15/04/2026
Endometriosis and treatment of teenage girls Awareness.
The average age of diagnosis in the UK is 35. Symptoms usually begin at puberty.
From seeing a GP to discuss the levels of pain to finally receiving a laparoscopy and diagnosis/help is around 8-10 years.
At 14 Abi started to experience pain which wasn’t helped by normal pain killers, spending days in bed with hot water bottles.
She then started to pass out with the pain in school, at home. She would also be sick with pain.
We took her to the GP, they referred her to the sexual health clinic for the contraceptive pill.
14 and a half years old - pill no. 1 - pain worse
14.5 - pill 2 - migraines
15 - pill 3 - periods worse and mental health worse
16 - pill 4 - horrific - given naproxen
16 - referral to gynaecology after complaint - given codeine
17 - see gynaecologist - progesterone only pill
17 - major sickness, severe pain, fainting, rapid weight loss, online schooling, declining mental health, A&E trips, high strength codeine and naproxen.
Gynaecologist refusing to see her due to waiting lists, needed referred back from GP.
At this point the GP personally emailed the Gynae team. I then put a formal complaint and was considering suing the department for neglect. I also emailed the gynaecologist personally with constant updates of the life she was living and atrocious state she was left in.
We were given an appointment to see a new gynae very quickly. The new gynaecologist was indeed lovely and agreed she was to be put on the emergency waiting list for a laparoscopy, but it would still take 6-8 months.
Her condition then went from bad to worse until she was found passed out on the bathroom floor and rushed to hospital on morphine last week.
We were then seen by a new gynaecologist who (while I was out the room) told Abi, a young, exhausted, drained newly turned 18 year old that she thought it was just bad periods and not endometriosis. After Abi broke down in tears at the thought she was going to be left in pain so bad she thought it was legitimately going to kill her, we of course demanded to see the doctor in question.
After a few less than calm, carefully chosen words at the professionalism that lacked that day, it was agreed there would be a laparoscopy done the following day.
To which found… Endometriosis!
The first words Abi said, while on lots of morphine, when she came back 3 hours after being taken to surgery was “they never found it mum..” her notes hadn’t been updated and the nurse wasn’t aware yet.
The surgeon had come to tell me while she was in recovery.
I replied to her “sweetheart yes they did, they found it, and they’ve got it all”. She cried.
She wasn’t imagining the pain.
She wasn’t begging doctors to help her because she didn’t like period pain.
She had been in excruciating pain for years. And now they ‘officially’ knew why! It was NOW real!
No more referrals, hoping, waiting!
No more medical gas lighting …. Oh No wait.. the next day the doctor actually came back with pictures. Pictures of the endometriosis on her uterus, the blue pocket legions on her o***y, and still she said “but period pain can be sore”!
The gynaecological department at NHS forth valley is a complete failure and disgrace to young females.
Is Abi the only one I’ve witnessed this happen to? No, we’ve spoken to 14 others.
Refusal for referrals. Years on waiting lists. Operations missing diagnosis.
Abi luckily only waited 4 years for her diagnosis. It will come back most likely but as of this minute, she is healing but healthy. Her fertility is safe. If she’d had been made to wait another 4-6 years… what state would she have been in then?
We now have questions on the current state of her incisions but this is her tiny little bruised arms! A fraction of what she’s went through the past week.
We will be raising these issues further and looking to raise awareness on the dangerous waiting times and medical gas lighting towards young girls on the NHS in Forth Valley.
