Carla Cressy worked as a model from the age of five until she was 17, but constantly fainted on set.
“It was very awkward and I couldn’t do it anymore,” she says.
She suffered excruciating pain from the age of 13, when she started menstruating, but was not finally diagnosed with endometriosis until she was 25.
By then, doctors had removed her appendix, mistakenly believing she had acute appendicitis.
“I was hospitalized several times due to chronic constipation. I couldn’t eat, I was vomiting and I was in so much pain, but they kept telling me it was a stomach problem.”
As a result, Carla retrained as a cosmetologist because she felt that was “incapacitated and unreliable” due to health reasons.
“I had a client and then sat in a boiling hot bath to relieve my stomach pain. It was terrible, but it was the only way to make a living,” says the 35-year-old from Essex.
An estimated one in six women with endometriosis leave the workplace because of the condition, which causes tissue similar to the lining of the uterus to grow outside the workplace.
Carla recently gave evidence in the ongoing investigation.external about how this disease affects women in the workplaceexternal.
There is currently no legislation in the UK to ensure that workers with menstrual irregularities are treated fairly if they require leave.