‘I felt like I was going up a hill - in a snowstorm’ - that is how Gaby describes life before she understood that she suffers from PMDD, and finally got the help she needed. 

From her early teens Becks struggled with very painful periods. Then a couple of years ago, things started getting increasingly worse. Becks spent months trying to get her GP to listen to her and take her seriously. When she finally managed to get a referral to a gynaecologist she finally got some answers: she has endometriosis. But the journey did not end there.

In her early 30s Dawn was diagnosed with two uterine fibroids. At the time, her GP didn’t believe the fibroids were any cause for concern and asked Dawn to manage the pain with painkillers and hot water bottles. It wasn’t until six years later, with access to private health insurance that Dawn finally got the help she needed - and 16 fibroids removed from her uterus.

For years, Rey was asking her GP to help her figure out what was going on with her body. It wasn’t until she started doing her own research, that she learned about endometriosis and adenomyosis. Armed with this new information she demanded a referral and finally got her diagnosis.

When Serena was 21 she was told that she appeared to have polycystic ovaries. Years later, spurred on by the global pandemic, she decided to start taking better care of her health, and try and fully understand how PCOS was affecting her.

Alice was 10 when she first started having her periods. Straight out of the gate they proved troublesome. She was suffering from extremely painful periods and would miss 3-5 days of school every cycle. It took 15 years before Alice finally got her diagnosis: endometriosis.

Like so many other women, Ria has had a bumpy ride with her menstrual cycle. She first got her period when she was 13 and unlike what was expected, her period didn’t show up as a trusted friend every month. For years it was irregular, sometimes going months without appearing.