I take it two to four times a day," Christiana Hansen explains, showing the array of medications used daily to help her deal with her endometriosis. The 49-year-old from Chatham was diagnosed with the condition in 2023, five years after she first had symptoms. "It is like a stabbing pain, a very very heavy stabbing pain," she says.
"I cry all the time, I'm not going to hide that. Sometimes I get so upset and I shut myself up and I cry." The government says it is "determined" to change that many are waiting so long for an endometriosis diagnosis. Hansen has started a campaign through her health awareness organisation HEDUCA for a wellbeing hub in Medway, specifically for women's and girls' reproductive conditions.
Endometriosis , externalaffects one in 10 women and is where cells similar to those in the lining of the womb grow in other parts of the body. It can affect organs like the bladder and bowel. Hansen says she felt dismissed when she went to see the GP, being told it was "a woman issue" and "normal".
"The thing is no, the pain is not normal. Pain is not normal," she says. "I just want to send a message out there to all women and girls, that they are not alone.
We are with them." Jessica Lewis, 25, was diagnosed with endometriosis two years ago. She first started experiencing symptoms when she was 14 years old. "It is just excruciating.
There have been times that I have literally collapsed on my way home from work because I am in agony," Lewis, from Broadstairs, said. "It affects every single thing I do day to day, the plans I make. "It is just really sad because I feel like a lot of the things I used to really look forward to I would now dread." She says according to her NHS notes she went to the doctor 22 times before eventually getting her diagnosis following surgery in 2024.
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