Sleepovers to sleepless nights

Was I mad to consider IVF while still a teenager? Samara Davis, 20, Portsmouth

- ANNA MATHESON, LUCY NOTARANTONIO

Try as I might, I just couldn’t focus on the exam paper in front of me.

I was sitting my GCSEs – the pathway to A levels, then uni.

I had to do well.

But all I could think about was the pain I was in.

I was 16 and suffered heavy and painful periods.

Every month, I’d be bed-bound.

I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression.

Nothing the doctors gave me helped.

‘Why me?’ I’d cry to my mum, Sharon, 54.

Though I’d always been academic, I fell behind with my studies.

And here I was now, wondering how I’d get through the next hour.

In the end, it was a miracle I scraped five GCSEs.

Then, that summer, I collapsed at home.

Scans showed that I had a cyst on my ovary, causing bleeding in my pelvic cavity.

While friends enjoyed sleepovers and shopping trips, I was having surgery to remove the cyst and endometrial tissue.

Back home, I studied online for a Childcare diploma, too poorly to return to school.

After an MRI, I was told I had endometriosis, the condition where tissue that lines the uterus starts to grow in other areas.

I had it on my bladder, bowel and pelvic cavity.

There were three more cysts on my womb.

But worse was to come.