Paralympic swimmer, Monique Murphy Speaks Out About Her Struggle With Endometriosis At The Height Of Her Career
Monique Murphy a paralympic swimmer spent years battling an insidious enemy within her own body that consumed her with crippling pain and made her question her sanity.
And she’s determined to ensure other women, athletes in particular don’t have to engage in the same agonising fight against endometriosis, ABCNews reports. The 26-year-old said:
“I think it is common that people think you get cramps, you get pain and bleeding, you’ll be okay. And if it’s a recurring theme, it’s not okay. We need to change that way of thinking. We’re not doing our female athletes any good right now.”
Six years ago, Murphy fell from a fifth-floor balcony at a university party — the result of a suspected spiked drink. She spent a week in an induced coma after suffering multiple injuries including a broken jaw, collarbone and ribs.
Her right leg was amputated below the knee. But the worst pain she encountered in the aftermath came from her then-undiagnosed endometriosis — an incurable disease where tissue similar to what normally lines the uterus grows in other parts of the body. According to Murphy:
But as QENDO (Endometriosis Association in Queensland) states,
“Period pain that stops you from doing your normal daily activities and cannot be managed with simple over-the-counter pain medication is not normal. It is not a part of being a woman”.
It took Murphy five years to receive her diagnosis, and she was one of the lucky ones.
One in 10 women have endometriosis and face an average of seven to 10 years looking for a diagnosis because of a lack of knowledge and research around women’s health, as well as the normalising of symptoms by patients and doctors.
According to Murphy, who ascended to the Australian Paralympic swimming team soon after her accident, this is exacerbated in an elite sporting environment where the vast majority of coaches are men.
And she says women’s health issues — particularly anything related to periods — are often downplayed or ignored.
Despite experiencing serious symptoms at the Rio 2016 Paralympics, Murphy still managed to win a silver medal in the 400m freestyle S10. But the condition was taking its toll and it flared up again at the 2018 Pan Pacific Championships. She narrated further:
“I swam very, very poorly. I had this nerve pain or what felt like nerve pain all the way through my left leg, all the way down to my toes. In one race it got so bad that I had to stop kicking, because I felt like I was getting paralysed.
“We were trying acupuncture, the doctors were giving me Buscopan, and it was all an approach to just get you through the race. It was like, ‘oh, you’ve just gotten sick before a competition, we’ll just get you through the next 24 hours’.
Last year, Murphy finally found a doctor who confirmed she had endometriosis, but she still had to get a formal diagnosis, which is only achieved by a laparoscopy.
She found it confronting to discuss the surgery with her all-male coaching staff, but after it was complete, a huge mental burden was lifted. She said:
“It wasn’t in my head, it was something in there, there was something that was wrong. And it’s not because I’m not strong enough, and it’s not because I don’t have the ability to put things aside and race hard when it counts.
“There was something that my body was doing that wasn’t right that needed to be addressed and that’s OK.”
After returning from her surgery, she was frustrated by a lack of support from her mentors and, knowing there would be more operations in her future to manage the condition, she decided to move to Brisbane to train under a female coach.
Just 9 per cent of accredited coaches on the Australian 2016 Rio Olympics team were women, and the Sports Science Sports Medicine (SSSM) system is also dominated by men.
Dr Rachel Harris is the chief medical officer for Paralympics Australia and Water Polo Australia wants to see that gender imbalance addressed, whilst also educating the men within sporting structures.
“It’s difficult for the communication to go from those female athletes to those male coaches. Female athletes find it more challenging to discuss menstruation or incontinence or breast pain with a male practitioner, so there are certainly things that we need to look at,” she said.
“How do we help facilitate the communication and the conversation between our athletes, our coaches, our practitioners to normalise the things that females go through all the time?”
Murphy agrees it is crucial for young girls in particular to feel comfortable opening up about their health, so they’re not lost to sport when they reach puberty.
“I know I was mortified when my dad told my coach that I’d gotten my period, and I didn’t really want to go back to the pool for a while. So [we need to] really open up that discussion and make it something that we don’t have to be ashamed of,” Murphy said.
Endometriosis is as an inflammation of the lining of the uterus or womb (the endometrium). This sounds like bad news for the womb so one really has to know how to deal with it. So, let’s get acquainted with this needful information.
The First Step is to know what it really is. The womb is a fragile and important part of the female body -but then which part isn’t important? If the lining of the womb has an inflammation, it means the body is trying to fight off some harmful presence/condition. That means we might be learning to deal with the infection and the inflammation.
Signs and Symptoms
The signs to watch out for include, offensive odour accompanying increased vaginally discharge, abnormal vaginal bleeding, pain in the lower abdomen, the area between the rectum and vagina (perineum), swollen abdomen, high body temperature, pain during sexual intercourse and when you have bowel movement. These are sure to cause some discomfort.
How to Manage Endometriosis
So how do women who have this condition live with it? With all the pain and unpleasantness, how do they manage it? Best way is to find out what these experts and strong women are saying.
- Warm Shower – A warm shower will soothe and relax your nerves. It will also help calm the pain and reduce stress.
- Stock up on tampons – Abnormal vaginal bleeding is a common symptom so you have to stock up on sanitary pads. One mother found it ironic that a nurse would think soaking one tampon in one hour was serious. She was using several in ten minutes.
- Exercises – Doctors advise women to perform the kind of exercises that would help strengthen the pelvic floor.
- Eat healthy – Doctors advise women to eat natural food supplements to help reinforce the body’s immune system. This helps to fight the initial infection that causes Endometritis in the first place.
- At Work/School – The intense pain that ladies go through destabilises them so much so a lady says she collapses to the sidewalk in excruciating pain when the attacks start. This could disrupt attendance and productivity at work or in school. It’s therefore important that they tell the teacher or line manager about their condition so that they can be excused. One mother has had to cry out to women on a blog asking for helpful tips because “pain killers aren’t working!!”. They should even educate someone at school or work on how to help.
- Keep Contact – The painful attacks can cause isolation, stress and depression. That’s why it is a good coping tactic to reach out to friends and colleagues so that they do not lose out on school work or find it difficult to slip back into society when the bad times have passed.
- Rest – Doctors also advise patients to get as much as 6 – 8 hours of sleep because when and while they get their sleep on, their bodies are able to recuperate and strengthen the body’s defence system. The body needs it if they have to heal the infection that started the Endometritis in the first place.
The Dangers
There is nothing to fear if detected early. At an early stage, Endometriosis is harmless and can be quickly and easily taken care of. Complex cases, that is if undiscovered and/or untreated properly, can lead to infertility; infection of the ovaries, fallopian tube and pelvis peritonitis; or septic shock which could lead to death. Although this is rare.