Hannah’s Story: Swimming for Endo

Hi, my identify is Hannah. I’m 25 years outdated, and a former British swimmer and trendy pentathlete. For most of my life, sport was my identification, till debilitating well being signs in the course of the pandemic modified all the pieces.

After a colonoscopy, I used to be misdiagnosed with IBS and given little assist past recommendation to alter my weight loss program. I used to be younger and didn’t but know easy methods to advocate for myself, so I attempted to handle the ache alone. Over time, meals grew to become the enemy, and this spiralled into an consuming dysfunction that deeply broken my relationship with my physique. As the years handed with out solutions, I slowly misplaced elements of myself. I blamed myself for the ache, resented my physique for failing me, and watched my early twenties disappear in a blur of exhaustion, isolation, and survival.

Eventually, after years of combating to be heard, I underwent surgical procedure and was lastly recognized with endometriosis. Before then, I had repeatedly been informed my signs had been “just PMS” or IBS, and that surgical procedure could be a “waste of time and money”.

Even after my prognosis, I used to be despatched residence with out assist, steerage, or follow-up care. Everything I find out about endometriosis, I’ve needed to be taught for myself. That is why I made a decision to fundraise for Endometriosis UK.

After surgical procedure, I used to be unable to train correctly for six months. So with the ability to swim these distances now means much more to me than merely finishing a problem. It represents resilience, reclaiming my physique, and rebuilding the identification I misplaced for therefore a few years. This problem was not solely about elevating cash. It is about elevating consciousness of the fact confronted by these combating for solutions and studying to belief their our bodies once more.

You took by yourself swimming problem this Endometriosis Action Month – thanks a lot! Why did you select swimming for this fundraising problem?

Swimming has all the time been an enormous a part of who I’m. I grew up competing in British Swimming, spending 4 hours a day within the pool and waking up at 5am most mornings to coach. My childhood was formed by early begins, weekends spent travelling the nation for competitions, and the self-discipline and identification that got here with being an athlete. But for a very long time, that model of me felt very far-off.

As my endometriosis signs worsened and my life grew to become consumed by ache, exhaustion, and the countless struggle for solutions, I misplaced my connection to the game and, in some ways, to myself. So selecting swimming for this problem felt deeply symbolic. It was a approach of returning to my roots and reconnecting with the lady I was earlier than years of ache and grief modified all the pieces.

Receiving my prognosis gave me the arrogance to start rebuilding that relationship with my physique once more. Getting again into the pool jogged my memory that though endometriosis has taken loads from me, it hasn’t taken all the pieces. In some ways, this problem felt like reclaiming part of myself I believed I had misplaced without end.

Do you will have any phrases of encouragement for these taking over our Swim for Endo problem this May?

Absolutely! There had been some very tough moments all through my problem. I ended up swimming 75km over the month, which meant hours on finish within the pool battling the chilly, the chlorine, and the fixed goggle readjustments. It took lots of self-discipline, however what stored me going was all the time coming again to my why.

Why was I doing this? For the lady I was. For the lady I’m turning into. For the lady in ache, crying on her bed room ground, determined for solutions. And for the hundreds of thousands of others nonetheless battling their very own well being journeys, whereas navigating a healthcare system that too usually dismisses or delays their struggling. My prognosis didn’t clear up my ache in a single day, but it surely gave me one thing I had been lacking for years: solutions. Understanding what was taking place in my physique helped me cease panicking each time the ache returned, quiet the intrusive ideas and well being anxiousness, and eventually cease blaming myself. It gave me the arrogance to start therapeutic bodily, mentally, and emotionally.

What I’ve come to grasp is that an earlier prognosis may have spared me years of grief, confusion, and trauma. If, by means of elevating consciousness and funds for Endometriosis UK, I can play even a small half in enhancing prognosis occasions and therapy and look after others, I will probably be extremely grateful.
So, if you happen to’re taking over this problem, my largest piece of encouragement is that this: keep in mind your why. Who are you doing this for? What are you hoping to alter? Hold onto that within the tough moments, and let it carry you ahead.

Most of all, be pleased with your self for displaying up, to your power, your compassion, and your willingness to make a distinction. And lastly… simply maintain swimming 😉

Any closing ideas you’d prefer to share with the group? 

Endometriosis may be extremely isolating, and it might impression each a part of your life, bodily, mentally, and emotionally, and there are such a lot of moments the place you may start to lose belief in your individual physique and your self. But if there’s one factor I’ve realized by means of my journey, it’s the significance discovering methods to reconnect with my physique by means of compassion relatively than punishment. Exercise doesn’t “cure” endometriosis, however rebuilding power and confidence in your physique may be extremely empowering. 

To others with endometriosis, you aren’t weak for struggling. You are navigating one thing that may be extremely tough each single day, and that deserves much more recognition and assist than it at present receives.

If sharing my story helps even one particular person really feel much less alone, then this problem has meant one thing far higher than the miles I swam.