Maggie Archibald has been living with persistent pain since starting her period at age 12.
“It can be quite painful on a day-to-day basis and I usually have to kind of work through the pain to do my normal day-to-day activities,” says Archibald.
Her journey to a diagnosis of endometriosis took about 16 years, as she’s just beginning to receive support.
“I had always assumed this was normal and this was part of life, and then things kind of got worse as the years went on,” Archibald recounts.
She says pain relief medicines like Advil and Tylenol don’t really help, and applying heat and cold only offers so much temporary comfort.
The Halifax resident is now a patient of Dr. Elizabeth Randle at the IWK Women’s Building, where Atlantic Canada’s first multidisciplinary endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain clinic resides.
“If we can shorten the interval between presentation and diagnosis, and we can shorten the interval between presumed diagnosis and implementation of effective treatment, the thought is that we would be able to hopefully prevent some of the issues that are related to chronic pain,” says Dr. Randle.
The clinic’s lead physician, Randle acknowledges that there is a significant barrier to access to care for patients presenting with symptoms and being told that period pain is normal.
“Hopefully we’re moving away from that in recognizing that pain that is preventing you from doing the things you need to do, if it’s preventing you from going to school, going to work with your period, that’s not normal.”
The Endometriosis Network Canada (TENC) is calling on the Canadian government to recognize endometriosis as a national health crisis, and provide funding to ensure resources are available to tackle the chronic condition.
“It affects you in terms of your social life, in terms of your mental health, in terms of the economy piece,” says TENC executive director Katie Luciani.
“Being able to work, being able to go to school, being able to accomplish your life dreams, right? And unfortunately it’s really sad that a lot of people that are living with endo have to put all of that on hold.”
Endometriosis is a chronic medical condition where tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside of the uterus, mostly found on the surface of the pelvic organs.
It most commonly presents in patients with a combination of pain symptoms or infertility symptoms, or both.
The disease affects one in 10 women of reproductive age and an unknown number of gender diverse individuals, and the average delay to diagnosis in Canada is 5.4 years.
“This isn’t something made up in your head,” continues Luciani. “This is a real, substantial thing that you are living with and the impacts are great to your regular day life.”
For Archibald, an excision surgery cancellation allowed for her to receive pain relief treatment in late February with the hope of making her symptoms more bearable.
“I’m feeling great,” she says. “I’d say still recovering, but I’m still able to do my normal day-to-day activities and kind of go on as I want to.”