A patient with endometriosis who was diagnosed after just 16 years, at Hospital da Luz Lisboa, reported her experience on the TV show 'A Tarde é Sua', of TVI , on August the 18th. Andreia Trindade told in the program hosted by Fátima Lopes the suffering that passed until she was assisted by a doctor who realized she had all the symptoms of endometriosis and referred her to Filipa Osório , a gynecologist at Hospital da Luz. Followed in Gynecology and medicated since she was 14, for having started experiencing severe abdominal pain when she started having her period, Andreia Trindade always received “the same answers” when she asked what her illness was: "Don't worry, this is normal" or "one day you will have a child and that will pass". From that time and up to the age of 30, when she was already married, she got used to "reprogramming and scheduling" her daily life according to the pain she felt. The pains worsened and started to happen even outside the menstrual period, to the point of having to be assisted several times in hospital emergencies, where she was given very strong painkillers - until the day when this was no longer effective. Then she was fortunate to be assisted and evaluated by a gynecologist who immediately suspected endometriosis and put her in contact with Filipa Osório, a specialist in these cases. “I thought ‘finally! This has a name and I' m not crazy’”, remembers Andreia. After all the examinations, Andreia was then successfully operated by Filipa Osório. With the disease under control, she was able to plan a pregnancy, from which two twins were born, in 2012, at Hospital da Luz. "These pains are not normal and should be investigated" Her account is similar to that of many other women who, as Filipa Osório pointed out in this TVI program, have to know that “it is not normal to suffer like this to have menstruation”: “It is normal to have discomfort and some pains that are tolerable and controllable by taking an analgesic, such as paracetamol. Pains that are disabling or that interfere with women's quality of life and daily life are not normal and should be investigated”. It is estimated that endometriosis affects one in 10 women of childbearing age , but it is often underdiagnosed or diagnosed late, due to the tendency to devalue the pain it causes. The doctor at Hospital da Luz also explained the mechanism of the disease: “Inside the uterus, the endometrium grows every month and the woman menstruates cyclically. Endometriosis is an inflammatory disease and occurs when the endometrial glands migrate out of the uterus and grow in other organs, forming cysts and nodules. This means that every month these glands undergo the same cyclical changes in these organs, resulting in severe and disabling pain in these sites”. Treatments include hormone therapy and surgery (to remove cysts and nodules), but also dietary changes and physical exercise. 'A Tarde é Sua' (between minutes 1 and 44)
