Researchers said that although symptoms of adenomyosis and endometriosis are not life-threatening, they significantly increase the challenges faced by women.<\/p>\n
![\"Lauren](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/5051627_14_articleinline_Lauren_20Higgins_2c_20Corbally_2c_20Limerick_203.jpg\" "\\"Lauren")
Lauren Higgins: ‘I couldn’t imagine waiting for menopause and probably another 20 years of pain.’ Picture: Brendan Gleeson<\/p>\n
Since she started her period in her teenage years, Lauren Higgins, from Corbally, had always been in pain. Her symptoms worsened when she hit her 30s.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt became really bad. It got to the point where I actually presented myself to an ED, in agony, I was collapsing.<\/p>\n
\u201dIt wasn’t even just around my period, it was all the time. I could’ve maybe had a week of being OK and for three weeks, I was in agony,\u201d she told the Irish Examiner.<\/p>\n
In 2022, Lauren was told she had adenomyosis. \u201cI was like, what the hell is that? I had never heard of it. It was a turning point for me, and I finally got answers,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
While adenomyosis is more often diagnosed in patients aged between 30 and 45, a lot of women aged 20 to 25 are also suffering from the condition.<\/p>\n
Lauren said she had been advised by her gynaecologist to undergo a laparoscopy to determine whether the lesions were caused by endometriosis, but none was found. She was later placed into a temporary menopause.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was amazing at the start, I felt like I got my life back. Then, it becomes less effective as the weeks go on,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was back to square one with my pain. I had tried five different pills, but I was also conscious of the painkillers I was taking because I didn’t want to damage other parts of my body from taking so many.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I really only took them if it was really necessary.”<\/p>\n
After exhausting all other options with her gynaecologist, Lauren made the decision to get a hysterectomy in April 2025. The decision has helped her \u201cget her life back\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was at the end of the road with the pain that I was in. It was very hard to explain to people that didn’t suffer with the pain. I joined a support group, I’ve done counselling. At some stage, I thought I was going crazy. I didn’t know if the pain was really there or was in my head, it was such a weird feeling.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome days, I had pains in my fingers, my joints, my elbows, my knees. For something so small, your womb can cause unbearable pain,\u201d Lauren said.<\/p>\n
The hysterectomy was her last resort.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She said:<\/p>\n
\n It honestly changed my life and I’ve never felt better.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n
“I’m eating healthy, I’m even running now. I am in the gym five nights a week. I’m doing classes, I was never able to do any of that. I wasn’t able to go on holidays without painkillers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lauren said she was \u201cquite content\u201d getting a hysterectomy even though she has no children of her own, adding that women are just expected to reproduce “and just get on with it”.<\/p>\n
\u200a\u201dWe have our own little family here, no biological kids but fur babies and a godchild.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn’t imagine waiting for menopause and probably another 20 years of pain. I wouldn’t have survived it. It was just getting worse and worse as the days went on.”<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cI remember waking up from my surgery, my gynaecologist coming into me the next day and she was like, \u2018You don’t look like someone that had surgery. You’re glowing\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I felt as if the weight of the world had been taken off my shoulders.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In terms of treatment, prescriptions and oral contraceptives can reduce pain and bleeding caused by adenomyosis. Surgical treatment is also possible, and the surgeon can do a laparoscopic excision of the adenomyosis tissue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A hysterectomy is considered in severe cases as a last option.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the age of just 33, Limerick woman Lauren Higgins underwent a hysterectomy after years of suffering from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2121,103,61,60],"class_list":["post-418959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-womens-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418959","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=418959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}