and knowledge around what is a healthy menstrual cycle, so much so I’m halfway through my degree! It really looks for root causes, and very much acknowledges that period pain is ‘common’ but not ‘normal’.
Oh how fabulous, Bec - I love TCM too. It just seems to *get* the female body in a way that Western medicine so often doesn’t. And yet… I’ve mentioned my on-and-off period pain to sooo many TCM practitioners over the years. Herbs and acupuncture have absolutely helped (and will continue to be part of my plan), but I do wish there’d been a that one practitioner who said, “Hey, have you ever spoken to your doctor about this pain? Could it be endometriosis?” or something of the like. We need a bridge or bridges between these healing modalities!
This topic is very close to me, as I think ive shared with you previously.
I was diagnosed with endometriosis 7 years ago after my youngest was born, with all symptoms, minus fertility issues. I hope that by sharing this, other woman can be inspired to seek more medical assistance. This was very insightful and helpful. I hope your journey through this process can be beneficial for all woman.
Hey Shara, thanks so much for reading and commenting.
It really is fascinating how differently endo shows up - some, like you, experience all the symptoms but no fertility issues; others have no symptoms at all and struggle to conceive. And then there’s a whole spectrum in between. I really hope that by sharing this it helps others feel more seen in theirs too.
Thank you Claire for sharing this journey with us and a reminder that it is true, there is too often no balance between the wellness or medical world, one trying to be on top of the other one. 🙏
Sending you strength and love on your journey to recovery 🫶
Deeply appreciate how you’ve articulated this. With you on the rage & how we need to do better. I am sending you so much love whilst you navigate through this and gratitude for how you’ve put words to these experiences.
Oh gosh Claire, thank you so much for sharing this leg of your journey. I’m a big believer that we need to hear stories of this nature, if we are ever going to bring about the change we so desperately need to see in women’s health.
Similarly to you, I’ve come to learn the hard way that we need to see an integration. An integration of medical and holistic, science and spirituality (my 2nd book will bridge that gap).
I really feel validated by your tips to fellow holistic practitioners: “Pay attention when your client tells you they’re in pain. Believe them. Encourage them to see their GP. Support them in advocating for themselves.”
I’ve always done this - even in my business & management career in the before days with team members.
I had one recent client where she believed something to be structurally wrong. The dismissive part of me internally piped up “it isn’t, there isn’t anything wrong”.
Thankfully, I was able to step out of my own way, hold space for her to connect to her own truth and encouraged her to listen to her own body - her body already knew how to heal and what she needed.
One session sent her on an epic deep - deeply uncomfortable - healing journey, which took her down all (relevant) paths and to unknown places. One of which was structural - another was trauma, another was understanding pain pathways/root cause (very triggering). She resolved the lot.
Integration is key and I don’t see this talked about much so thank you for bringing it to our attention.
Thank you for writing this. I'm 34 with Endo and for over 10 years did all the self-gaslighting in the world - largely from being immersed in well-meaning spiritual settings that left me feeling like a failure every month the pain came back. 'Had I healed my feminine enough?' Obviously not. 'Was I releasing all my stuck/repressed anger that was stored in my womb?' Apparently not enough either. To be fair - a lot of these themes rung true for me and I truly do believe in the energetics behind a lot of physical 'disease'. I've also done all the 'spiritual' work on the side, it's not a this OR that, but what I so appreciate is you naming is the exhaustion and self-blame that can come from these spaces. We can heal our inner wounds for ourselves AND still need life changing medical intervention. My surgery was 2022, and for all of 2024 I worked with a naturopath on my gut health, and it improved my pain like nothing else ever had. The science on endo behaving like an auto-immune disease and needing treatment as one is the most exciting and effective I've seen over the years. Thank you for being brave enough to acknowledge this after many years of publicly sharing the 'wellness' side. I'll admit, that voices like yours over the years often contributed to my own narrative that I was a failure because tuning in and rest wasn't cutting it, but I'm so sorry that you were also a victim to the system that so many of us are in - and you sharing your story here I have no doubt will liberate so many. Thank you!
This is such an important story to share Claire and I am SO sorry it’s been yours to have and experience. I cannot tell you how many women I have seen and asked treatment after treatment “tell me more about this “not that bad pain” “ because we are so conditioned to internalise minimise justify with all the things. It’s also so very tiring to continue to advocate for ourselves when the systems are not supportive. Sending you and your glorious messy pelvis much love ❤️
Ahhh thank you, Keri! You gorgeous woman. Yes, it appears I’m better at encouraging my clients to see their GP about pain than I was with myself - although that said, I was seeing her semi-regularly for other things, so it wasn’t complete avoidance, just that quiet self-gaslighting I didn't realise I had become so good at.
Pain is such a slippery, subjective thing… and as you say the conditioning runs deep. Even the word "pain" is a funny one, because I would really describe my experience more as "pelvic discomfort", not necessarily "pain". Not consistently anyway.
And yep - advocating for ourselves over and over and OVER again can be so bloody exhausting. I’m really lucky that when I finally said, “I need to see an OBGYN,” my GP was amazing and things moved quickly from there.
Thank you for your kind words and for all the work you do in helping women name and investigate and listen to their bodies. x
Gosh Claire, your words, your summarising and relatability of straddling the medical and spiritual/wellness world.
Welcome to the best club that no one wants to be apart of. (Best because the people are so supportive, were words echoed to me). My reminder is always, you can roll a shit in glitter, it’s still shit. When you do all the things, acupuncture, rest, herbs, healing, somatic. But sometimes still at the end of the day something is growing and spreading within your pelvis and that needs to be removed. Thinking of you and your journey. ❤️
Hahaha the shit rolled in glitter is so accurate and such a wonderful visual! Thank you for that! And thanks for the welcome to this bloody club, here I am I guess. Sorry you're here too, but glad to have your love and support. It's been both comforting and sad to learn just how many others there are, like yourself, who resonate. Thanks for commenting!
It makes me so sad to think of all the women (myself included) who have gone through the absolute wringer in both the medicine and wellness worlds. And how we've been made to feel like we should minimise our symptoms or positive think our way out of them... and just shut up and get on with life.
The more we talk about our personal experiences, the more awareness we all have, which will - hopefully - lead to significant, positive change in all the ways.
Thank you for opening up the conversation and giving us a safe space to share and the words to use, should we need them. x
Yes, the personal narrative piece is something I've been thinking about a lot these past weeks - something that I know is important to you, too. I know that there is more research happening on the female body now than there has been before, but that research is going to take time to have a direct impact on our lives. And so, what can we do now? Tell stories. Of course I would prefer that no one needs to hear stories like these! But they do. And so I'm grateful to you for reading, as always.
Oh gosh Claire, what a rough experience for you, I’m so sorry. So much of the messaging around women’s health within both the alternate/complementary and the western medicine circles drives me bonkers - I too have endo, and had less than a handful of symptoms other than struggling to get pregnant.
Traditional Chinese Medicine was so amazing for changing my perspective and knowledge around what is a healthy menstrual cycle, so much so I’m halfway through my degree! It really looks for root causes, and very much acknowledges that period pain is ‘common’ but not ‘normal’.
Oh how fabulous, Bec - I love TCM too. It just seems to *get* the female body in a way that Western medicine so often doesn’t. And yet… I’ve mentioned my on-and-off period pain to sooo many TCM practitioners over the years. Herbs and acupuncture have absolutely helped (and will continue to be part of my plan), but I do wish there’d been a that one practitioner who said, “Hey, have you ever spoken to your doctor about this pain? Could it be endometriosis?” or something of the like. We need a bridge or bridges between these healing modalities!
Thanks for sharing Claire!
This topic is very close to me, as I think ive shared with you previously.
I was diagnosed with endometriosis 7 years ago after my youngest was born, with all symptoms, minus fertility issues. I hope that by sharing this, other woman can be inspired to seek more medical assistance. This was very insightful and helpful. I hope your journey through this process can be beneficial for all woman.
Hey Shara, thanks so much for reading and commenting.
It really is fascinating how differently endo shows up - some, like you, experience all the symptoms but no fertility issues; others have no symptoms at all and struggle to conceive. And then there’s a whole spectrum in between. I really hope that by sharing this it helps others feel more seen in theirs too.
Thank you Claire for sharing this journey with us and a reminder that it is true, there is too often no balance between the wellness or medical world, one trying to be on top of the other one. 🙏
Sending you strength and love on your journey to recovery 🫶
Deeply appreciate how you’ve articulated this. With you on the rage & how we need to do better. I am sending you so much love whilst you navigate through this and gratitude for how you’ve put words to these experiences.
Oh gosh Claire, thank you so much for sharing this leg of your journey. I’m a big believer that we need to hear stories of this nature, if we are ever going to bring about the change we so desperately need to see in women’s health.
Similarly to you, I’ve come to learn the hard way that we need to see an integration. An integration of medical and holistic, science and spirituality (my 2nd book will bridge that gap).
I really feel validated by your tips to fellow holistic practitioners: “Pay attention when your client tells you they’re in pain. Believe them. Encourage them to see their GP. Support them in advocating for themselves.”
I’ve always done this - even in my business & management career in the before days with team members.
I had one recent client where she believed something to be structurally wrong. The dismissive part of me internally piped up “it isn’t, there isn’t anything wrong”.
Thankfully, I was able to step out of my own way, hold space for her to connect to her own truth and encouraged her to listen to her own body - her body already knew how to heal and what she needed.
One session sent her on an epic deep - deeply uncomfortable - healing journey, which took her down all (relevant) paths and to unknown places. One of which was structural - another was trauma, another was understanding pain pathways/root cause (very triggering). She resolved the lot.
Integration is key and I don’t see this talked about much so thank you for bringing it to our attention.
🩵
Your story is so close to mine it's uncanny....... thank you so much for sharing. I feel you x
Thank you for writing this. I'm 34 with Endo and for over 10 years did all the self-gaslighting in the world - largely from being immersed in well-meaning spiritual settings that left me feeling like a failure every month the pain came back. 'Had I healed my feminine enough?' Obviously not. 'Was I releasing all my stuck/repressed anger that was stored in my womb?' Apparently not enough either. To be fair - a lot of these themes rung true for me and I truly do believe in the energetics behind a lot of physical 'disease'. I've also done all the 'spiritual' work on the side, it's not a this OR that, but what I so appreciate is you naming is the exhaustion and self-blame that can come from these spaces. We can heal our inner wounds for ourselves AND still need life changing medical intervention. My surgery was 2022, and for all of 2024 I worked with a naturopath on my gut health, and it improved my pain like nothing else ever had. The science on endo behaving like an auto-immune disease and needing treatment as one is the most exciting and effective I've seen over the years. Thank you for being brave enough to acknowledge this after many years of publicly sharing the 'wellness' side. I'll admit, that voices like yours over the years often contributed to my own narrative that I was a failure because tuning in and rest wasn't cutting it, but I'm so sorry that you were also a victim to the system that so many of us are in - and you sharing your story here I have no doubt will liberate so many. Thank you!