Following the birth of her first child and years of continued heavy periods and severe pain, which led to fainting, Sandy began to suspect her symptoms were abnormal and sought medical advice. Her GP was dismissive, telling her that her symptoms were natural consequences of having a child.

This early dismissal deeply affected Sandy's perception of her own body and her pain, and the trust she placed in her GP at this moment would delay a diagnosis for years to come.

Over the next five years, Sandy's symptoms worsened through having children and fluctuated during pregnancies. Because of previous medical dismissals, she consistently attributed her symptoms to childbirth. She was offered antidepressants due to affected mental health as a result of pain during her periods in lieu of investigation into root causes.

While she did not see the GP exclusively in relation to her endometriosis symptoms in this period, believing they were normal, she mentioned her heavy periods and pains in GP appointments. The GP attributed fluctuating symptoms to childbirth.

After giving birth to the last of her children and still experiencing heavy periods, severe pain, and migraines, Sandy began to see the doctor regularly for her symptoms. She described a distinct one week of cold-like symptoms and migraines leading into her period, followed by heavy bleeding and severe pain for another week once her period started.

As a consequence of heavy bleeding, Sandy was diagnosed with anemia and was close to needing a blood transfusion, with hemoglobin levels dropping to 5g/dL. However, instead of addressing the root cause of her heavy bleeding, her doctor simply gave her iron supplements to manage the anemia.

For the next 5 years, Sandy would discuss her symptoms with her GP numerous times to repeated dismissal. Her GP, passive and dismissive, did not even prescribe any medication for her condition or pain, instead recommending paracetamol and ibuprofen. She was sent for scans of her uterus, but told they all appeared normal other than a few "little things" that apparently did not constitute significance when put together.

During these years, the ongoing symptoms of endometriosis impacted Sandy's daily life. While working part-time she had to take time off monthly due to her period because she was bleeding so heavily she would need to close the store she managed hourly. It deeply affected her mental health and her ability to parent. For two weeks out of every month, she was debilitated by either cold or extreme period symptoms. She felt like a bad mum who couldn't do her job properly.

The term endometriosis finally started to get thrown around in medical appointments. A combination of being conditioned to believe her symptoms were normal, diverted attention between working and being a mother to young children, and being medically focused on a severe hip injury for which she was also struggling to be listened to by her GP, resulted in Sandy not being entirely focused on her endometriosis or requesting a referral to a specialist.

At age 39, Sandy underwent hip surgery - a notoriously long process through the public system that eventually drove Sandy to enroll in private health insurance. This was a defining experience for Sandy and would characterise the way she would subsequently interact with the health system: finally breaking the trust she had in her primary care providers that led to her accepting the assertion from her GPs that her symptoms were normal.

With her other medical issues taken care of and her kids starting to be more independent, Sandy started to finally turn her attention towards dealing with her endometriosis. She kept going back to the GP who suggested a contraceptive implant called a Mirena to alleviate her symptoms.

Sandy did not want the Mirena due to the invasiveness of the initial procedure and a history of allergies that made her worry her body would react poorly to the device. However, she recalls the GP effectively "bullied" her into getting it, explicitly stating she would not be placed on the public waitlist for a hysterectomy without trying it first.

Sandy was referred to a specialist strictly to have the Mirena inserted, not for any sort of gynecological inspection to investigate the root cause of her symptoms. The installation of the Mirena was painful and resulted in a long reovery to Sandy as it was inserted through scar tissue from cesarean sections by an unaccompanied registar. Ultimately the device did not alleviate any symptoms; instead causing a continuous year-long period. She consistently saw her GP during this period about the continuous bleeding, but was told it was normal and to "wait it out".

After a full year of worsening symptoms waiting it out with the Mirena, she firmly insisted to her GP that she speak with a gynecologist. Her experiences dealing with the public system during her hip surgery and with the GP in relation to her Mirena caused her to lose so much trust in her GP that she refused to take "no" for an answer and repeatedly emphasised her private health insurance in order to secure the referral - finally allowing her to bypass GP gatekeeping.

It took only three weeks for Sandy to see a private gynecologist, and in that time she performed all necessary scans and tests. On her very first appointment, she was formally diagnosed with endometriosis and booked immediately for a hysterectomy in two weeks. The specialist also noted they suspected the presence of another condition.

Upon the removal of her uterus, the diagnosis of adenomyosis was confirmed. There was also scarring found in the uterus from the Mirena. The removed uterus was three times the size it should have been, a glaring detail that Sandy says any specialist would have picked up on if she had been referred earlier.

3 years on from her hysterectomy, Sandy wants to see better standard operating procedures and education around endometriosis for GPs, and criteria for an automatic referral to a gynecologist instead of leaving it completely to the discretion of the doctor.