For Michelle Bates, 47, from Cardiff, her fertility hung in the balance after a shocking diagnosis...
Settling down at my laptop, I was ready to help people.
Volunteering as a web chat volunteer for Endometriosis UK, I was on hand to help anyone who needed support – whether they had a new diagnosis or were feeling overwhelmed.
Write down every symptom, blood f low and dates, I always advise people. It will help you feel more equipped at your doctor’s appointment.
And this was a cause close to my heart.
In 2003, aged 25, I’d been diagnosed with endometriosis after an operation to remove three ovarian cysts.
I’d been hopeful this would help with the painful periods I’d struggled with since I was a teenager.
But coming round, the doctor told me she had good news and bad.
‘The good news is we’ve saved your ovaries,’ she said. ‘The bad news is that you have the worst case of endometriosis I’ve ever seen – if you want kids, you need to have them now.’
Only, needing to start Zoladex injections to starve the endo tissue, it wasn’t going to be that simple.
I wouldn’t be able to try for a baby during this time and suddenly everything felt so uncertain.
Married to my ex-partner at the time, I knew children were something I wanted.
But I never believed there would be any rush – I was just 26 and the news came as a total shock.
Leaving the hospital, I didn’t really understand what my diagnosis was or what it meant for me.
And I didn’t know how to advocate for myself either.
I knew I wanted children
I had three rounds of Zoladex for three months at a time, with a break for a few months between cycles where I could try for a baby.
But over two years, we had no luck.
And being kept in menopause while on the medication, I felt like less of a woman. ‘Why don’t you adopt?’ friends would ask. But I wanted the choice to become a mother naturally.
And the pressure of my fertility put a strain on my relationship, with my ex and I deciding to separate in 2010. In 2012 I had the first of nine surgeries to remove the endo, having stopped taking Zoladex for good.
It had spread to my bowels and my bladder – so bad my organs had fused together.
Doctors removed what they could, but my organs remained fused.
All I wanted was to be
