Ms B?bhinn Nic Liam:

What has happened is that the public is a lot more aware because of endometriosis being mentioned more because we have managed to get it into the public domain. People are looking up their symptoms. Some are actually presenting to their GPs and telling them they think they have endometriosis, based on their pain and symptoms. There is a delay in diagnosis. Things like missing school, social or family events should all be red flags and ideally, it should be proactively managed. At the moment, it is very much up to the patient to advocate for herself. It would be so nice if a 14-year-old who presented to the GP knowing her pain was not normal pain was fast-tracked to really effective treatment, to have the best possible surgical intervention. By the time that person is 20, ideally the episode would be a distant memory and she could go on to live her life fully and productively in whatever way she wanted, instead of always having it with her and having to face multiple surgeries every time the symptoms worsened.