As a child, Emma Maxwell was super energetic and playful. But when she got her first period, the intense pain changed her forever. And the pain only got worse with each month.

At the age of 13, Maxwell went through puberty.

Like many other people, she changed.

But Maxwell experienced more than just the typical hormones. Whenever she got her period, she could barely cope with the agony.

“Each month, my symptoms got worse and worse. When I got my period, I found myself living in the nurse’s office at school.” – Emma Maxwell.

Maxwell hoped that those around her would be sympathetic. Sadly, this was not the case.

Her teachers would punish her for missing out on classes due to her pain.

She noticed that what she was experiencing was so much worse than what her friends were going through.

Yes, none of her friends enjoyed getting their period. But they were not left debilitated like she was.

As the years passed by, Maxwell’s pain only got more intense.

During her sophomore high school year, she wasn’t even able to get out of bed during her period. Finally, Maxwell was able to speak to a doctor about her problems.

The doctor told Maxwell that the solution was the contraceptive pill.

So over the next three years, Maxwell tried a total of 10 different kinds of birth control pill. None of these pills did anything to ease her pain.

When she complained to the doctors that the pills weren’t working, they shrugged and said that the pain was just part of being a woman.

And then, when she graduated high school, Maxwell’s symptoms got much worse.

“Not only was I completely wiped during my period, but I was in pain all of the time. I lost an unhealthy amount of weight, I was severely constipated.” – Emma Maxwell.

Soon, Maxwell couldn’t eat or drink anything without experiencing pain.

After so many years of ineffective solutions from doctors, Maxwell came across an article that opened her eyes. She read about a condition called endometriosis. Endometriosis is where tissue that is like the uterus lining grows outside of the uterus, causing lesions on organs.

Maxell thought that she may have endometriosis, as the symptoms matched hers.

But when Maxwell brought up the condition to her doctor, they laughed it off.

The doctor said that they’d taken a range of scans and not detected endometriosis.

Instead, the doctor prescribed another kind of birth control pill and told her off for researching her symptoms.

Unsurprisingly, this new birth control pill did nothing to ease Maxwell’s pain. Instead, her symptoms only got worse.

Then, as Maxwell entered the adult world, she found herself being abandoned by her friends. They said that her symptoms were holding them back.

“The same people who saw me suffer day in and day out decided one day I was just too much of an inconvenience to keep in their lives.” – Emma Maxwell.

Then one of Maxwell’s coworkers arranged a meeting with a gastroenterologist. This gastroenterologist diagnosed Maxwell with irritable bowel syndrome. The only issue with this was that the diagnosis did not explain many of her symptoms.

For the next three months, Maxwell tried three different irritable bowel syndrome medications.

But these medications only made her pain more excessive while giving her nausea. Soon, this medication sent her to the emergency room, where the doctors said that she could have died.

After this, Maxwell made an appointment with a gynecologist.

During the appointment, the gynecologist agreed that Maxwell’s symptoms sounded like endometriosis. Maxwell explained that her previous doctor had dismissed endometriosis based on her scans.

But the gynecologist explained that endometriosis is only diagnosable through surgery.

In a few weeks, Maxwell was able to undergo surgery. This surgery confirmed what Maxwell had suspected for so many years.

She was not a drama queen. She had had endometriosis all along.

Sadly, endometriosis is incurable. But it is treatable.

Now, Maxwell has contacted an endometriosis specialist. She is experiencing pain relief for the first time in years. The condition will never go away. But finally, Maxwell can manage it and live a fulfilling life.

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Source: Love What Matters