Joanna Byrne (Louth, Sinn Fein)

In May, I hosted a public endometriosis meeting in Drogheda. Since then, my office has been inundated with women contacting me by phone, email and in person. Gemma, a 32-year-old nurse from Louth, is one of these women. She asked me to share her story.

Gemma says:

My symptoms of endometriosis were prevalent from the first period I had. The bleeds were heavy, excruciatingly painful, causing me to regularly miss days at schools. I had scans, there would be cysts, I would be sent home and told to take more pain relief. I would vomit, faint from pain and was told that this was normal and part of being a woman, so this is what I believed.

[...]

Working as a qualified nurse in Dublin, my symptoms worsened, and I paid privately to see a gynaecologist. During this appointment, I was told I was too young to have endometriosis and that a D & C would probably fix me. This was a completely unnecessary procedure.

I moved to London for work, saw my GP and was booked in to see the Gynaecology Team at a specialist centre. I received my diagnosis, it all made sense.

I am almost 8 years into my diagnosis. I've had multiple extensive surgeries. I've completely lost the function of my bladder and have been catheter dependent since 2019. My bowel stopped working a year ago and I needed urgent surgery in May of this year to create a stoma. I'm under the care of a specialist pain team and receive infusions every 12 weeks to help manage the pain. I regularly need admissions to hospital where I am treated with dignity and care over here. I'm now on the waiting list for another surgery, which will be more complex and will involve the urology and colorectal team.

In March this year, I had to leave my job as a Clinical Nurse Specialist nurse.

I would love to move home and have more support from my family around me...

This, however, is not an option for Gemma without the adequate healthcare women require in Ireland. Gemma is the voice tonight for the women in Louth and Drogheda who have contacted me. I commend their bravery and thank them for their courage and trust in us to be their voice. The Government needs to listen to these voices tonight and end the suffering and silence. Shame on it if it does not.

See this speech in context