Steve Irwin's 25-year-old daughter Bindi Irwin had endometriosis, and in a candid new interview has revealed how the debilitating condition made her feel completely alone.
Endometriosis is notoriously misdiagnosed, with those with the condition struggling to be acknowledged, an experience Bindi is familiar with.
“I was tested for everything,” Irwin told PEOPLE. “Every tropical disease, Lyme disease, cancer, you name it. I had every blood test and scan imaginable.”
“It’s so hard because you feel like it’s inescapable,” she continued. “You don’t know what’s wrong with you, and then when people tell you ‘It’s all in your head’ or ‘you’re hormonal’ or ‘just have a cup of tea, lay down,’ you end up feeling so desperately alone because there’s no answers.”
A horrendous attack of endometriosis in 2022 saw Bindi curled up on the floor in pain, convincing her to book a laparoscopy, a procedure designed to diagnose intra-abdominal diseases.
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“I was so scared that they wouldn’t find anything because we had run out of everything else to test for,” she recalls. “After years of doctors and various people telling you there’s nothing, you really start to believe it. You wind up in this strange space of self-doubt, fear and insecurity. That’s hard to overcome.”
The procedure revealed Bindi's endometriosis when doctors found 37 lesions and a cyst on her ovary, which she had removed via surgery, and it has changed her life.
Though she still experiences pain, it is far less severe, with Bindi explaining: “I feel like I have a second chance at life,” she says. “I feel brand new.”
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“It’s not like a light switch, but every week I feel like I’m able to do a little bit more,” she said of her recovery.
“Now I wake up in the morning, and I don’t have to take anti-nausea medicine or have my heat pack. Being able to go for a walk with my daughter and not feeling like I have to throw up in the bushes is just wild to me.”
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