Wales scrum-half Ffion Lewis has revealed she has been suffering with endometriosis so severe it almost left her infertile.
The 27-year-old Wales half-back, who has been a full-time WRU contracted player since January 2022, revealed her diagnosis on social media.
Lewis said she had been experiencing “bad periods, bloat, back pain and severe fatigue” for years and had she not had surgery, she said her chances of conceiving were “literally single figures”.
Endometriosis is a condition where tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows in other places, such as the ovaries and fallopian tubes. It can affect women of any age, there is no cure and it can often take years to receive a diagnosis as there are various symptoms. A laparoscopy, where a surgeon passes a tube through an abdominal incision to see any patches of endometriosis tissue, is the only way to be certain a patient has endometriosis.
“My surgeon originally thought he may find a small amount under an ovary because they thought I was at the lower risk,” she wrote on Instagram. “But his words post-surgery were that you were ‘riddled with endo’. It was surrounding my ovaries, above my uterus and across ligaments in my stomach.
“It was that bad (please appreciate this transparency) that I literally became infertile from having endometriosis. He said my chances of conceiving were literally single figures. Luckily he was able to remove it all so it has hopefully been restored.
“But it got me thinking, I hadn’t prioritised this as being that important… I nearly didn’t have this done because I thought it could be a waste of time, but I knew it was affecting my performance. Imagine I came to it in time and finding out I can’t have a baby?”
Lewis admitted she had been struggling through the demands of professional rugby and the “fear of being ‘that’ athlete that drops out during a hard session”.
“During or after difficult sessions I would experience pain that felt like labour contractions and I would be uncomfortably ill for a period of time afterwards. But I always had this fear of being ‘that’ athlete that drops out during a hard session or being ‘that’ athlete that would make an excuse, so instead I would just grind through the pain and face the consequences later.
“It’s common knowledge in our squad that I’m described as Satan on my period because that’s how badly I would struggle. Little did I know, I wasn’t being dramatic and there was something actually really wrong.”
Endometriosis UK say one in 10 women of reproductive age in the UK suffer from endometriosis. The NHS say common symptoms include heavy periods, pain in the lower tummy or back (pelvic pain), usually worse during a period, period pain which stops a patient doing their normal activities, pain during or after sex, and difficulty getting pregnant.
“As female athletes and women in general, we put so much pressure on ourselves to always be so brave and strong,” said the 33-time capped international, who is on the road to recovery for the second time this year having already had knee surgery following a Women’s Six Nations injury.
“I don’t think we realise how mentally tough we are, but our female health is so important and it’s been a real reality check for me. I didn’t have a clue what endo [endometriosis] was until this year and I’ve been living with it since my teens. I just feel there’s so much we deserve to be educated on especially if you’re involved in sport.
“As females/athletes, we need to talk more, talk more about how our bodies are feeling especially because in sport due to a majority of coaches and staff being male, we need to normalise these conversations.
“I’m very lucky and grateful that I’ve had an incredible physio who’s so passionate about female health, that really investigated into this. Hopefully we can start recognising that in some cases, it’s more than just a painful period.”
Lewis has been ruled out of the new WXV tournament which will see Wales travel to New Zealand in October to take on the world’s top teams.
Wales Women head coach Ioan Cunningham has previously spoken about how the conversation around players’ menstrual health has normalised more and more over the last year or so.
He said in April: “When I first started coaching this team, it wasn’t spoken about much, but over the last 12 months or maybe two years, there’s definitely more normalising of that conversation, I’ll have conversations with players about their periods, how they’re feeling. I had one where I went up to one of the players because I noticed she was a little bit slower getting off the floor, and she just said ‘oh, I’ve got bad cramps.’ So [I was] like, no problem, no worries, we’ll work with you.
“I’m comfortable to speak about it, but I just wanted to make sure the players were comfortable. It’s growing that relationship with the players so that they know I’m coming from a care point of view, to be the best athlete that they can be in our environment.”
Wales captain Hannah Jones admitted Cunningham had “adapted quite well to the chats”, while her head coach agreed that the sort of hard data gleaned from the Vodafone PLAYER.Connect technology makes facilitating dialogue easier, allowing the boss and his predominately male backroom staff to address athletes’ periods in team meetings in the same way they would any other health-related matters.
