I went to my doctor with debilitating pain at 21 – but all he did was tell me I might have an STD and ‘get pregnant’ to deal with my symptoms. He was wrong

Lauren Jeffries was just twenty years old when she started experiencing “strange” symptoms that neither she nor her doctor could explain.

The young woman suffered for months from ‘sharp, stabbing’ pelvic pain that washed over her in waves, endless itching in her genitals, a feeling of having to go to the toilet ‘constantly’.

Not only did her doctor fail to diagnose her, he also told her she might have an STD and suggested she get pregnant to “solve” all her problems.

Speaking to FEMAIL, the now 31-year-old reflects on the difficult journey she took to find out what was wrong with her.

“I thought I had a urinary tract infection (UTI) so I went to my doctor for medication, but the pain just got worse,” she said. “I went back several times and kept getting misdiagnosed.”

Lauren felt like her doctor was throwing diagnoses against a wall and hoping one would stick – from suggestions she had an unplanned pregnancy to sexually transmitted diseases.

‘I felt so rejected and misunderstood – I don’t know why he thought I had an STD. “I had no symptoms, just a lot of pain and fatigue,” she said.

‘When I was finally diagnosed with endometriosis a year later, my doctor told me I should consider getting pregnant as he said it would help with my pain.’

That bizarre advice is a common myth about endometriosis that has no scientific basis.

Lauren said she was only 21 and still in college when her doctor suggested she get pregnant.

‘I had seen this doctor all my life and only now realized that he didn’t really care about me or what was going on.

‘I worked part-time and lived with my parents. I was in no position to have a baby. It’s such a crazy thing to say.

“We got into an argument about it because I told him it was a myth, but he doubled down.”

She was stunned at how uneducated her own doctor was about the disease, which can lead to life-threatening complications.

“It’s like he was clutching at straws,” she said.

He put her through a dozen random tests over six months, including an “intrusive” and “terrible” endoscopy, which involved inserting a camera into the body.

Endometriosis, which affects one in ten women, occurs when tissue lining the uterus grows in other parts of the body.

It can cause bleeding and inflammation and, if left untreated, lead to infertility.

Although there are medications that can reduce the debilitating symptoms, patients cannot become pregnant while taking them.

Patients with endometriosis wait an average of more than eight years from the onset of symptoms before receiving a diagnosis.

Lauren said her pain was akin to a “sharp, stabbing” sensation that made her “flip over” until it passed.

“Other times I felt a throbbing pain — or just something achy that never went away,” she said.

When her doctor still couldn’t figure out what was wrong, he sent her a referral to a gynecologist.

“My doctor might as well have said, ‘Oh, this is too hard for us. We obviously don’t know what’s going on, so we’re giving up,” Lauren said.

When Lauren went to the gynecologist, she immediately suggested that the young woman might have tissue growing on her bladder and booked her in for keyhole surgery a few months later.

‘My symptoms got worse before the operation: I was bleeding constantly and was extremely tired.

‘My friends and family also told me I looked very sick.

‘It was mentally taxing knowing I couldn’t do anything. But I was lucky that I went to a private hospital; many women who go through the public health care system wait years.”

Lauren said her pain was often so bad that all she could do was curl up into a ball.

‘I felt so frustrated because I was missing so much. It was unfair. I kept thinking, ‘Why is this happening to me? Why do I have to deal with this when no one else does? Why am I different?’

‘I missed a lot of social events and spending time with my friends because I couldn’t leave my room. I felt isolated from other people.’

Lauren hoped that her symptoms would go away after the surgery, but that was not the case.

Doctors removed endometrial tissue from Lauren’s bladder, intestines and uterus.

‘After the operation I still had pain every day. I was confused, my mother was confused, nothing made sense.

‘The complaints were not as bad as before the operation, but the pelvic pain persisted.’

She feared the pain would “last forever,” but her doctor later gave her “life-changing” drugs.

Two years after her surgery, Lauren was prescribed Visanne, a medication that shrinks endometrial tissue and reduces associated symptoms, such as pelvic pain and painful monthly bleeding.

‘Visanne changed my life. I suffered pain every day for a long time, but this medicine has given me my life back,” Lauren said.

‘I feel like one of the lucky ones. My life has completely turned around. My hope is that other women can now also lead a normal life.’

Lauren said that while she wasn’t sure if she wanted to have children, she worried that the disease would hinder her ability to start a family.

“It’s a difficult conversation I’ve had with previous partners.

‘I’m 31 now and in the back of my mind I always think about whether it’s too late, whether I can’t carry a child.’

About 1 million Australian women live with endometriosis.

The condition causes 40,000 hospital admissions every year and leaves hundreds of thousands of other women in regular pain.