“Everyone out there needs to challenge doctors and keep fighting for answers.”
The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is Choose to Challenge, which is especially important when it comes to women getting a diagnosis for a health related issue.
Irish singer RuthAnne is one lady who kept questioning doctors about her health issues until she got a diagnosis. She has been very open about her struggles with endometriosis and the pain she experienced from the disease, which she describes as “debilitating”.
She wants to bring awareness to this issue, and many more female reproductive problems, and change the way children are educated about female health in schools.
View this post on Instagram
“I got diagnosed within two years,” she tells Her. “For most women it takes on average about seven years to get diagnosed.”
“I was on the contraceptive pill from when I was 16 to 30, which is a long time, I decided to take a break from it and that was when I started to get my normal periods again, which was horrendous. ”
She says her pains were “so debilitating, I was unable to walk sometimes, I collapsed at the gym a few times and was brought to the hospital.”
View this post on Instagram
Getting a diagnosis for endometriosis is often difficult. RuthAnne says she found it hard to get an answer – so she kept questioning until she had one.
“I was going to see doctors and they were like, there’s nothing wrong with you. You start being made feel like it’s in your head.”
The singer says it’s important to keep challenging and keep asking questions when you’re not feeling right. “You know your body” she says. “I was not accepting that nothing was wrong with me. Everyone out there needs to challenge doctors and keep fighting for answers.”
View this post on Instagram
The star now has plans to raise awareness and education for women’s health in Ireland.
“Why am I in my thirties and only finding out what these words and diseases mean?” she says. “I won’t stop until it’s educated in every school in Ireland.”
