![\"Louise](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/5014346_5_articleinlinemobile_ECHO_20FEATURES_20WoW_20Louise_20Collins.jpg\" "\\"Louise")
Louise underwent multiple tests before she received her diagnosis.<\/p>\nAfter she had her daughter four years ago, Dr Louise Collins switched her research focus from neurodegenerative diseases to endometriosis.<\/p>\n
Her own involvement with the chronic disease and knowing it can be passed down injected some urgency into her research.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy background is in chronic inflammatory diseases and specifically Parkinson\u2019s disease, but in the last two years I\u2019ve moved into the endometriosis research field,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have stage four endometriosis myself, and it kind of came home for me after I had my daughter, knowing that it\u2019s genetic. I started looking into it, mostly from a personal viewpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cork woman was diagnosed with stage four endometriosis 10 years ago, although she had experienced symptoms since she was a teenager. At that stage, though, like many women who experience endometriosis, she didn\u2019t know her symptoms weren\u2019t normal.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow I know, of course, that if you\u2019re having to go to bed and you\u2019re sick with pain and you\u2019re nearly passing out with it, that\u2019s not normal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Endometriosis is a chronic condition in which tissue that\u2019s like the lining of the womb grows in other places, like the ovaries and the fallopian tubes. The lesions aren\u2019t confined to the pelvic region, though, explains Louise.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cEven though it\u2019s traditionally been described as a gynaecological disorder, we know now that it\u2019s not confined to the pelvis. There\u2019s been bowel involvement, bladder involvement, diaphragm involvement.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re seeing endometriosis now being described as a whole-body disease.\u201d<\/p>\n
Endometriosis has long been dismissed as \u201cbad period pain\u201d, but Louise explains it goes way beyond that. \u201cThe lesions outside the uterus are biologically active, meaning they trigger chemical alarm signals that drive inflammation and pain. They also interact directly with nerve fibres which is why the pain is so intense and widespread.\u201d<\/p>\n
The condition is estimated to affect 10% of girls and women globally. There is no cure or prevention, and treatment simply focuses on managing the disease. Many patients are first put on the combined pill to \u201csuppress ovulation and stabilise hormone fluctuations\u201d, but Louise points out this \u201cdoes nothing to remove the lesions.\u201d Others are given progestins, which can \u201creduce pelvic pain\u201d and even \u201cshrink the size of your active lesions\u201d.<\/p>\n
Beyond hormones, there is surgery to excise lesions and sometimes remove damaged organs, but even expert surgery is \u201cnot a cure,\u201d with the disease often recurring within a few years.<\/p>\n
A combination of medical gaps and lack of awareness, as well as a cultural dismissal, also means diagnosis can take years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no reliable blood test for endometriosis. Diagnosis is still largely dependent on laparoscopic surgery,\u201d says Louise.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how her endometriosis was diagnosed. \u201cThe gynaecologist brought me in for a laparoscopy, and I remember after he said, \u2018it\u2019s not the worst case of endometriosis I\u2019ve seen, but it is the second worst case\u2019. All my organs were stuck together. He did an excision surgery then which is when they remove the lesions, and I got my diagnosis.\u201d<\/p>\n
Louise underwent multiple tests before she received her diagnosis.<\/p>\n
Although she now had a diagnosis, Louise was not given any \u201cstructured care pathway\u201d. \u201c<\/p>\n
It was like, here\u2019s your diagnosis, here\u2019s your pain medication. There was no coordinated plan, no multi-disciplinary support, no long-term strategy. You have a flare-up, you go to A&E, and you do the whole rigmarole again, and again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the years, Louise had multiple tests, consultations, misdiagnoses, and visits to the emergency department. Throughout it all, she says her parents were her main advocates.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went for countless investigations. I had GI problems. I ended up in the emergency room loads of times, but no-one was looking at the whole picture. In the meantime, the pain got to the point where I couldn\u2019t move from the bed for a week and I couldn\u2019t eat.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cMy parents started to advocate for me. And they persisted. I didn\u2019t know any of this at the time, but they were ringing the GP constantly, looking for a referral to a gynaecologist. Once they got that referral, they rang that office daily to get me in and seen. When I finally got to see the gynaecologist, he said \u2018your parents are so persistent – that\u2019s why you\u2019re here\u2019.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
Today, 10 years after her diagnosis, Louise lives with ongoing, complex stage four endometriosis, chronic pain and repeated surgeries.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite the difficulties, she continues to work as a researcher, raise her four-year-old daughter, and \u201cwage a private war\u201d against a disease that she says still shapes her daily life.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn many ways, I think I\u2019m lucky. I was told I wasn\u2019t fertile, but we had a baby girl. I can get up, I can work. I mean, yes, I might be on pain medication, but I\u2019m working. I\u2019m beating it. In my head, I\u2019m having a private war. And every time I get into work and I\u2019m not taking a sick day, I think, \u2018I beat you\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs much as I have a smile on my face for myself, I would die if my daughter had to go through what I\u2019ve been through. Whatever we can do to raise awareness and to change the way that women are treated, it\u2019s so important.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After she had her daughter four years ago, Dr Louise Collins switched her research focus from neurodegenerative diseases…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[58299,103,61,60],"class_list":["post-363935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-dr-michelle-o","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}