With one out of 10 women living with endometriosis, the Endometriosis Support Group of Nigeria (ESGN) has restated its commitment to supporting women living with the condition in the country.
Endometriosis is an inflammatory condition in which the inner lining of the womb grows outside of it. The condition occurs in one out of every 10 women and girls of reproductive stage and it causes severe pain that cannot be cured, but manage, if diagnosed early.
The founding board member, ESGN, Dr. Abayomi Ajayi, at the annual endometriosis awareness campaign, themed, ‘Go Yellow and Dance 4 Endo” in Lagos, disclosed that sadly, endometriosis is often misinterpreted and misdiagnosed in Nigeria, leading to late diagnosis.
To avert the trend, Ajayi said for the past 18 years, ESGN has been exploring every opportunity within its reach to support women and young girls with endometriosis. “For us, we believe all methods will help us to achieve our aim. There is a lot of emphasis on adolescent endometriosis and we are trying to see how to diagnose adolescent endometriosis. The first thing is an awareness campaign.
“We are trying to link our audience to the young people by using the dance mechanism. We are also doing a secondary school essay competition for young girls as well. We are looking at catching the young people before they are 20 years old. We are also looking at catching the older people before they are 30 to 35 years old, so that we can reduce infertility as a result of endometriosis,” he averred.
In the same vein, the clinic manager, Nordica Fertility Centre, Tola Ajayi, lamented that endometriosis is a disease that affects women adding that not much research has been done to finding a cure to the condition. Worst still, awareness about the condition is also low in this part of the world, Mrs Ajayi added.
To commemorates World Endometriosis Month, the clinic manager stated that ESGN with support from MTN, organized an awareness campaign, as effort to create awareness on the condition and to end inequality.
“Ending endo inequality is telling the people, especially the government, that there is a need to focus on addressing endometriosis. Everybody needs to know what endometriosis is as well as what women are passing through. People must give psychological and financial support and the only way we can do this is for everybody to know about the condition. That is what we are doing today, which creating awareness, especially among the youth”, she stated.
She however called on women and young girls to seek help if they are experiencing severe pain that can prevent them from doing their chores. “If you are experiencing severe pain when menstruating, then go and see a gynecologist,” she advised.
