(Shruti Rajkumar/ Huffington Post) — Animal welfare activist Bindi Irwin, the daughter of famed wildlife expert Steve Irwin, opened up this week about her decad-elong battle with endometriosis and the surgery she’s undergone to treat the condition.
In a social media post Tuesday, the younger Irwin said she endured many “tests, doctors visits, [and] scans” over the past 10 years to diagnose her “insurmountable fatigue, pain & nausea.” She wrote that a health professional initially dismissed her symptoms, calling them “simply something you deal with as a woman.”
But after a validating conversation with a friend who encouraged her to keep seeking answers, Irwin underwent surgery for endometriosis. The chronic disease causes tissue similar to uterine lining to grow outside the uterus, leading to severe pain, potential infertility and other symptoms, according to the World Health Organization.
The procedure led to the discovery of 37 lesions, some of which were deep and difficult to remove, as well as a “chocolate cyst,” which can indicate a more severe stage of endometriosis. (…)