“After I did my homework, I went there with a heating pad and medicine,” recalls Amelie*, now a master’s student in Toulouse. “I had a lot of bad grades and couldn’t finish them. » According to the Ministry of Health, in France, between 1.5 and 2.5 million women suffer from endometriosis. Polina’s pain began in her last year of study.
“During classes in the pool, the tampon was not enough. I had very heavy periods,” she says. “I skipped classes in college. My pain occurred at night or when I was at home. Sometimes I stained my clothes or chairs.” While studying, young women with endometriosis may have difficulty attending classes or passing exams.
Adapt your schedule to accommodate your pain.
In September 2022, when Polina enters the master’s program at her school, she immediately warns her teachers. “One of my teachers took it upon herself to tell every speaker. ” a gesture that calmed the student. At school, everything is clear: “It’s part of me, I don’t want teachers to think that I don’t respect them,” she emphasizes. Moreover, that school year was especially cruel for Polina.
She says: “What happened to me was that I had to leave class or I couldn’t go. I called my teacher and he asked me if I was home alone. “If today a student feels freer to talk about her illness, this was not always the case. “There were a lot of excuses in undergraduate school. Sometimes I pretended that I had problems with my family. »
Sometimes establishments may provide premises. “My UFR supervisor gave me a third time and it saved me,” says Amelie: “I did a lot of outreach around myself, but the teachers didn’t care. » In this new academic year, the University of Angers has decided to introduce a 10-day menstrual leave for students suffering from painful menstruation. For the first time in France. “Students came to us for an absence certificate, we considered it unreasonable to give them one. It was an administrative formality and made no sense,” explains Florence Harteser, a general practitioner at the University Health Service.
“Now all people suffering from menstruation will be able to independently declare themselves on the university website, even those who do not have a diagnosis. » If you are absent on the day of the exam, do not worry: students will not be marked as unsuccessful and will be able to retake the exams.
Some students are forced to plan their repetition schedule according to their pain or fatigue. This is the case of Anna, a future intern doctor. “There was one week a month when I couldn’t work, but I didn’t tell the teachers about it,” the student recalls. When she entered her fourth year of medical school, she began doing an internship, “and then it disrupted my daily life.” Her pain got worse and she started missing workouts. “I had to adapt the internship schedule and revision program to suit my rules,” she says.
“It seriously affected my academic results.”
She couldn’t talk about it at work. “It’s a very masculine environment, it’s hard to say that I’m on my period and I can’t work,” she assures. Today she understands that the disease has greatly affected her studies. “It had a big impact on my academic results and I had to work harder than others. Financially, I had fewer hours to work. If you lose a week in a month, that’s a huge loss of hours in repetition.”
After studying, she will have to combine her work with endometriosis. “I’m currently on an internship, so I had to take some time off. This year I’m starting a work-study program, I’ll have to inform my bosses,” explains Polina. For Anna, the disease has also become a source of anxiety in her professional life: “Next year I will have to be in person every day, because when you are an intern in a hospital, there are never doctors there. You can’t be away three days a month because you’re on your period. »
Moreover, suffering is not always taken seriously. Pauline was diagnosed in 2021 after consultation with a professor at the Auray Hospital in Brittany. But before she could make a diagnosis, the young woman turned to several specialists. “The first one told me it was okay to be in pain, but it’s not.” During Polina’s ultrasound in Åre, “we saw endometriosis cells on the uterus. “I told myself: Finally, we can find what I have.”
Anna also suffered from neglect of her pain. When she decided to go to the doctor, “he advised me to exercise and lose weight,” the young woman regrets. Today Anna takes pills and anti-inflammatory drugs, Polina takes a new pill and morphine.
Fanny Lo, creator of preventative content about endometriosis, has found a solution to pursue her profession. She set off on her own. “It’s easier to cope with the pain and stop when things aren’t going well. No two cases of endometriosis are the same: one per woman. »
Source: Le Parisien
I am a highly experienced and well-connected journalist, with a focus on healthcare news. I have worked for several major news outlets, and currently work as an author at 24 news recorder. My work has been featured in many prestigious publications, and I have a wide network of contacts in the healthcare industry. I am highly passionate about my work, and strive to provide accurate and timely information to my readers.
