‘LIVING HELL’ My endometriosis was so agonising I used to burn myself to distract from the pain

HOLDING a scalding hot water bottle against her skin, Helen McLaughlin felt nothing but relief.

For anyone else, the pain would have been too much to bear. For Helen, it was a welcome distraction.

The searing pain she felt was nothing in comparison to the agony she lived with, day in, day out.

The 36-year-old is one of the millions of women in the UK living with endometriosis.

The crippling condition is tissue similar to the womb’s lining, grows around other organs in the body.

At her worst, Helen was taking a cocktail of 24 painkillers every day – but nothing could take the edge off her agony.

“I just became a kind of messed up mummy,” she told The Sun.

“It was a living hell. Burning myself felt better.”

It wasn’t until Helen told her doctor she found sex excruciating, that her consultant suggested she try physiotherapy.

Continue to read the full article here.