When 20-year-old Anya Randall started her period at just 10 years old, the pain was excruciating.
By 14, her doctor prescribed the contraceptive pill to help manage her symptoms. For years the daily dose masked the agony – until one day it stopped working.
The pain returned, stronger than ever. Anya found herself cancelling plans, curled up in bed with hot water bottles and painkillers to hand, trying desperately to soothe her relentless cramps.
Her pain – ranging from sharp, shooting pains in her lower abdomen to flare-ups that immobilise her – fluctuates daily.
‘I don’t think there’s been a time in the last year and a bit where I’ve felt 100 per cent okay,’ she tells the Daily Mail.
‘If it’s not the pain, it’s that I’m exhausted from being in pain.’
After waiting 18 months, Anya has finally been diagnosed with endometriosis after a laparoscopy last month discovered a large cyst on her ovary and the disease on her uterus and bladder – it is a procedure that will hopefully remove, or at least ease, the endometriosis causing her agony.
They also found that her ovary was twisted.
Twenty-year-old Anya Randall (pictured) has suffered from excruciating pain during her period since 10 and is now diagnosed with endometriosis
Her story echoes the findings of a new Oxford University study, which found that teenage girls who suffer moderate or severe pain are significantly more likely to develop chronic pain in adulthood – not just in the pelvis, but also in the back, joints or head.
Professor Katy Vincent, gynaecologist and senior author of the study, said: ‘This study adds weight to the argument that we need more evidence to treat periods that really, really disrupt the lives of teenagers, and we still don’t take it seriously in society.’
The research revealed that girls who experienced severe period pain at 15 had a 76 per cent higher risk of chronic pain at 26. Those with moderate pain faced a 65 per cent increased risk.
Endometriosis is suffered by 10 per cent of the population, meaning many participants in the 1,100-strong study would have suffered pain without an underlying disease – highlighting just how widespread the issue is and the importance of education.
The study also underscores the damaging effects of stigma around discussing periods which can prevent women from seeking help – encouraging them to suffer in silence.
This stigma is especially prevalent among younger women.
According to charity Wellbeing of Women, 69 per cent of women aged 16-24 say they have been shamed, compared to 33 per cent of women aged 45-65.
Anya, a customer service assistant from Abingdon, says she was taught to accept her suffering as a normal part of womanhood
Chidimma Ikegwuonu, 31, (pictured) suffers ‘indescribable’ pain during her period
‘If you look at periods and when we were taught about them as young girls, you are told that you get period camps, headaches and sometimes backpain,’ she recalls.
That belief silenced her at school, where she struggled to explain her absences or voicing her needs around when she had her period.
‘I remember this stigma around not being able to go to the toilet when you needed to in school. You would have to go on break time or lunchtime,’ she says.
‘Once, I was on my period and I had to go to the toilet to change [my sanitary equipment] but I wasn’t allowed. My period leaked through my clothes and it was awful.’
Research into women’s bodies has long been chronically underfunded. More than 750,000 women were on the NHS waiting lists for gynaecology services last year alone.
Professor Vincent points out the double standard: ‘There is nothing else where we would say that it is normal to experience pain every time. If every time you went to the toilet and it was painful, we’d do something about it. If every time you drove your car, it was painful, we’d say we need to do something about it.’
This lack of funding, research and services means women with endometriosis typically wait more than eight years for a diagnosis – a delay that can severely impact mental health and fertility, as the condition increases the risk of infertility and miscarriage.
It’s a wait that Chidimma Ikegwuonu, 31, knows all too well.
Ms Ikegwuonu hopes to raise awareness around period pain through her artwork (pictured)
The health service assistant and artist has suffered indescribable pain since she was 15 – a pain so intense it can make her vomit.
Growing up in Nigeria, she says periods were not something people spoke about, even within families and including her own mother.
‘My family told me it was something I should get used to. It was a pain I had never experienced,’ she says. ‘I didn’t talk to my peers because I was afraid they would laugh or ridicule me.’
It wasn’t until university at the age of 20 that she realised her experience was far from normal.
‘My body was showing signs I couldn’t understand. I realised that it was not something normal and was not something common. I had to figure out most things about my period myself,’ she says.
Chidimma finally realised severity of her situation when she saw a fellow student being wheeled into an ambulance due to period pains. Only after this did she decide to seek medical help.
But help didn’t come. Her doctor told her there was ‘no cure’ and advised her to get married and have children – claiming that childbirth would ‘expand her cervix’ and reduce her pain.
The idea that pregnancy can ‘cure’ gynaecological conditions has been widely debunked by medical experts. While hormonal changes during pregnancy can sometimes temporarily ease symptoms, they do not treat or eliminate an existing condition – and the pain often returns once hormone levels stabilise.
After moving to the UK in 2023, Chidimma says the silence among women on the topic persists – a topic she raises awareness on through her art.
‘As a woman you are already expected to toughen up and don’t want people to see you as weak,’ she says. ‘Most women I’ve met took time to open up about their experience and told me it’s the first time they are talking about – even with their partner, parent or siblings.
‘They never talked about it because there was no room or safe space for them do to so and the society told them it was normal.’
Both Anya and Chidimma have sought help from the Pelvic Pain Support Network, a charity providing resources and community for those living with chronic pelvic pain.
Their stories are a stark reminder that for millions of women, monthly pain is not ‘just part of being a woman’. It lays bare the consequences of years of silence, stigma and neglect in women’s health – and the urgent need for change.
