Endometriosis Is Not Just a Bad Period: What Natalie Githinji’s Event Put in the Spotlight

On Sunday, September 27, the Kenyatta International Convention Centre was filled with something not usually associated with conversations about chronic illness: music, dancing, celebrities, laughter, women cheering, and thousands of people showing up.

But beneath all the entertainment was a much heavier conversation. Endometriosis.

Kenyan media personality Natalie Githinji brought thousands of people together for her Endometriosis Warriors event, organised through her Yellow Bold Girl Initiative in partnership with Eric Omondi’s Sisi Kwa Sisi Initiative Kenya. The gathering brought together women living with endometriosis, supporters, entertainers and members of the public for a day centred on awareness, community and support.

For Natalie, this wasn’t simply another event. She’s openly shared her own experience living with endometriosis, including her recent treatment and recovery. Seeing thousands of people turn up for the cause became an emotional moment for her. And perhaps that’s what made the gathering important, because for a condition that affects millions of people worldwide, endometriosis is still surrounded by an uncomfortable amount of misunderstanding.

“It’s just period pain.”

This might be one of the most damaging things someone with endometriosis can hear. Pain during your period has been normalised for generations. Girls are often introduced to menstruation with some version of: it will hurt, get used to it. So when the pain becomes severe, the first response is often not “something might be wrong.” It’s “take a painkiller, drink something warm, rest, you’ll be fine.”

But endometriosis is not simply a particularly painful period. It’s a chronic condition in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus, causing inflammation and scar tissue. Symptoms can include severe menstrual pain, chronic pelvic pain, heavy bleeding, bloating, nausea and infertility. And not everyone experiences it in exactly the same way. That’s part of the problem.

“If she looks fine, she must be fine.”

Endometriosis doesn’t necessarily announce itself on someone’s face. A woman can be laughing with her friends and still be experiencing pain. She can go to work, attend class, post on Instagram, show up at an event, and still be dealing with symptoms affecting her body and her quality of life. The absence of visible suffering does not mean the absence of suffering.

WHO notes that endometriosis can affect people’s ability to work or attend school and can have social, economic and emotional consequences. It can also be associated with anxiety, depression, fatigue and social isolation. This is why “but you look okay” can be such an unhelpful response. Sometimes looking okay is simply what getting through the day looks like.

The diagnosis delay

Another misconception is that if someone has endometriosis, they should have known much earlier. But diagnosis isn’t always straightforward. WHO says symptoms can vary considerably, and long delays in diagnosis are common, currently averaging between four and 12 years. Diagnosis can involve a person’s menstrual and medical history, physical assessment and imaging such as ultrasound or MRI, surgery isn’t necessarily required before treatment can begin.

Think about what several years of being told “that is normal” can do.

Several years of pain.

Several years of wondering whether you are simply weak.

Several years of changing plans because your body will not cooperate.

Several years of being told to endure something that perhaps should have been investigated.

That’s more than a medical problem. It becomes a problem of how society listens to women.

Not a fertility sentence

Infertility can be associated with endometriosis, but having the condition does not mean every woman with it will be unable to have children. The reality is more complicated than the conversations we often have around it. Some people with endometriosis experience fertility difficulties, while others don’t. WHO notes that fertility treatment options, including ovulation induction, intrauterine insemination and IVF, may be considered for people experiencing infertility associated with the condition. This matters because women living with endometriosis already have enough to process without being made to feel their bodies have somehow failed them.

“Remove it and you’re done” isn’t real either

Another misconception is that there’s one operation, one medication or one solution that permanently fixes everything. There isn’t currently a known cure for endometriosis. Treatment instead focuses on managing symptoms and reducing the condition’s impact, and can include pain medication, hormonal treatment, surgery and fertility treatment depending on the individual situation. Symptoms can also return after treatment, which brings us back to why awareness matters.

Natalie herself urged people not to let the conversation end when the event ended. She called for continued conversations around endometriosis and highlighted the financial burden of treatment, particularly for women who struggle to afford care.

An awareness event is one day. Living with it is every day.

The music ends. The lights go off. The crowd goes home. But someone is still waking up the next morning with pain. Someone is still trying to explain to a partner why sex hurts. Someone is still deciding whether they can make it to work. Someone is still sitting in a hospital waiting for answers. Someone is still wondering whether the pain they’ve been told to tolerate for years is actually normal.

It isn’t.

Severe period pain should not automatically be dismissed as something women simply have to endure. And conversations about endometriosis shouldn’t only happen when a celebrity shares her diagnosis or when thousands gather at KICC. They need to happen in homes, in schools, in workplaces, in hospitals, between friends. Because sometimes the first step toward someone getting help is simply having another person say:

“I believe you. That pain is worth looking into.”

Natalie’s event may have filled KICC for a day, but the real measure of awareness is what happens after everyone goes home.

Do we listen differently?

Do we ask better questions?

Do we stop laughing off women’s pain?

Do we learn what endometriosis actually is?

Because endometriosis does not need another day of people saying, “women go through painful periods.” It needs people to understand that pain is not something we should automatically teach women to live with.

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