Living with Endometriosis Pain: Kathryn’s Story After 12 Years

From needing painkillers to get out of bed, to reporting that she’s still pain-free three years later.

Kathryn’s experience is individual, and results vary.  Our therapeutic work took place alongside her ongoing medical care, not as a replacement for it.

For 12 years, Kathryn lived with severe endometriosis pain that affected her work, her energy and her everyday life. Every month, she relied on prescription painkillers simply to get out of bed.

Her story is remarkable. Not simply because of the physical changes she describes, but because of what those changes have meant for her life. To understand that, we need to understand what she was living with before.

Twelve years of pain, fatigue and uncertainty

Kathryn had lived with endometriosis for 12 years.

For at least two days every month, she relied on prescription painkillers simply to get out of bed.

Even with medication, she experienced painful bloating and debilitating fatigue. There were times when getting through a normal working day was a struggle.

She was also facing the possibility of major surgery. Kathryn recalls her consultant discussing surgery that could involve her bowel, with the possibility of needing a permanent stoma bag. She also recalls antidepressant medication being offered as part of her treatment options.

It was a frightening prospect after so many years of pain. And when you’ve already tried to manage a condition for that long, the uncertainty about what might happen next can become exhausting in itself.

Endometriosis is more than painful periods

Kathryn is far from alone in experiencing the disruption endometriosis can bring.

According to the Health Service Executive (HSE), endometriosis affects up to one in seven women and girls in Ireland.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that approximately 190 million women of reproductive age worldwide live with the condition.

Endometriosis occurs when tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows elsewhere in the body. It can cause inflammation, severe period pain, pelvic pain, fatigue, bloating and bowel-related symptoms.

For some women, symptoms are relatively mild. For others, like Kathryn, they can affect almost every part of daily life. And there’s more to consider than the physical symptoms alone. When you don’t know whether you’ll be well enough to work, make plans or enjoy an ordinary day, your world can begin to feel smaller.

For medical information, practical support and advocacy in Ireland, you can also visit Endo Ireland, the Endometriosis Association of Ireland.

When you begin to fear the next episode of pain

One of the things I pay particular attention to when working with women experiencing ongoing symptoms is their response to pain.

Because when you’ve been in severe pain month after month, it isn’t always just about what you’re feeling physically in that moment. It’s also about what begins happening in your mind.

I start by exploring what happened, how the experience felt at the time and what meaning the person attached to it. We then look at whether those beliefs or emotional responses are still influencing how they feel and respond today.

Those thoughts are understandable when you’re living with a condition that has already disrupted so much of your life.

You may begin anticipating the next episode of pain before it arrives. You might worry about work, plans you’ve made or whether you’ll be able to cope with another difficult month.  And if you’re facing the possibility of surgery, alongside uncertainty about whether your symptoms might return afterwards, that can feel frightening.

The pain itself is real. The fear surrounding it is real too.

Research has examined this relationship.

A 2013 meta-analysis by Zale and colleagues, involving 9,579 participants across 46 independent samples, found a significant association between pain-related fear and disability.

That doesn’t mean fear causes endometriosis, or that someone can simply think her way out of physical pain.

It helps explain why the emotional experience of living with persistent pain deserves attention alongside medical treatment.

What happens when symptoms continue after surgery?

Surgery is an established treatment option for endometriosis and can provide meaningful relief. But it doesn’t always mean symptoms will disappear permanently.

The UK’s 2024 NCEPOD report, Endometriosis: A Long and Painful Road, examined the quality of care provided to women with endometriosis.

Among 238 patients in its clinical case review, 124 (52.1%) experienced symptoms that persisted or returned following admission for laparoscopy.

The report also found that 127 of 732 respondents (17.3%) to its patient survey said they were satisfied with the results of surgery.

These figures describe the particular patients and survey respondents studied; they are not success or failure rates for all endometriosis surgery.

An earlier review by Guo (2009) reported estimated endometriosis recurrence rates of approximately 21.5% at two years and 40–50% at five years. Recurrence estimates vary depending on what researchers measure, the type of treatment and the length of follow-up.

Should I avoid surgery?

None of this means surgery is ineffective or should be avoided. Medical treatment, including surgery where appropriate, remains an important part of endometriosis care. But these findings illustrate how complex the condition can be, and why women may continue to need support even after medical interventions.

For someone who’s already spent years in pain, that uncertainty can be difficult to carry. And that’s one of the reasons I believe it’s important to support the whole woman, not just focus on the physical symptoms.

What did Kathryn and I actually work on?

When someone hears Kathryn’s story, they might understandably ask:

How did that happen? What did you actually do?

We used Rapid Transformational Therapy (RTT), Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), Havening and Parts-informed work.

But we weren’t attempting to treat or remove the endometriosis itself. Kathryn was continuing with her medical care. My role was to explore another part of her experience.  We began by understanding her relationship with pain. I listened carefully to how she described her experiences, the words she used, the feelings associated with them and the meanings she’d developed over time. And something important emerged.  Much of what we explored hadn’t previously been in Kathryn’s conscious awareness.

Understanding subconscious patterns

Over time, we all develop beliefs, interpretations and ways of responding to experiences. Some are things we’re very conscious of.

Others become so familiar and automatic that we don’t necessarily recognise them as patterns.  We might react in a particular way without really understanding why. We may find ourselves holding back feelings, avoiding difficult conversations or believing we have to cope with everything quietly.  And sometimes those responses began much earlier in life than we realise.  In my work, I’m particularly interested in bringing awareness to those automatic patterns. Not because every physical symptom has a hidden emotional cause. But because our beliefs, emotional experiences and learned responses can shape how we navigate the world, including how we cope when we’re unwell. With Kathryn, that exploration led us to experiences she hadn’t previously connected with the way she responded to difficult feelings.

A happy childhood doesn’t mean every feeling was expressed

Kathryn described having a very happy upbringing. But as we explored her experiences, we recognised that difficult emotions hadn’t always been openly acknowledged or expressed. There was a sense that things should be happy.  Kathryn sometimes described the atmosphere as everything being “happy clappy”. We explored how she may have learned that certain feelings were better kept to herself. Perhaps there were times when she wanted to say she wasn’t happy about something, or that something didn’t feel right, but expressing those feelings wasn’t always comfortable.  These were meaningful connections for Kathryn to explore.

I’m not suggesting that her childhood experiences, suppressed emotions or grief caused her endometriosis.

There isn’t evidence to make that claim. What we were exploring was how Kathryn had learned to understand and respond to difficult emotions, and whether those responses were still influencing her life.

Getting to the root of the feeling

When I talk about getting to the root of something, I don’t mean looking for the emotional cause of a medical diagnosis. I mean exploring where a particular feeling, belief or response may have developed. What happened? How did you feel?  What did you make that experience mean?  And does that meaning still influence how you respond today? Sometimes one part of us wants to speak up, express sadness or acknowledge that something isn’t right. Another part may believe it’s safer to keep quiet, stay positive or carry on. Through Parts-informed work, we explored some of those different responses in Kathryn’s experience. The intention wasn’t to fight them or label them as wrong. It was to understand them.

What I mean by “closing the loop”

An important part of my approach is what I call closing the loop. For me, this means giving attention to an experience or feeling that still carries emotional weight, acknowledging what may not have been expressed or understood at the time, and exploring whether a different response is possible now. We can’t change what happened in the past.  But we can reconsider the meanings we’ve attached to those experiences and practise responding differently. With Kathryn, we used RTT, EFT, Havening and Parts-informed work to explore emotions, learned beliefs and patterns that had become automatic.

We also worked on what she wanted to feel, believe and do differently. Visualisation was part of that process, and I created a personalised recording to reinforce the intentions and beliefs Kathryn wanted to develop. The recording was useful, but much of the therapeutic work happened within our sessions. It wasn’t simply a matter of listening to an audio and expecting physical symptoms to disappear. Kathryn was actively involved in exploring, expressing and reconsidering experiences that had meaning for her.

What does research tell us about pain and emotional responses?

Pain is real. And exploring the emotional dimensions of pain doesn’t make it any less real.

The International Association for the Study of Pain recognises that pain is a personal experience influenced by biological, psychological and social factors. That understanding is important to me. When a woman is experiencing ongoing pain, I don’t want to dismiss her symptoms or suggest that they’re somehow all in her head. I want to understand her whole experience. The physical condition matters. So do the fear, uncertainty and emotional responses surrounding it. And there is research exploring whether approaches that address some of those experiences may offer complementary support.

Research into Emotional Freedom Technique and endometriosis pain

One study that’s particularly relevant is a randomised controlled trial by Çuvadar, Guksu and Ateş, published in 2026. The researchers studied 64 women experiencing endometriosis-related pelvic pain. Women in the EFT group received two EFT sessions and practised affirmations between appointments. The comparison group used breathing exercises. Over two months, the EFT group experienced a statistically significant reduction in reported pelvic pain compared with the breathing-exercise group, along with improvements in several areas of quality of life.

The EFT group’s average reported pain score decreased from 7.34 to 4.68.

Keeping Perspective

Those findings are encouraging. But it’s important to keep them in perspective. This was a relatively small study with short-term follow-up. Larger studies are needed to understand whether the benefits are consistent and how long they last. The trial also studied EFT as a specific intervention. It did not test the combination of RTT, EFT, Havening and Parts-informed work that Kathryn and I used.

And it did not establish that EFT removes endometriosis lesions or reverses the underlying medical condition. What it suggests is that EFT may be worth further investigation as a complementary approach to managing endometriosis-related pain. 

For evidence-based diagnosis and treatment, the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology’s endometriosis guideline remains an important medical resource.

My work is intended to complement appropriate medical care, not replace it.

What changed for Kathryn?

Following our work together, Kathryn described a remarkable difference in her experience of her menstrual cycle.  “Day two I don’t even feel anything. There’s no need for painkillers. I don’t even know it’s happening. The fatigue has gone. I’ve got loads more energy.”

For someone who’d spent years relying on prescription painkillers simply to get out of bed, that was an enormous change. Kathryn also reported that a subsequent scan showed reductions in the main endometriosis growth and overall inflammation, based on what she said her consultant had told her. Those were reported findings from her ongoing medical care.

It’s important to distinguish Kathryn’s account from what can be medically established about the cause of those changes. Her experience cannot demonstrate that emotional therapy altered endometriosis tissue or inflammation. What we can say is that Kathryn described substantial relief from her symptoms and a very different experience of everyday life. “It’s literally changed my life. I get emotional thinking about where I was compared to now.”

Three years later: Kathryn’s update

I recently checked in with Kathryn, three years after our work together. She confirmed that she remains pain-free, is still without the symptoms she previously experienced and no longer takes painkillers for them.

That’s an important part of her story.

It tells us that the relief Kathryn described wasn’t simply something she noticed immediately after our work together.

Three years later, she says she’s still experiencing that freedom. This is Kathryn’s individual, self-reported outcome. It doesn’t establish a medical cure, or which aspects of her care were responsible for the changes she experienced. But it means a great deal to hear how she’s doing now.

My perspective: Seeing the woman beyond the symptoms

Of course, I’m delighted that Kathryn has reported such significant physical relief. But what stays with me most is what that relief has meant for her. Being able to get out of bed without reaching for prescription painkillers. Having the energy to get through her working day. No longer anticipating her period in the same way. And feeling that she has the freedom to enjoy everyday life again.

That’s why I’m interested in looking beyond physical symptoms and seeing the woman experiencing them. When someone is living with ongoing pain, it’s understandable that the focus can become the next appointment, the next treatment or the next episode. And those medical conversations are important.

Understanding the Woman Behind the Pain

But I also want to understand what the woman is thinking, feeling and experiencing. What has living with pain meant for her? What is she afraid of? What emotions has she found difficult to express? What beliefs or automatic responses might she never have consciously considered? And what would she like her life to look like?

Those are the questions that guide my work. Kathryn’s experience is her own. I can’t promise that another woman will experience the same physical changes. But I can offer a space to explore the emotional patterns, beliefs and responses that may be relevant to her experience, alongside appropriate medical care. Kathryn described change as having the opportunity to put a key in a lock and break free.

And she said something that has stayed with me : “The freedom, you can’t put a price on it.”

Could there be more to explore in your own experience?

If you’re living with endometriosis pain or other ongoing physical symptoms, you deserve to have those symptoms taken seriously. You deserve appropriate medical assessment and care. And you also deserve support with the emotional impact of what you’ve been going through.

At BodieScope, we explore that wider picture: your experiences, the feelings and beliefs that may have developed over time, and the responses you might want to change. If you’d like to find out whether my approach could be suitable for you, we can begin with a free, no-obligation conversation.

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Research, medical information and support

Medical information and Irish support

Published research

This case study describes Kathryn’s individual experience and self-reported outcomes. It does not establish that RTT, EFT, Havening or Parts-informed work cures endometriosis, changes endometriosis lesions or caused the medical changes she reported. BodieScope provides complementary support and does not replace medical diagnosis or treatment.