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Stop! Listen to your body’s inner drum

By on November 1, 2015

Written by Sonia Williams

As women, I think we are all guilty of taking on more than our fair share. There are many theories why, irrespective of the justification I have learnt ‘if we don’t take care of ourselves first we could be risking our own long term health and wellbeing’. I’ve had to learn this lesson the hard way, I believe empowering and educating women to take care of themselves first and foremost, is just as important as other celebrated goals like career or financial stability.

Two years ago I had a successful business, my accounting practice was growing in leaps and bounds. I played a variety of roles, I was a businesswoman, a mum, a best friend, a daughter, a wife, the breadwinner. I was busy, but sadly too busy to take time out for me, too busy to hear the warning signs of my failing health.

It should have been no surprise when on the 3rd November 2013, I found myself in the emergency department in agonising pain. For the past number of years I had assumed the progressively painful periods I endured after stopping the pill were part of being a woman, part of the normal menstrual cycle.  I had been on the pill since I was 13 due to severe acne, only stopping to conceive my two children. I hadn’t really experienced a normal period to know what one truly felt like.

It took the doctors a further year to finally diagnose I had developed endometriosis. Endometriosis is an incurable and debilitating condition where the endometrial tissue grows outside the womb, causing all kinds of chaos for internal organs and pelvic pain.  Over 176 million women across the globe suffer this serve condition and for some women it can destroy their maternal right to motherhood before they even are aware they have it.

By the time I was diagnosed it was too late, I was given a partial hysterectomy leaving only the right ovary to avoid menopause. I healed and I continued to live my life picking up where I had left off, I remained ignorant of the lessons I should have learnt. It wasn’t until the endometriosis returned with vengeance less than three months later that I finally heard my body’s cry to STOP! Shocked and dismayed at the return of the endometriosis, the eventual loss of my right ovary and induction to menopause at the age of 42, I began researching the condition further.  Finally, I realised I had been burning the candle at both ends, trying to keep all the balls in the air I had neglected to take care of myself and now I was paying a serve price.

But as the old saying goes when you’re given lemons you make lemonade. My situation has given rise to a new direction in life The Endometriosis Diet App. I discovered well-founded medical research that identified a clear link between diet and the growth of endometriosis. It made perfect sense, for years my diet had suffered. Too busy establishing the corporate career when I was younger to eat properly, I had developed a regime that involved a coffee for breakfast to get the engines started, generally too busy for lunch unless there was a fast food drive through nearby and dinner well by the time I got through cooking for two fussy eaters, I snacked on whatever I could knock together.  Nutrition there was no nutrition just excuses and I am the worst offender of them all, my husband is a naturopath even I should have known better.  My diet had to change if I was going to beat the return of the endometriosis, because contrary to popular belief not even a hysterectomy halts the reoccurrence of this disease.

Determined to rectify my mistakes I have changed career paths, now the founder of the app The Endometriosis Diet (TED)….  I have taken this moment of clarity to significantly change my life and bring about a difference to others. I am dedicated to the raising awareness of the links between diet and endometriosis. I am determined to spread the word, to ensure women, particularly those who have dreams of entering motherhood, better understand the nutritional needs of their bodies, to ensure they maintain optimal health, before it’s too late.

 

S WilliamsSonia Williams, is the developer of The Endometriosis Diet App, available on ITunes.

You can find out more at www.endometriosisdiet.com.au. A mother of two, Sonia is determined to raise the awareness of Endometriosis and hopefully earlier diagnosis.  Focusing on nutrition, Sonia seeks to empower endometriosis sufferers with the tools to take a holistic approach to the management of their endometriosis.

 

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