Bindi Irwin wrote on Instagram that she had been told she had endometriosis. She wrote that she wasn’t sure if she should talk about what happened to her, but she did so because she wanted to help other people who are having trouble getting treatment.
“I’m sharing my story for anyone who reads this & is quietly dealing with pain & no answers. Let this be your validation that your pain is real & you deserve help,” The daughter of Steve Irwin said in a post with a picture of herself in a hospital bed, “Keep searching for answers.”
Irwin said that she had been sick, tired, and in pain for the past 10 years. Endometriosis is a condition that affects more than 11% of women between the ages of 15 and 44, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health.
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It takes an average of seven to ten years to find out if someone has it. Endometriosis happens when lesions form where tissue that looks like the lining of the uterus grows in other places. Some of the signs of endometriosis are painful periods, pain during sex, nausea, constipation, cramping, bloating, and not being able to have children. Before, doctors didn’t pay attention to Irwin’s symptoms.
“A doctor told me it was simply something you deal with as a woman & I gave up entirely, trying to function through the pain,” she said.
But a friend told her to keep looking for help, so she went to the hospital and had surgery. After that, the doctor asked her, “How did you live with this much pain?”
Irwin wrote, “Validation for years of pain is indescribable,”
Irwin said that her doctor found and took out 37 endometriosis lesions and a chocolate cyst. The Cleveland Clinic says that a chocolate cyst is a type of cyst that is filled with blood and looks like “chocolate syrup.”
In her post, Irwin, who has a 2-year-old daughter named Grace, tells other people to be more kind when talking to women about having kids.
Bindi Irwin shared an update on her illness in a Twitter post:
Sharing my journey. 🙏🏼 pic.twitter.com/0oKiLlHyOb
— Bindi Irwin (@BindiIrwin) March 7, 2023
“Please be gentle & pause before asking me (or any woman) when we’ll be having more children. After all my body has gone through, I feel tremendously grateful that we have our gorgeous daughter,” she said. “She feels like our family’s miracle.”
Chandler Powell, Irwin’s husband, posted a message on Instagram to show his support for his wife and her medical journey.
“You are my inspiration to be as strong as I can be in every aspect of life. Seeing how you pushed through the pain to take care of our family and continue our conservation work while being absolutely riddled with endometriosis is something that will inspire me forever,” he wrote.