I felt like I'd been gaslit for 14 years

SPORTS PRESENTER ANITA JONES SHARES HER ENDOMETRIOSIS ORDEAL WITH SARA KEENAN

- SARA KEENAN

FOR years, sports broadcaster Anita Jones says she felt "gaslit" by doctors who insisted "nothing was wrong" despite being in excruciating pain.

The 34-year-old - a presenter for CBS Sports and the Premier League - eventually had surgery last year to treat her endometriosis.

According to Endometriosis UK, only 50% of young adults in the UK know what endometriosis is, and many health practitioners - including GPs and A&E doctors don't recognise the symptoms.

This is despite it being one of the most common gynaecological conditions, affecting one in 10 women and those assigned female at birth, from puberty to menopause, in the UK.

Endometriosis occurs when cells similar to the ones in the lining of the womb grow elsewhere in the body. These cells can grow and change in response to hormones in the menstrual cycle, causing inflammation, pain and scar tissue.

Anita, who has also been a Sky Sports and BBC Sports presenter, first went to the doctors for painful periods at the age of 14.

"My periods were extremely heavy and I could never concentrate in school. When I went to the doctors they told me girls can just have painful periods and nothing was wrong," she says.

"As I got older, I wasn't just having pain when bleeding. I was having pelvic pain for at least two to three weeks of the month."

March marks Endometriosis Action Month, and the charity says those with the condition face an average of nearly nine years before receiving a diagnosis.