Let’s Chat with Bree
by Bree Brennan
Strap in, it’s going to be a long one!
My name is Bree, I’m 21 years old & I live in Brisbane, Australia.
My story starts at the tender young age of 11, when I got my first period. It wasn’t long before the symptoms started and I was getting irregular, heavy and painful periods. After a few months of tracking my symptoms my mum took me to my GP who sent me for an ultrasound which showed that I had a 5cm cyst in my left ovary, he then referred me to a gynaecologist for further review.
Once I finally got an appointment with the gynaecologist, the appointment took about 5 minutes where she misdiagnosed me with PCOS (which looking back on I didn’t have symptoms for), put me on the pill and sent me on my way.
After starting the pill, my periods were still quite heavy but subsided for a couple years. Skip forward to 2016, I got a blood test which showed that my hormones were so out of whack that I was in menopause.
My GP decided to go with a ‘wait and see’ approach and hoped it fixed itself, which luckily it did. But that was almost the whole year of monthly blood tests to monitor it and I’d just started my first job on top of it.
Skip ahead to 2017, not only did the other symptoms start to worsen, I started bleeding from my anus. My GP referred me to a colorectal specialist who put me in for an colonoscopy and banded haemorrhoids, except the bleeding didn’t stop. I later found out that I didn’t actually have any inflammed haemorrhoids, he just banded them anyway and hoped that was the problem.
One afternoon it was bleeding non stop and my mum took me to the ER, where I waited for 5 hours. When a doctor finally saw me, he had the AUDACITY to ask if I’m sure I’m not just on my period, and when he actually examined me sounded surprised that I was right. Not that it mattered because they did nothing and sent me home bleeding.
After that my GP referred me to a different colorectal specialist who also put me in for a colonoscopy and her conclusion was that she couldn’t find anything wrong with me and that I was making it up for attention.
That same year my partner and I became sexually active, which I was bleeding almost every time after we’d had intercourse. When I went to my GP about it, he again sent me for a blood test, scans and said he couldn’t find anything wrong with me.
Fast forward to mid 2018 when I moved from Sydney to Brisbane and found a new GP. When I finally found a doctor that I felt I trusted, I told him about everything while giving him a medical history and the first thing he asked me was if anybody had spoken to me about endometriosis before. This was my first time hearing about it.
He put in a referral for me to the public system, and surprise surprise I was still waiting a year later. In that time I’d started having terrible bowel symptoms (on top of the bleeding), painful sex and just about every endo symptom there is.
After a year I finally asked my doctor for a referral for a private specialist, and I didn’t think to do any symptom tracking prior, so I went back to her 3 months after my first appointment and she booked me in for a laparoscopy and excision. Surgery day came, and it ended up just being an exploratory lap because it was a lot worse than she was expecting. My ovaries, my uterus, port of Douglas and bowel were all covered and my cervix and bowel were adhered together. This was the end of 2020. I’ve since been referred to a gynaecologist, and had to wait 12 months for private health to kick in to be able to afford the next surgery, but I’m finally booked in for June 27th.
For anybody navigating their diagnosis journey, my main piece of advice would be don’t be afraid to advocate for yourself, if something doesn’t feel right it probably isn’t. If you’re not comfortable, don’t be afraid to get a second opinion! Remember it is your body, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.
Disclaimer: Content on Let’s Talk, Period. is produced for educational purposes only, and the information, recommendations and topics discussed throughout does not constitute medical advice, nor does it take into consideration your personal circumstances or medical history. This content should not be used in place of tailored advice and treatment from your personal medical team, nor is it designed to treat or diagnose any medical condition/s. Let’s Talk, Period. and all contributors for Let’s Talk, Period. accept no responsibility or liability for any expenses, damages, losses or costs you or any other party may incur as a result of the content shared across any Let’s Talk, Period. platform.