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Ngozi Okoye: What It Must Have Been Like Dealing With Endometriosis Decades Ago

Ngozi Okoye/LinkedIn

Aug 30, 2026, 15:53

Ngozi Okoye: What It Must Have Been Like Dealing With Endometriosis Decades Ago

Ngozi Okoye, Nutritionist, Fitness and Weight Management Coach of Evolve With NG, shared on LinkedIn։

“Dolly Parton lived with endometriosis.

I only recently learned this, and it made me think about what it must have been like dealing with this condition decades ago, when we knew even less about it than we do today.

She struggled with infertility and later underwent a partial hysterectomy in her 30s. She eventually came to terms with not having children and went on to build an extraordinary life, marriage, career and legacy.

But her story brings me back to a conversation I will never get tired of having:

Endometriosis is so much more than painful periods.

It can affect fertility.
It can affect relationships and intimacy.
It can affect work and productivity.
It can affect mental wellbeing.
It can affect a woman’s entire quality of life.

And while medicine has come a long way since Dolly was going through her own experience, we still have a long way to go.

Women are still spending years trying to get a diagnosis.

Severe period pain is still being normalised.

Some women only discover they have endometriosis when they start trying to have a baby.

And despite how casually we sometimes hear it suggested, a hysterectomy is not a guaranteed cure for endometriosis. Endometriosis lesions can occur outside the uterus, and treatment needs to be individualised.

This is also why research into women’s health matters so much.

For decades, conditions that predominantly affect women have not received the attention, research funding or urgency they deserve. Things are changing, and I’m glad they are, but there is still so much work to do.

Dolly’s experience was decades ago.

Women shouldn’t still have to fight this hard to be heard today.

Pain that interferes with your daily life deserves investigation.”

Ngozi Okoye: What It Must Have Been Like Dealing With Endometriosis Decades Ago