Learning to Listen to My Body

By Ruby

For six straight years, I have been told that period pain was just part of being a woman. Now at the age of 19, I cannot believe I went through my teenage years dealing with so much pain and having no answers for so many aspects affecting my day-to-day life. Every time I doubled over in pain or missed school because I couldn’t get out of bed, spending hours on the bathroom floor dealing with nausea, vomiting, and excruciating pain - I was told it was 'normal'.

For six years, I believed that, because every doctor I saw said the same thing.

What so many people don’t realise, is that Endometriosis is a whole-body disease; it is not just the cramps. The nausea, chronic fatigue, bloating, gut issues, low immunity, and constant aches made me feel like I wasn’t in control of my own body. I went through countless doctor’s appointments, tests, scans, and dismissals. Some doctors told me it was 'just stress', others suggested I might have a low pain tolerance. I was consistently left with my problems unanswered.

Every time I left an appointment, I felt let down by the New Zealand healthcare system.

I know my own body, I knew something was not right, and still, my problems were brushed off as nothing. I was prescribed multiple variations of ‘the pill’ to stop my periods and take away the pain, but my body completely rejected these and made me realise the pill is not a fix for this problem; it is just a Band-Aid fix. I knew if it was endo, there wouldn’t be a cure, but I wanted at least another option other than just feeding my body multiple pills where the side effects were just not worth it.

It took six years of advocating for myself, of trusting that what I felt wasn’t in my head, to finally get an answer: a specialist diagnosis of endometriosis and pelvic floor dysfunction.

I remember feeling relief... but honestly? Mostly frustration when I heard those words. Relief because I finally had proof and an answer that what I’d been experiencing was real, but so much anger because it had taken so long for someone to listen.

Since being diagnosed, I’ve had to learn how to live differently. I’ve learned to rest without guilt, to speak up when something doesn’t feel right, and to trust my intuition over others’ assumptions. With my laparoscopy surgery in October 2025, I am so glad I reached a point where someone listened and took action on my case. I have found comfort in connecting with others who have shared similar experiences and finding communities that remind me I am not alone.

But most importantly - that being taken seriously should not have to be this hard.