Doctors Recommend Childbirth for 21-Year-Old to Alleviate Severe Menstrual Pain

Grace Almey, from Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, has struggled from debilitating periods since age nine, and has endured a range of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) symptoms including back pain, gastrointestinal issues and hair loss.

Over the years, her condition has sent her back and forth to countless doctors and hospital visits, with professionals becoming so stumped, she claimed one advised her to have a baby at age 15 to ease the symptoms.

Grace, who works in HR, said she was left with no choice but to go private where she forked out ‘£5,000 to £6,000’ for surgery. She was finally diagnosed with a little-known womb condition called adenomyosis.

Adenomyosis is when the lining of the womb – the endometrium – buries deep into the muscular wall of the uterus. While the displaced tissue continues to act normally during each menstrual cycle, it can cause an enlarged uterus and painful, heavy periods.

Grace says she was repeatedly dismissed by doctors and was even told she was being too ‘sensitive’.

“From the get go, I had really heavy periods and they were really painful. Sometimes they’d last for three weeks”, said Grace.

“I’d often wake up with my stomach really swollen. It honestly looked like I was pregnant. If someone saw me they genuinely think I was pregnant.

“I was just an emotional wreck – I was told “you’re just sensitive”.

“I was about 15 and they said there isn’t anything we can do. Normally we’d tell women to have a baby.

‘One said “we know you are young but if you decide to have a baby that does help”. It’s bad narrative that having a baby will solve gynaecological issues”‘.

She recounted that the pain became so intense that her mother, Joanne, 56, had to take her back and forth to doctor appointments.

She was offered various contraceptive pills and an injection, as well as a hormonal coil to help regulate her cycle, but claimed none of them eased her symptoms.

Her ordeal heightened in January this year when she began experiencing back pain, found it tough to keep food down and lost her hair. Still, doctors couldn’t work out what was wrong.

‘My mum kept taking me to the doctors but at that age they just said it would settle’ she recalled.

‘I was constantly going through [period] pads. My mum was constantly washing my sheets. Sometimes I’d just sit on the toilet to bleed’.

By the age of 12, her periods began interfering with school – to the point she needed to take time off.

She added: “I started having really painful bowel movements, they’d make me sick and hot

“Every time you go to the doctors – you’re told there is not much we can do. You’re basically told to get on with it. You become used to it.

“I’m trying everything they are recommending and nothing is working. At 18 I kind of admitted defeat.”

Grace was eventually admitted for a scan which revealed a cyst on her ovary. She was told the cyst would resolve itself but when her pain continued she was referred back to hospital.

She was told she would need a colonoscopy – a medical procedure that examines the colon, rectum, and anus – but as there was a 12 month wait she instead sought private healthcare.

Despite this she ended up back in hospital in May with ‘horrendous’ period pain and even found an ultrasound ‘unbearable’.

“It was clear. I was really deflated’ said Grace. ‘Between February and May I was trying to live life in anyway I could”.

She was told they wanted to get her in for an laparoscopy as medics believed she had endometriosis.

Endometriosis occurs when the uterine lining grows outside of the uterus itself, and affects one in ten women in the UK, while a laparoscopy is an examination performed using a camera to analyse the abdomen and pelvis

For this she said she opted to go privately once more owing to concerning stories she said she’d heard on TikTok.

After undergoing the £5,000 to £6,000 surgery in July, a doctor came to her with the results – but it was not what she expected to hear.

‘He said “we didn’t find any endometriosis,” Grace recalled. ‘I was absolutely heartbroken. I wanted validation for my pain”.

‘Then he said “we think you have a condition called adenomyosis”.

In addition to the diagnosis Grace was recommended she try a progesterone only pill and her only option to end the pain completely is to get a hysterectomy.

Grace added: ‘It’s localised in the uterus and womb – you have it until you have a hysterectomy. It’s the only way to “cure” it.

‘It’s bittersweet to know there is something to help but it’s not possible at a young age. I’ve got to live with this until I’m willing to have a hysterectomy’.

Grace now tries to take each day as it comes and is trying a holistic approach such as avoiding alcohol and ultra processed foods.

She has also been referred for pelvic floor physiotherapy to see if the tightness in her muscles has been adding to her pain.

“I’m trying to live day by day. It alters your whole life”.

What are the warning signs of adenomyosis and how does it differ to endometriosis?
Common symptoms include heavy, painful or irregular periods, pre-menstrual pelvic pain and feelings of heaviness or discomfort in the pelvis.

Less frequent symptoms can also involve pain during sexual intercourse.

Consultant gynaecologist Liza Ball noted that this pain after sex ‘can last for hours or even a day’.

Other symptoms could include pain related to bowel movements.

In endometriosis, the rogue tissue invades areas outside of the uterus.

While the extent of the growth varies from patient to patient, it can affect areas such as the bladder, bowel, ovaries, and even the lungs.

Adenomyosis, on the other hand, causes the rogue tissue to bury inside the muscular wall of the uterus.

It is however possible to suffer from both conditions at the same time.