Adelaide Crows AFLW player Kiera Mueller opens up on her battle with endometriosis

Kiera Mueller thought terrible pain that accompanied her period was normal. It wasn’t – but it took surgery to find answers. She opens up on making an AFLW career while living with endometriosis.

Kiera Mueller is curled up in a ball in the stands at Adelaide Oval, the pain is excruciating.

Then 14-years-old, the now Adelaide AFLW small defender had been playing in a game at the iconic venue to decide the South Australian Under-16 state team.

Soon in, she began to experience intense pain.

“I went back into the stands to watch the game and I was just curled over,” she says.

“I couldn’t stand up.”

She originally thought it was a knock she suffered on the ground, but it was soon apparent it was more serious than just that.

Mueller was on her period and the excruciating pain she was experiencing was endometriosis.

“I ended up getting an ambulance from Adelaide Oval and I spent the next week in hospital doing every test under the sun, making sure my appendix was OK and doing MRI’s and ultrasounds,” she says.

“It took around six months to kind of narrow it down to endometriosis and make sure that it wasn’t anything else.

“But because I was so young it was hard to diagnose.”

Kiera Mueller lives with endometriosis. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos

Endometriosis, when tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus, affects almost one million Australians.

While it is almost as common as diabetes, in many cases those who are affected by it don’t know for years that they have it.

This is because it can only be diagnosed by surgery.

Despite being 14, the now 21-year-old went under the knife.

She had a hormonal IUD (a Mirena) put in to stop her periods, so much pain she would be in when they came.

At aged 19, she was again told it was endometriosis.

“On top of that when I was 17 I was diagnosed with coeliac disease,” she said.

“There was a lot going on, and because I was so young it was so hard to understand what was happening and the cycle of the pain I would get and what was happening to my body.

“I guess at the time I didn’t know any different and it wasn’t spoken about, nobody really spoke about it or knew it was a thing so I was learning as I was going along.”

Despite this, Mueller has been able to make an AFLW career.

Selected with the 69th pick in the 2022 draft, the graduate of the Crows Academy has made 17 appearances for Adelaide.

But while she hasn’t missed a game because of endometriosis yet, it still rears its head and knocks her for six.

“I still get flare ups more regularly than I would like and it is hard to make sure I am not breaking the rules with footy (the medication she can take to deal with it) and what I can and can’t do but also have my health as a priority,” she said.

“So it is hard to know what to do in those situations.

“There have been times where I have been at the club before or after training and it flares up and I am just in so much pain that I can’t move.

“I have actually been pretty lucky and not missed a game, my turnaround has usually been pretty quick. I can recover quite quickly from it but it definitely wipes me out for a day or two at least.

“So I have missed trainings but not a game yet.

“I have tried to push through it and it just gets to a point where it is so painful that people can see it on my face. I don’t need to tell them they know that I am in just so much pain, I can’t walk and they are like you are done.

“It does impact my footy, there are some days where I am in an extreme amount of pain but I guess those days are minimal and I’m lucky to have great support at the club where I am in pain and something is starting to ramp up then the doctors and the physios and everyone there really looks after me and makes sure I am treated straight away.

“I guess there isn’t a huge amount of what I can do, I can take some medication and try and relax my body and relax the muscles which are causing cramps and try and ride it out and hope that I can come good and get back to training.”

Mueller has played 17 games for the Crows. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Mueller hopes increased education and awareness around endometriosis can lead to new treatment and ways to diagnose it. Picture: RoyVPhotography.

While the education and awareness of it has significantly increased since Mueller was diagnosed, endometriosis is not really spoken massively about in footy or sport in general.

Adelaide Thunderbirds premiership player Tayla Williams has been open with her challenges living with it, as has England star Leah Williamson on a global scale.

There is no cure and it just has to be lived with.

Mueller hopes the increased awareness and education can mean there is more research into endometriosis and this results in new treatment and ways to diagnose it.

Already she has noticed a good change.

“Even my trips to hospital, the change in mindset where going into it with the doctors it is right of mind (that it is endometriosis),” she says.

“They do take that if you are saying it is endo pain on board, where as when I was 14 it really wasn’t a conversation.

“That is what you get told so many time, that it is period pain, but really, is it really just period pain?”

Originally published as Adelaide Crows AFLW player Kiera Mueller opens up on her battle with endometriosis