Endometriosis affects 1 in 10 women, yet there’s a general lack of awareness surrounding the disease. Society has shelved its symptoms as ‘women’s problems’, leaving an estimated 2 million women in the UK with nothing but an online symptoms checker to guide them.
Now London's National Portrait Gallery aims to increase awareness, exhibiting an excerpt from a self-portrait series of the disease. Created by Georgia Wileman, it documents ‘maps’ of years of surgery scars across her stomach, intestinal bloating, and the extent of her pain.
Wileman said: ‘I wanted to try to put into images what the reality of this disease can look like. For many it's crippling or labour like cramps during their period every month, for others it's near constant pain they have to push through every day.’
She was inspired to shoot the series after doctors misdiagnosed her, like many others. At first, she was referred to a psychologist at 13 for depression in what she calls a ‘nauseating parallel to female hysteria’. It took 12 years to be diagnosed, the average wait being 10 years.
Meanwhile, Wileman underwent cramps comparable to giving birth. For months at a time she would be bed-bound. If she was lucky, she’d receive morphine for the pain.
‘The map of the last few years is not built around experiences, work achievements or anniversaries,’ she says. ‘[Instead], merely the scars on my stomach and the dark spots of memory I try to push aside. My reflection in the hospital mirror. The pavement I collapsed on on his birthday. The wheelchair by the door.’
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Endometriosis occurs when tissue that behaves like that lining your womb is found in other parts of the body. Most commonly, it’s found in your ovaries, fallopian tubes, stomach and around the ladder. While symptoms vary from mild to severe, they tend to include heavy periods, pelvic pain, exhaustion, and pain during and after sex. Wileman calls surgery the 'gold standard' of treatment, as it's relatively unknown, difficult to come by, and expensive, largely not being covered by the NHS. Without treatment, however, endometriosis can cause infertility.
Wileman’s portrait series was funded by journalism non-profit the Economic Hardship Reporting Project and will be published in full by Lenny Letter in January. With NHS doctors finally receiving guidelines on how to diagnose endometriosis in September, there’s hope that it won’t go ignored for much longer – or, worse, passed off as a women’s mental health issue.
For more information on Endometriosis, visit Endomestriosis UK.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.