Last month, Molly-Mae Hague told her followers she had been diagnosed with endometriosis. Briefly mentioning her condition at the end of a YouTube video, the Love Island star, 22, says she was encouraged to seek a diagnosis for endometriosis by fans, as she regularly suffers with 'excruciating periods' which means she has to take time off work 'I actually have got to have an operation for something that I want to tell you guys about. It's kind of a good thing and it's kind of a bad thing,' she said, speaking in a YouTube video. 'I've told you guys for so long now that I suffer with excruciating periods and so many of you guys were commenting on my videos telling me to check for endometriosis.'
Speaking in a new video - after a fan asked when she would be getting keyhole surgery to alleviate the condition - Molly revealed she has been attacked online for speaking out, with somebody even claiming that she was trying to start a trend. 'I actually got a lot of backlash in one of my last videos when I spoke about it, I got so much backlash,' she said. 'The amount of tweets and DMs I got from girls saying I am not educating people properly... Some girl actually DM’d me saying I’m actually trying to start a trend and make it cool to have endometriosis.’
Molly rose above the comment and continued, 'Girl…I literally had to bite my tongue and was like, “No, don’t reply. Don’t reply. Delete, block, move on.”‘ But we're not sure we would have had a response as dignified.
The former reality star might be an influencer with nearly six millions followers, but we can guarantee one thing, she is not trying to be cool by talking about endometriosis, a condition which she describes as leaving her 'screaming in pain'. And just because Molly is famous, and has a glossy life on paper, doesn't mean she is immune to the condition or feeling horrific pain.
Even though it's a ridiculous accusation anyway, it's hardly as if Molly-Mae needs to make endometriosis a trend when it already affects 1.5 million women in the UK. But, despite this, relatively little is known about it, and it's incredibly difficult to get medical help for the condition. Nobody with endometriosis is trying to be trendy, women would just rather be able to get medical help for the condition - as it incredibly difficult to get diagnosed, let alone get treatment.
Staggeringly, on average, it takes eight years for women to get diagnosed. And a 2020 government report on endometriosis found that of those affected, 58% of people visited the GP more than 10 times before diagnosis and 53% went to A&E with symptoms before diagnosis. That's even though charity EndometriosisUK predicts that 1 in 10 women of reproductive age in the UK have the condition.
And unsurprisingly, Molly faced a similar struggle seeking help - she was only diagnosed after seeking help by a private specialist, after being dismissed by GPs 'a couple of times'. 'It's not a good thing that I have endometriosis, because obviously it can affect fertility and loads of other things, and you can never really cure it,' Molly shared in her first video, adding that she is having keyhole surgery to alleviate the condition - but that it still has a 40% chance of coming back. (Molly talks about the condition from 20mins 45seconds in the video below.)
EndometriosisUK describes the condition as when 'cells similar to the ones in the lining of the womb are found elsewhere in the body'. Each month these cells react in the same way to those in the womb, building up and then breaking down and bleeding. Unlike the cells in the womb that leave the body as a period, this blood has no way to escape.' As well as sufferers often having painful and heavy periods, it can also led to problems with fertility, bowel and bladder problems.
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