For nearly a decade, Chloe Kidd was told the pain she felt was normal. Now diagnosed with endometriosis, she is speaking out about the years it took to be heard.
“Some people said it was all in my head. I was determined to find out what was going on.”
For ten years, doctors told Chloe Kidd that the pain she was experiencing was normal.
It began when she was 13, soon after her periods started. “I kept flooding and I was doubled up in pain,” she recalls. “Hot water bottles and painkillers just didn’t touch it.”
Through her teens and twenties, she moved between GP surgeries and A&E departments, each visit ending with a different explanation. Some suggested back pain, others suspected stress or appendicitis. None of the diagnoses brought relief.
“I just knew something wasn’t right,” she says.
The first real clue came when a locum doctor from Ipswich, covering a shift at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, mentioned a condition Kidd had never heard of before: endometriosis.
“I always tell people not to Google their symptoms,” she says. “But I did, and everything suddenly made sense.”
That conversation set in motion the process that would eventually lead to a diagnosis.
For years, Kidd’s daily life had been shaped by pain she describes as “like barbed wire twisting through my stomach.”
“On bad days I stayed in bed, crying, curled into a ball,” she says. “Normal painkillers didn’t touch it. At one point I was even on liquid morphine.”
The constant flare-ups took a heavy toll on her mental health.
“No one was listening to me,” she says. “People said it was all in my head. I was exhausted.”
Over time, the condition began to affect every part of her life. Work became impossible. Her social life disappeared. The strain spread to family relationships as well.
According to Endometriosis UK, around 1.5 million women and those assigned female at birth in the UK are living with the condition. On average, it takes eight years for patients to receive a diagnosis.
Kidd says that online support groups reminded her that social media can still create meaningful connections.
“The group saved me,” she says, describing a local network of people living with or affected by endometriosis. “If it wasn’t for that, I’d have been in a very dark place.”
Through those conversations she met others who understood not only the physical pain, but also the isolation that often comes with the condition.
Now, with her symptoms finally under control, Kidd continues to speak publicly about endometriosis and the need for better education around menstrual health.
“It should be part of sex education,” she says. “Young people should be taught what is normal and what isn’t. It could save years of suffering.”
Speaking openly about her experience has given her a sense of control that treatment alone never did.
“Even though I have been given the all clear, I still want to be a voice for others who are struggling.”
Her advice to anyone living with chronic pain is simple.
“Be selfish. Look after yourself. Even if it’s just brushing your teeth or having a bath. That counts.”
Colin Cushion 
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