The Traitors contestant Elen Wyn has mentioned she was laughed at by a GP and informed she had a low ache threshold throughout her 10-year look ahead to an endometriosis prognosis.
Elen, from Anglesey, mentioned she suffered with ache that felt like “barbed wire round her abdomen” earlier than her prognosis, which she was informed was “simply interval pains”.
She added GPs wanted to deal with ladies’s well being with better sensitivity and known as for higher funding from the Welsh authorities.
The Welsh authorities mentioned it was spending £3m on a ladies’s well being hub in every well being board by March 2026.
The Traitors star, initially from Llanfair-yng-Nghornwy in Anglesey – who was eradicated on episode two – mentioned she was identified simply earlier than showing on the fact present in 2024 – 10 years after her signs began.
Elen, now 24, mentioned when her intervals started at 14, she often missed faculty and sat out of sport, however a GP insisted she simply had a low ache tolerance.
She mentioned she was provided a contraceptive tablet if she was actually struggling, however she didn’t really feel snug with this selection whereas not sexually energetic.
She mentioned she continued to undergo so badly she was unable to stroll or go away the home.
“Typically it is such as you’re being repeatedly stabbed,” she mentioned.
“I knew it wasn’t regular no matter what I used to be informed.”
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She started to piece collectively that her signs carefully aligned with endometriosis after seeing different victims on TikTok and, whereas finding out in Cardiff when she was about 21, tried once more to push for solutions from medical professionals.
“I noticed one other GP however he mentioned the identical, that my ache tolerance was too low.
“I bear in mind him laughing at me, it was terrible,” she mentioned.
Elen then requested to see a feminine GP, who she mentioned “fully validated” her and agreed she might have endometriosis.
However when each an ultrasound and an MRI scan got here again away from the situation, Elen pushed for a laparoscopy, and it was solely then that her stage 4 endometriosis was detected.
The illness had unfold throughout Elen’s bowel, bladder, fallopian tubes and kidney and, whereas she is at present on a four-year ready listing for surgical procedure, she has been utilizing her TikTok account to boost consciousness in regards to the situation.
What’s endometriosis?
Endometriosis is a gynaecological situation related to menstruation the place tissue just like the liner of the womb is present in different areas of the physique, together with the fallopian tubes, pelvis, bowel, vagina and intestines.
In uncommon instances it has even been discovered within the lungs, eyes, backbone and mind. It was as soon as thought that the one place within the physique the place endometriosis didn’t happen was the spleen, however in 2020 it was discovered there additionally.
Signs embody extreme to debilitating ache typically within the pelvic space, fatigue, and heavy intervals, and the situation can be related to infertility.
Analysis by charity Endometriosis UK discovered the common prognosis time for endometriosis in Wales was 9 years and 11 months in 2024.
This was the longest prognosis time throughout the UK and had elevated from 9 years in 2020.
Elen mentioned she was given no assist from her GP whereas she awaited her prognosis, including: “I’ve been provided the coil or the tablet, [but] aside from that I used to be given nothing which is so irritating.”
She mentioned via her personal analysis she had made adjustments to her way of life to handle her situation, together with reducing down her alcohol and caffeine consumption in addition to partaking in low-impact train and prioritising sleep.
“I do not undergo practically as a lot as I used to… [but] I’ve executed that each one by myself,” she mentioned.
She added: “I believe a story must be erased right here. As a result of it is a situation related to feminine hormones, folks are inclined to hyperlink the signs with being dramatic and it is actually irritating to me.
“There may be a lot stigma round it and I believe that stigma must be deleted.”
Elen has known as on the Welsh authorities to supply extra funding, higher info and better sensitivity to ladies’s well being.
“I believe GPs have to spend extra time exploring signs and providing different options slightly than simply the tablet or the coil, it is ridiculous,” she mentioned.
The Welsh authorities mentioned endometriosis was one of many eight priorities outlined in its Ladies’s Well being Plan for Wales.
“We now have already funded endometriosis nurses in each well being board, developed the Endometriosis Cymru web site and supplied £50 million of further funding to assist lower the longest ready occasions, which incorporates gynaecological circumstances,” it mentioned.
It added £3m can be used to determine a Ladies’s Well being Hub in each well being board by March 2026, “to assist well timed prognosis and administration of menstrual circumstances together with endometriosis”.
