"Nobody believed in my pain, and I continued to suffer." The story of Carlotta Pischedda, a hairdresser from Cagliari suffering from endometriosis, is similar to that of many women, at least 3 million in Italy according to the Ministry of Health. Endometriosis is a disease that affects one in ten women with a peak between the ages of 25 and 35.
But the main problem are the consequences - above all psychological - given by a diagnosis which is often late in the diagnosis of a chronic and disabling but underestimated pathology. "Knowing that you are not crazy, that you are not exaggerating but that those pains are real, changes your life," she says. This is why "giving a name to that pain, today, is fundamental: we are talking about endometriosis".
History
That something in her body that didn't work had been known to Carlotta Pischedda "for a long time, I just didn't know how to give it a name," she explains. "The first time I went to the emergency room it was one of my first periods: I was vomiting from pain, the capillaries in one eye broke, I felt that everything inside me was writhing." Endometriosis is caused by the abnormal accumulation of endometrial cells outside the uterus. An anomaly (the cells should be inside) that causes chronic inflammation that is harmful to the female system, which manifests itself mainly through severe intestinal pain and suffering.
For Carlotta Pischedda, the first admission to the emergency room with "those" pains also coincided with the opening words of another story, parallel to the course of the disease: "for the first time I was told that they were simple menstrual pains, and that I had to get used to it. ; an answer that has been given to me many, many other times ».
No diagnosis
What made even more complex a situation that continued over the years going "worse and worse", was the lack of understanding: "The fact that doctors for years tell you that you have nothing is psychologically terrible, you come to doubt that everything is real: no doctor has ever talked to me about endometriosis, they told me I had to stay calm; I was the first to find out what it was when all the symptoms put together began to paint a perfect picture ». Until May 2021 when yet another gynecological examination establishes that probably, those pains had a name: endometriosis.
Awareness
Then confirm it. "I underwent laparoscopy - she says - which confirmed endometriosis and adenomyosis, but unfortunately it is not a decisive operation: we live with this pathology, it is up to us women to find the way". The positive change lies in awareness. For Pischedda «this disease involves various symptoms that change from person to person, but one aspect that unites us all is that we have felt alone, misunderstood, derided and questioned; to have a diagnosis, to know that you are not just "whiny" as I have been told several times, is a relief ». Awaiting her now, a change in diet and lifestyle useful to mitigate the consequences of the disease. «To those who are ill but have not found answers - he concludes - I say do not give up: contact specialized doctors, do not be afraid to talk about your pain, we share our experiences so that no one should feel wrong or alone anymore; you are not ».