For 33 years Glenroy's Bronwyn Robertson lived in pain.
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Experiencing agony akin to labour.
Every second day.
Now at 44, Mrs Robertson is finally living pain-free and has never felt better.
"I feel like an absolutely different person," she said.
"I still get up and think 'oh I'm not sore today.'
"I'm normal, I'm finally normal - it's good!"
When she was 11, Mrs Robertson had her first period, and from then on pain became a fact of life.
Like one in 10 women, Mrs Robertson had endometriosis.
"The show must go on...you get out there with a happy face but inside you're dying.
- Bronwyn Robertson
It is a condition where the endometrial lining - instead of being shed during menstruation - breaks off and attaches to the wall of the uterus or other parts of the body.
"I was diagnosed in my late teens, probably when I was 18 or 19," she said.
"But I'd had pain before that, I can remember my first period when I was 11 years old and I had cramping then, basically I lived with it until it got unbearable."
Mrs Robertson also developed Adenomyosis; a condition where the uterus' lining, the endometrium, grows in the uterus' muscle wall.
Taking the plunge into pain-free waters
Mrs Robertson had multiple surgeries to manage her endometriosis and remove scarring but after having her daughter, she realised she had to do something more permanent to regain her quality of life.
"In the end every second day there was pain, I can only describe it as labour pain," she said.
"I just toughed it out, toughed it out, toughed it out, thinking 'I can do this, I've been through 16 rounds of IVF, I can do this'.
"You still have to function, you still have to work, you still have to take dance classes, you still have to be a mum and wife and all that.
"The show must go on...you get out there with a happy face but inside you're dying.
"Eventually I realised I have to do something to have some quality of life. I can't keep doing what I'm doing and do it well when I feel unwell."
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So in January, Mrs Robertson had a hysterectomy to remove her uterus.
Because her ovaries were not removed, she didn't have to go through early menopause.
"It's very confronting because as a woman that's what we have," she said.
"We have a uterus to create life and some women feel like they're less of a woman if they have it taken out.
"But for me I had come to peace with that, I thought 'you know what, I don't need it'.
"We've had one beautiful little girl through IVF, we tried and tried for another but we couldn't have one.
"I'm 44, it's done what it had to do, I'm grateful for that and I don't need it, I don't need the pain."
Stigma prevents women and girls seeking help
Gynaecologist Scott Giltrap, who treated Mrs Robertson from the time she was diagnosed as a teenager through her hysterectomy, said it was important young girls experiencing "period pain" were taken seriously.
"Severe pain interferes with school or work life and in particular teenage girls need to be taken seriously," he said.
"If they have severe period pain at times of exams, it can affect their whole future and capacity to get into high education.
"There is a tendency by doctors of not wanting to intervene because they are so young but in my opinion the issue needs to be sorted out properly in a reasonable time-frame."
Mrs Robertson believes the stigma and misconceptions surrounding endometriosis stops many young women from getting treatment.
"There's a stigma that if you have endometriosis you won't have children, but if it's treated and they clean it all up you can fall pregnant within six weeks of [laparoscopy] surgery," she said.
"They can treat it with the pill, or the rod in the arm.
"These girls think they might have endometriosis but they're too frightened to go to a doctor or specialist because they don't want to know they can't have children, but it's very treatable."
Mrs Robertson said the problems she and her husband had conceiving were due to a number of factors.
'You can have a better, pain-free life'
March is Endometriosis Awareness month and Mrs Robertson said she wanted to share her story so women and girls knew 'period pain' was not normal.
"Don't brush it off as normal, it is not normal for a girl to be crippled over in pain," she said.
"Go and get a referral to see a gynaecologist to get it checked out and see what your options are.
"Help is out there so don't put up with the pain.
"Don't suffer, get help, you'll have a better quality of life."
"I'm 44 it's done what it had to do, I'm grateful for that and I don't need it, I don't need the pain."
- Mrs Robertson on her uterus
Dr Giltrap said in his 40 years treating endometriosis, awareness of the disease had grown significantly.
"It's a condition that's being recognised much more by patients," he said.
"Initial knowledge of it was at a reasonably low level but that has increased as time has gone by, in part due to the advent of better technology and laparoscopy for diagnosis.
"As it's become more commonly diagnosed the public has become more aware.
"But on average it's still eight years from the onset of symptoms to a diagnosis."
Gradually, as knowledge of endometriosis grows, the attitudes around the condition are changing too.
But Mrs Robertson wants the stigma around hysterectomies to change as well.
She said far from feeling like less of a woman, without her uterus she is now thriving.
"I am over the moon, I am so fit and well," she said. "I don't know why I left it so long. I'm up early going for a three-kilometre run then I jump on the treadmill and go at night."
Even three months on from the surgery, Mrs Robertson is still shocked to wake up every day pain-free, without cramping, bloating, headaches or back aches.
She said it was important misconceptions around hysterectomies and endometriosis were addressed so more women could live pain free.
"My whole life has changed," she said.
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