Lorne resident Carly Stafford shares endometriosis journey, new pain clinic opens

Told to have a baby by 25 years of age, and feeling like a hot dagger is twisting in your abdomen every month – Carly Stafford shares her experience of living with endometriosis for 35 years.

Endometriosis sufferer Carly Stafford has shared her experiences, as a new pain clinic was opened in Belmont. Picture: Brad Fleet

It wasn’t until she was 48 that Carly Stafford heard other women speak about their immense pain due to endometriosis.

The Lorne resident said she experienced intense period pain since her first cycle at age 14 and was formally diagnosed with endometriosis at age 18.

Endometriosis is a chronic pain condition that affects at least one in nine women in Australia, and has no cure.

“It’s like a searing hot dagger … into your lower abdomen and it just twists continually,” Ms Safford said of the pain.

Ms Stafford she grew up in a generation that told her the pain should be ignored and that she should “get on with it”. Picture: Brad Fleet

“And every movement you make … there’s just no way you could get comfortable.

“I grew up in a generation where it was just like ‘you’ve just got to suck it up and get on with it’ and ‘periods are meant to be painful’ and ‘we don’t want to hear about it’.

“So you suffer in silence quite a lot.”

The Lorne P-12 College principal said at 19 she was advised to have a child before she was 25 because of the infertility risks associated with the condition.

She said she had a daughter at 25, but when she fell pregnant in her 30s, she wasn’t able to complete the pregnancy because of her endometriosis.

Ms Stafford said her quality of life had been “severely reduced”.

Ms Stafford has had multiple surgeries to address the affected tissue, which is also located outside her uterus, on her bowel.

She said this meant even after a hysterectomy in December last year, she still suffered with symptoms, although less intensely.

Deputy Prime Minister and Corio MP Richard Marles, Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care Ged Kearney and Corangamite MP Libby Coker visited Kardinia Health on Friday to open the Endometriosis and Pelvic Pain Clinic. Picture: Brad Fleet

Ms Stafford said a new endometriosis and pelvic pain clinic, opened on Friday at Kardinia Health in Belmont by the federal government, would be “life changing” for young women with the condition.

“For some of these women it’s half their lives … it’s not just a week (every) month, it’s two weeks (per) month minimum because there’s the week leading up to your period,” she said.

“For (the condition) to be identified at 16, 17, 18 (years of age) or even in the early 20s, that’s possibly another 50 years of quality of life that you may not have had, and that’s huge.”

“It’s absolutely essential.”

For more information visit kardiniahealth.com.au/

Originally published as Lorne resident Carly Stafford shares endometriosis journey, new pain clinic opens