Why I pleaded for menopause at 20
Receptionist begged doctors to end womb agony
FOR most women, it is simply ‘the change of life’ that naturally comes with middle age.
But a young woman has told how she underwent a medically-induced menopause at just 20 years old – in an attempt to ease the agony of endometriosis.
Chloe Smith, 22, from Oban, Argyll, endured hot flushes and sleepless nights in an attempt to end the unrelenting pain caused by her condition.
Miss Smith, who works as a receptionist, was first diagnosed with endometriosis in 2017.
It is an often painful condition in which tissue similar to the normal lining of the uterus – the endometrium – grows outside the womb.
Miss Smith said: ‘I was diagnosed after well over 100 doctor’s appointments and multiple trips to A&E.
‘I was 15 or 16 when I collapsed for the first time. I suffered horrific heavy bleeding that caused excruciating abdominal pain and cramps and made me anaemic – but I was told this was all normal and was put on iron tablets and sent on my way.
‘When that didn’t help, I was put on the contraceptive pill – then the (contraceptive) implant, then the contraceptive patch and finally the coil.
‘I was 19 when I had my first operation and afterwards the surgeon told me that I had endometriosis.’
Numerous operations and procedures followed, including surgery to remove a large cyst on one of her ovaries. She told the Scottish Sun: ‘The pain became so bad in my lower right side I struggled to walk.
‘I could feel a lump, but I didn’t want to go to A&E straight away because I thought they would just send me away again.
‘I eventually was sent to the hospital for an ultrasound, where they found an endometrial cyst on my right ovary, around 6x5cm big. I was told it was more than likely I would lose my right ovary.
‘Luckily, after a long operation, they managed to save it.’
Speaking of the agony her condition causes, she said: ‘I’ve tried everything to ease the pain. I’ve been on co-codamol, dihydrocodeine and even morphine, but nothing helped.’
During one particularly traumatic episode, Miss Smith had been attempting to ease the pain with heat packs after calling an ambulance – but was in so much agony she failed to notice that they were burning her skin. She said: ‘I was just in so much pain that I couldn’t even feel it.’
It was at this point that she was finally given injections to induce menopause.
Miss Smith added: ‘They can help some women with (endometriosis), but everyone is different. I was just 20 and had to go through the menopause and it was hell.
‘I was embarrassed – I was having hot flushes all the time and felt awful. I couldn’t sleep and I felt sick.’
The experience was so traumatic that she had to stop the injections and live instead with the effects of the condition.
She added: ‘The worst thing about having (endometriosis) is dealing with people telling me it’s all in my head and that I’m overreacting.
‘I’ve been told “you don’t look sick”, but just because you’re coping on the outside doesn’t mean you’re not in pain.’
The incurable condition affects one in ten UK women and it takes an average of seven and a half years for it to be diagnosed.
‘I was having hot flushes’