The Sunday News
Tine Mataz
HELLO readers, this is the last week of Endometriosis awareness, and I trust that after these last 11 weeks you are well familiar with endometriosis.
Let’s recap a little. Endometriosis is a gynaecological condition affecting one in 10 women. That is almost 200 million women worldwide.
Endometriosis is a condition where tissue resembling the lining of the uterus grows outside of the uterus. This tissue attaches itself onto other parts of the body or organs.
Symptoms of endometriosis include severe period pain, heavy periods, back pain, pain with ovulation, leg pain, abnormal bleeding, vomiting with periods and many more.
Endometriosis is sometimes misdiagnosed as period pain, or what we term “jeko” in Shona, but it is way more than that.
Endometriosis is a condition and it has no cure. Period pain or any pelvic pain that stops a girl or woman from doing normal activities is not normal, and should be investigated further in case it is endometriosis. Late diagnosis can result in infertility or the disease being harder to treat.
What can we do as a society to contribute positively to the endometriosis community?
1. Learn as much as we can about the disease.
2. Acknowledge that this is a global issue
3. Acknowledge the realness of the disease
4. Realise that even if it does not affect you directly, this still matters to you because it is affecting at least 1 in 10 women.
5. Support ladies suffering from the disease.
6. Support any awareness events that may be in and around your community
7. Get government involved in the endometriosis campaigns
8. Create awareness events in schools and offices.
9. WE MUST CARE
There is a lot of information available on the web about endometriosis so it is our responsibility to make ourselves aware because it is affecting our very own Zimbabwean sisters, daughters, mothers, wives etc.
There are also plenty of groups on Facebook that offer support and pages on Instagram that share endometriosis information and resources. There is also an online Zimbabwe support group and if you would like to join you may contact me on +263778026402.
It has been an absolute pleasure to be able to educate you about a subject so near to my heart.
Endometriosis awareness is in March but it affects us every day so please be kind to us, try to understand us, and most of all support us. Until next time, ciao!!
