Why Annie Knight can’t work for six days every month
Annie Knight is at the peak of her career – but for six days every month, there’s a shock reason she can’t do her job.
Health
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Annie Knight has built up a huge following as an entrepreneur and well-known adult content creator, but for six days every month, she cannot work.
The Newcastle-based 26-year-old blocks out days in her calendar to manage a recurring pain that’s so unbearable, it leaves her bedridden and unable to leave the house.
“The pain is extraordinary, so for six days a month, I’m out of action,” Ms Knight told news.com.au.
“I cannot make any social plans, I can’t work, so I have to block it out in my calendar because I know I can’t go to appointments or uphold any commitments.”
While a health issue that leaves sufferers in debilitating pain every month without fail might sound like an unfathomable medical mystery, it’s actually a common condition that affects one in nine Australian women.
Endometriosis is a disease in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside it, usually in areas like the ovaries and fallopian tubes as well as on organs such as the bladder, bowel, vagina, and cervix, causing severe pelvic pain and fertility issues.
In several extreme cases, it has even been found in the lungs and brain.
Symptoms and severity varies from person to person, but for many it can be crippling – and can also cause infertility.
For Ms Knight, this manifests as “horrific cramping” in her lower abdomen and back, which strikes two days before her period and lasts until she stops bleeding.
“I can’t leave my house, and I need to take time out of my work because I can’t film,” she explains.
“I find it hard to log on to my OnlyFans account and message fans back when I’m feeling like crap.
“I’m in too much pain, I can’t think straight, it’s all consuming.”
While taking time out of her schedule has financial consequences, Ms Knight said she feels “lucky” she can do it, a freedom afforded to her since she pivoted into her racy career.
“In my old office job, I took so much time off work, to the point where I had to have unpaid leave whenever I was on my period, because I was in such bad pain,” she revealed.
“I couldn’t possibly go into the office, and I remember wondering, ‘how is this fair?’
“Men get to just rock up to work every day and they’re fine. They don’t have to go through this.”
She continued: “I remember saying to my friends, ‘why don’t we get period leave.’ It seemed so brutal that there’s no flexibility with work when we’re in such horrible pain.”
Needing time off work is common for those with endometriosis.
In a news.com.au survey of more than 1700 Australian women with the condition, 83.4 per cent have had to take time off work due to it, with 57.1 per cent of those not telling their employer they have endometriosis.
Ever since she started menstruating as a teenager, Ms Knight has endured “painful” periods and started taking the contraceptive pill aged 19 in an effort to manage it.
“I was getting my period every 10 days, I was basically always on my period and I went to the doctor about it, because I didn’t know why and I was worried,” she shares.
“What I didn’t really realise, because I was so young and my endo was still undiagnosed, was that the pill is essentially just a band aid.
“It doesn’t help figure out what’s going on, but it did help with the pain.”
After seven years on the common hormonal medication, Ms Knight decided she “wanted to come off”, citing she was keen to “make sure everything’s okay”.
“My first few periods were totally fine and regular, and I thought, ‘great, awesome’,” she says. “But by the fourth period, the pain started to get really bad, and then every subsequent period, I would have after that, I was just in bed sobbing in pain for the whole week.
“I remember at the time sending my friends voice memos being like, ‘what’s happening to me’ and asking ‘why do I feel this way?’
“I even went to the hospital a few times and got turned away, told there was nothing wrong with me.”
But there was something going on inside Ms Knight’s body, and it took another nine months before she eventually uncovered the truth.
“My symptoms got so bad. As well as the horrific cramping, I was really, really bloated and I couldn’t go to the toilet,” she shares.
“I also had a lingering headache and was super lethargic. Just the thought of getting up to go to the bathroom was too much. I couldn’t do it.”
Eventually she couldn’t take it anymore, and after being dismissed by countless doctors, she decided to see a gynaecologist who instantly suggested the root of her pain could be endometriosis.
After undergoing a laparoscopy procedure – a keyhole surgical procedure that is currently the only way medical professionals can diagnose the condition that affects roughly 176 million women worldwide – doctors confirmed Ms Knight had the chronic disease.
Since then she’s started taking the contraceptive pill again but says her periods are still “unbearable”.
“It’s hard to explain to people who don’t have endo, how bad it is, and sometimes you feel like you’re being dramatic, or worry some suspect you’re over exaggerating about how sh*t it is,” she added.
“It gets in the way of everything, it stops me dating, and dictates how I do my work.
“Some people think the pill is an easy ‘fix’, but that has side effects too. For me, it really affects my sex drive, which I’m not fond of. I love sex.
“It’s a lose-lose situation.”
Medicare is failing women and it’s About Bloody Time things changed. Around one million suffer from endometriosis. There is no cure. Help is hard to come by and in rural or regional areas, it’s virtually impossible. We are campaigning for longer, Medicare-funded consultations for endometriosis diagnosis and treatment. Read more about the campaign and sign the petition here
About Bloody Time is an editorial campaign by news.com.au that been developed in collaboration with scientists recommended by the Australian Science Media Centre, and with the support of a grant from the Walkley Foundation’s META Public Interest Journalism fund.
Originally published as Why Annie Knight can’t work for six days every month
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