I was told that having kids will cure my endometriosis. I had to go private

Blackpool Gazette

A Blackpool woman shares her battle to get treated for endometriosis - a painful condition which led her to have several organs removed.  Donna Haughan recalls how NHS doctors 'dismissed' her symptoms as constipation, and was even told that having children would 'make her all better'.  The fitness instructor now pays £295 a month for a private healthcare plan, and says there needs to be more understanding and awareness about this debilitating illness so women can get the care they need on the NHS.   VIDEO FILMED AND EDITED BY LUCINDA HERBERT

Transcript

00:00The endometriosis had wrapped itself around my appendix, so alongside having this huge

00:05big cyst on the inside of my ovary, which was the size of like a golf ball, I'd also

00:09got a rumbling appendix and I couldn't get the NHS to do anything.

00:14In 18 months I had been going through pointless tests, being fobbed off with IBS and fibromyalgia.

00:20I went private and literally within two weeks I was in surgery, the left ovary was gone.

00:27Every time I came on my period I was going to A&E and a lot of the time it'd be 999 going

00:31to hospital and sitting in A&E getting pumped full of morphine and then getting sent back

00:35to my GP.

00:36They were asking me why don't I have children, don't I want children, don't you know that

00:41this is going to cure it, this is going to make you better and then you get looked at

00:44like there's something wrong with you because you don't want children.

00:47Good girl, good girl.

00:49As it got worse and I got into my 30s I wanted a hysterectomy, so at that point I'm begging

00:55them, will you just take it all out, no you're too young.

00:58I said I've told you I don't want kids, I've never changed my mind, I want this gone and

01:03they still refused and I kept saying to the look I'm a drain on the NHS, I'm coming in

01:06on the monthly basis, I'm not getting any treatment, you're just sending me back to

01:10my GP that's not doing anything to help me.

01:13I had one GP tell me I was constipated, that's all that's wrong with you is you're constipated,

01:20go home, if you don't believe me go to A&E.

01:22So I went to A&E four hours later, I had a 15cm cyst on my left ovary and they admitted

01:28me and took it out straight away.

01:30It's like opening up your tummy and opening up a bottle of glue, whatever it touches it's

01:34going to stick to but it's going to stick to whatever's next to it.

01:38So with my bowel it was stuck to my ovary which had then wrapped itself around the bowel which

01:43had twisted itself around something else which had stuck my front bum to my back bum.

01:48So all your organs are supposed to move around freely, none of mine moved, they were all,

01:54everything stuck together.

01:55So the surgery was seven and a half hours, I lost my appendix, my cervix, my womb, an ovary,

02:02my fallopian tubes and I very narrowly escaped having a bowel dissection.

02:08There is actually only one surgeon in the north of England that will operate on the bowel

02:13for endometriosis and that's Dr Gupta.

02:15I waited nine months to see her privately.

02:18What kind of tattoos have you had from people when you tell them that you've gone private?

02:23You're so lucky.

02:24I'm not lucky.

02:25I pay £290 a month for private healthcare.

02:29Lucky would be me being able to access the NHS and get the same standard of treatment as they

02:34would if they had cancer or diabetes or something they can physically see and they know enough

02:40about and there is no cure.

02:42So I'll have surgery and she'll go in and hopefully it'll just be a laparoscopy this time and she'll

02:47shave it away and remove everything but I probably will only get every single time between three

02:53to five years symptom free and then it will always come back.

02:57It does make you a stronger person because you've had to deal with it but you shouldn't have had

03:04to deal with that.

03:05You really shouldn't.

03:06And when the doctor doesn't believe you, people in your family won't believe you.

03:10Your friends won't believe you.

03:12You can't physically see it on the outside and to be not believed it ruins a lot of relationship

03:18but it ruins your belief in yourself.

03:21You start to question yourself, am I a hypochondriac?

03:24Is it all in my head?

03:25Am I just nuts?

03:29You need a doctor that's going to listen to you, not put you on a nine month waiting list

03:33or an 18 month waiting list or tell you it's all in your head or try and treat some fictitious

03:39symptom.

03:40It's just, it's the way that they are with you when you go in, it's just a period, sort

03:45yourself out.

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