It has been recently reported that
former Miss Nigeria, Chief Adenike
Oshinowo is now a mother of twins (a
boy and a girl) via surrogacy.
The twins are Nike’s biological children but
was carried and birthed by another woman.
It has also been alleged that the 47-year-
old entrepreneur who battles with a disease
called endometriosis, bought sperm from a
sperm bank in the US.
Last week, she talked about her long term
association with the disease (endometriosis
is a disorder that occurs when the
endometrium (cells lining the uterus) grow
in other areas of the body, causing
excruciating pain.)
Medical experts identify endometriosis as a
significant factor in unexplained female
infertility, chronic pelvic pain, and other
gynaecological problems.
Read what she says below:
I have lived with endometriosis since the
age of 13. I was sent to boarding school in
England when I was seven. I went to prep
school. It was during the first few days in
secondary school that I began my periods
(menstrual). They called the ambulance and
I was hospitalized for 10 days because the
pain started and wouldn’t stop.
I thought I was going to die, the first two
days, I was in the infirmary with the matron
and she kept saying, ‘O Adenike! We
understand that you miss home, we
understand that it’s a rite of passage, we
understand it is difficult for you, we
understand that every girl must go through
it, but just bear it’.
I’m telling this story because it happened
in England and, supposedly, the white
people, who knew best, yet had no idea
what was wrong with me. Every female
student they had dealt with had had a
normal period and coped with it, so they
could not understand why I was
dramatizing. They thought I just wanted
attention. The pain was so intense I passed
out. They called the ambulance and I was
hospitalized. The challenge was now to get
me to stop bleeding.
Challenge
Living with endometriosis is a challenge.
When you see your doctor, your doctor just
tries to treat the symptoms and assumes
the pain revolves around your menstrual
cycle. But this is not so. This pain affects
every single aspect of your life.
I, as Nike Oshinowo, have never had an
examination without my period, I have
never traveled without my period. There
are so many things I have never done
without my period. When I am very happy
my period comes. When I’m depressed, my
period is there. I learned to just cope with
it.
I love the quote that women wear their
pain like stilettos. That is what I have been
doing.
At 40
Until I turned 40, Nigerians didn’t know I
suffered from endometriosis. When I
turned 40, I granted an interview and
Nigerians understood why I never drank
alcohol. You cannot be on medication and
take alcohol. It was finally understood why
I was so clean cut and into healthy living.
At last it was understood why if I come to
your party, at 8pm I had to go home to bed
and to take my pain killers; because when
you live with endometriosis, you live with
pain. I have a library in my home. It is a
library about pain. I have so many books
on pain cure.
Ignorance
It is extraordinary the effect that
endometriosis has on your life especially if
you are ignorant. Ignorance is of two types
– knowingly or unknowingly. My mother,
unknowingly, was ignorant, because
nobody had educated her about
endometriosis.
She had two daughters, one didn’t suffer
every month, the other did, but my mother
didn’t bother about it. She just figured the
one that suffered would grow out of it,
especially since the doctors just
recommended pain killers.
Pain
I talk about this pain, now, so that
mothers, when their young daughters are
starting their periods for the first time, and
it is traumatic, they will go and sit with the
doctors, ask questions and have it checked
out.
Mine was left so late in life in spite of the
fact that I grew up in England. It was
frightening. I wish I had someone to blame,
I wish I could blame the doctors. I have
had so many surgeries I have lost count. I
remember when Michael Jackson died and
they talked about a drug he had been
taking and I exclaimed –’ oh yes, I have
taken that drug!’ You try everything to make
the pain go away, so all I know is that I
would not want a child of mine to suffer
endometriosis. No. The only way to make
sure that does not happen is to educate as
many as I can.
Understanding
Everyone understands what cancer is.
People know how to check for breast
cancer, and are aware that, for cervical
cancer, you do a pap smear. But
endometriosis is not that easy. There are
symptoms mothers and fathers, nurses and
aunts and other caregivers can watch out
for so that there would be no needless
suffering like I had. I am living with
endometriosis. I was born with it and there
is no cure. Hopefully by the time I have
menopause it will be better because once
you stop menstruating, everything is over.
Hopefully!
Have a baby
One ignorant doctor told me to try to have
a baby because once you have a baby, the
pain would all go away. I thought to myself
that if I had a gun I would have shot that
doctor, and I would have been locked away
and there would be no one to give me pain
killers. The reason for that relief generally
is that when you are pregnant, you don’t
have periods and a long gap of not
menstruating actually abates the symptoms
of endometriosis.
Challenge
But the challenge is the pregnancy.How do
I get pregnant to get to that stage? It was
wonderful meeting Dr. Abayomi Ajayi (of
Nordica Fertility Centre, Lagos), who is so
passionate and knows so much about the
disease, in spite of the fact that he is a man
and he is so willing to share his knowledge.
Whatever I can do to stop a girl of 12, 13 or
14 not to suffer the pain of endometriosis,
until she experiences menopause, I am
willing to do. I’m working for
endometriosis.
Menopause
I’m 47, and I’m looking forward to
menopause. Menopause is slowly creeping
up on me. People like us look forward to it
because it gives us a breather. I have finally
learned how to cope with the pain, how to
live with endometriosis, and to manage the
disease. It takes up a huge amount of my
time and life. One pastor once said to me
that I have to reject it.
He told me not to say “my endometriosis”
but to refer to it just as a disease because it
is, really, a disease. He said I must reject it.
Well, I rejected it, but it didn’t go away. It
is still here and I’m learning to cope with it.
I hope those coming after me won’t have to
cope the way I am. I expect they will have
more relief because they would have been
educated.
Symptoms
The number one symptom is severe pain,
pain that you cannot imagine. That pain
during periods is known as dysmenorrhea.
A lot of people confuse dysmenorrhea with
endometriosis. Dysmenorrhea could be a
symptom of lots of things, but anyone
experiencing painful periods should see a
doctor.
Unfortunately, endometriosis cannot be
diagnosed without putting you to sleep and
doing a laparoscopy to see what is going
on. There are many well equipped clinics
around and it is easy to diagnose because
our doctors are so well versed in
laparotomy. It is not normal to have pain
during periods.
Why me?
There is this thing about endometriosis,
that it is a disease not truly understood
because we haven’t done enough research.
Where does it come from? How you get it is
still not thoroughly understood because
enough awareness has not been created.
Unlike HIV/AIDS and cancer, a few years
ago, there was no hope for a cure but now
there is more awareness and people do not
die of these disorders as before. But it is
not the same about endometriosis.
This makes me wonder. Is it because it is a
female thing? Is it because I’m a woman,
considered a 2nd class citizen in the
world? Must I suffer because I’m a
woman? You wonder and ponder over
these things. I need answers to these
questions. Why do I have it and my sister
doesn’t? Is it hereditary? Someone should
tell me. If I give birth to a girl, would she
have endometriosis? This is why we need
serious awareness.
My sister doesn’t have this disorder. My
mother doesn’t have it, but then, I look at
my mother’s siblings and I discovered I
have a sister that doesn’t have a child. I
wonder if she suffered from endometriosis.
I have a distant male cousin that doesn’t
have a child. Does it also affect boys? There
are so many unanswered questions. If I
lock you up in a room for a month, you
won’t finish answering my questions. I have
so many questions. We live in a country in
which we believe in symptoms more than
the causes.
No to sex
Women with endometriosis do not want to
have sex because it’s painful. It is very, very
painful. So you do not want to have
intercourse once and it is painful, you’ll not
want to go there. It’s not something you
are going to look forward to. I have read
books on this. And even when you try to
forget the fact that you do not want to, half
the time you are bleeding. You are either
bleeding, or you do not want.
So, on the average, my friends’ periods last
about 5 days, mine, if I’m lucky, lasts 7-10
days and if I’m super, duper lucky, lasts
less than seven days; if I have eaten what I
should, and exercised constantly, it’s not
so bad. Exercise works. If you look at a
girl’s menstrual cycle, 26-27 days, remove
the 10 days she’s been menstruating and
remove the days she doesn’t want, when
she has pre-menstrual tension.
When every part of you is sore, on those
days, you are not going to want, and even
on the remaining five or so days that you
are ‘OK, you are not going to want to have
intercourse because it is going to be
painful. You just don’t want to. So you
cannot have a proper relationship with a
man.
Pain: Between menses and
endometriosis
Sometimes it is difficult to tell the
difference, that is why it is necessary to do
tests. If all these symptoms are on, it is not
the one you take analgesics.
The pain from intercourse occurs when
there is the presence of endometrium. If
diagnosed early and you interrupt the
sequence, other things may not follow, can
advise appropriately, infertility may follow,
or told to have baby quickly, donor, or give
appropriate advise.
See the doctor
If you have a daughter with pain, she
would talk because she would think she is
dying. I thought I was dying because I was
ignorant. Go with her to see a doctor when
there is pain. There are different tests.
Doctors test with their hands, then they use
the scan. I did that. The important thing is
that when something goes wrong, pain is
not normal, something is wrong, not to
decide what to do, but, as a good mother,
you take her to the hospital.
Breaking the silence
Endometriosis is as old as day but women
do not talk, because they are embarrassed
to talk about anything down there. What a
woman is going to tell you is that she
doesn’t like to sleep with her husband? To
get a woman to start talking to you about
her periods, even that will make you to be
seen as a loudmouth. Even talking about
her periods, it is not easy to get a woman
to start talking about it. But doctors are
able to pick it up because they are infertile.
Women are expected to have children in
these parts and, if they are incapable of
that, they have to find out why. Then they
go to the doctor who traces it to
endometriosis. Ultimately infertility would
arise and they have to go to a fertility
doctor.
Face of endometriosis
The face of endometriosis isn’t particularly
glamorous. Even me, with my independent
view, my laid-back attitude, it’s not easy.
When I thought about it, I have a mother
and family. I know what happened when I
turned 40 and I talked about my
endometriosis. I got thinking and I almost
put it off. But I said no, this is time for
action, we can’t keep postponing it. If they
had postponed the research and awareness
campaigns into HIV/AIDS or cancer, there
wouldn’t have been the breakthroughs we
have today.
Knowledge is power, information is king
How do you get people to talk? It is
awareness, awareness, awareness. The
more I talk about it, no matter how
embarrassing the more awareness I’m
creating. Talking about it is embarrassing;
I’m not immune to embarrassment, by the
way. Before coming here, I took my shame,
locked it up and put the key in my bag and
said I would face you and tell the truth the
way it is.
Endometriosis, a disease
A disease is something that is not
supposed to be there, and that is what
endometriosis is. You are not supposed to
have endometrial tissue in your abdomen.
Surgery removes it, but the moment you
menstruate, the pain comes back.
My understanding is that I have a uterus,
every woman does. Something lines it. Just
like when you want to bake, you line your
pan with baking paper.
That baking paper or lining is the
endomentrial tissues. But mine isn’t just
confined to my uterus. It’s in my fallopian
tube, it’s everywhere. Everywhere this
tissue is, when you menstruate, that tissue
will be doing the same thing. And you feel
pain. Anywhere that tissue is, it behaves as
if it is in the uterus.
The purpose of menstruation is to shed the
lining and come out. I know someone who
has endometrial tissue in her gut. Even in
the brain. When you menstruate, it also
menstruates and you feel pain there.
Menstruation is made to shed and come
out.
I have traced it back to the Old Testament.
The woman that wouldn’t stop bleeding
and you wonder why? So it has been since
the beginning.
former Miss Nigeria, Chief Adenike
Oshinowo is now a mother of twins (a
boy and a girl) via surrogacy.
The twins are Nike’s biological children but
was carried and birthed by another woman.
It has also been alleged that the 47-year-
old entrepreneur who battles with a disease
called endometriosis, bought sperm from a
sperm bank in the US.
Last week, she talked about her long term
association with the disease (endometriosis
is a disorder that occurs when the
endometrium (cells lining the uterus) grow
in other areas of the body, causing
excruciating pain.)
Medical experts identify endometriosis as a
significant factor in unexplained female
infertility, chronic pelvic pain, and other
gynaecological problems.
Read what she says below:
I have lived with endometriosis since the
age of 13. I was sent to boarding school in
England when I was seven. I went to prep
school. It was during the first few days in
secondary school that I began my periods
(menstrual). They called the ambulance and
I was hospitalized for 10 days because the
pain started and wouldn’t stop.
I thought I was going to die, the first two
days, I was in the infirmary with the matron
and she kept saying, ‘O Adenike! We
understand that you miss home, we
understand that it’s a rite of passage, we
understand it is difficult for you, we
understand that every girl must go through
it, but just bear it’.
I’m telling this story because it happened
in England and, supposedly, the white
people, who knew best, yet had no idea
what was wrong with me. Every female
student they had dealt with had had a
normal period and coped with it, so they
could not understand why I was
dramatizing. They thought I just wanted
attention. The pain was so intense I passed
out. They called the ambulance and I was
hospitalized. The challenge was now to get
me to stop bleeding.
Challenge
Living with endometriosis is a challenge.
When you see your doctor, your doctor just
tries to treat the symptoms and assumes
the pain revolves around your menstrual
cycle. But this is not so. This pain affects
every single aspect of your life.
I, as Nike Oshinowo, have never had an
examination without my period, I have
never traveled without my period. There
are so many things I have never done
without my period. When I am very happy
my period comes. When I’m depressed, my
period is there. I learned to just cope with
it.
I love the quote that women wear their
pain like stilettos. That is what I have been
doing.
At 40
Until I turned 40, Nigerians didn’t know I
suffered from endometriosis. When I
turned 40, I granted an interview and
Nigerians understood why I never drank
alcohol. You cannot be on medication and
take alcohol. It was finally understood why
I was so clean cut and into healthy living.
At last it was understood why if I come to
your party, at 8pm I had to go home to bed
and to take my pain killers; because when
you live with endometriosis, you live with
pain. I have a library in my home. It is a
library about pain. I have so many books
on pain cure.
Ignorance
It is extraordinary the effect that
endometriosis has on your life especially if
you are ignorant. Ignorance is of two types
– knowingly or unknowingly. My mother,
unknowingly, was ignorant, because
nobody had educated her about
endometriosis.
She had two daughters, one didn’t suffer
every month, the other did, but my mother
didn’t bother about it. She just figured the
one that suffered would grow out of it,
especially since the doctors just
recommended pain killers.
Pain
I talk about this pain, now, so that
mothers, when their young daughters are
starting their periods for the first time, and
it is traumatic, they will go and sit with the
doctors, ask questions and have it checked
out.
Mine was left so late in life in spite of the
fact that I grew up in England. It was
frightening. I wish I had someone to blame,
I wish I could blame the doctors. I have
had so many surgeries I have lost count. I
remember when Michael Jackson died and
they talked about a drug he had been
taking and I exclaimed –’ oh yes, I have
taken that drug!’ You try everything to make
the pain go away, so all I know is that I
would not want a child of mine to suffer
endometriosis. No. The only way to make
sure that does not happen is to educate as
many as I can.
Understanding
Everyone understands what cancer is.
People know how to check for breast
cancer, and are aware that, for cervical
cancer, you do a pap smear. But
endometriosis is not that easy. There are
symptoms mothers and fathers, nurses and
aunts and other caregivers can watch out
for so that there would be no needless
suffering like I had. I am living with
endometriosis. I was born with it and there
is no cure. Hopefully by the time I have
menopause it will be better because once
you stop menstruating, everything is over.
Hopefully!
Have a baby
One ignorant doctor told me to try to have
a baby because once you have a baby, the
pain would all go away. I thought to myself
that if I had a gun I would have shot that
doctor, and I would have been locked away
and there would be no one to give me pain
killers. The reason for that relief generally
is that when you are pregnant, you don’t
have periods and a long gap of not
menstruating actually abates the symptoms
of endometriosis.
Challenge
But the challenge is the pregnancy.How do
I get pregnant to get to that stage? It was
wonderful meeting Dr. Abayomi Ajayi (of
Nordica Fertility Centre, Lagos), who is so
passionate and knows so much about the
disease, in spite of the fact that he is a man
and he is so willing to share his knowledge.
Whatever I can do to stop a girl of 12, 13 or
14 not to suffer the pain of endometriosis,
until she experiences menopause, I am
willing to do. I’m working for
endometriosis.
Menopause
I’m 47, and I’m looking forward to
menopause. Menopause is slowly creeping
up on me. People like us look forward to it
because it gives us a breather. I have finally
learned how to cope with the pain, how to
live with endometriosis, and to manage the
disease. It takes up a huge amount of my
time and life. One pastor once said to me
that I have to reject it.
He told me not to say “my endometriosis”
but to refer to it just as a disease because it
is, really, a disease. He said I must reject it.
Well, I rejected it, but it didn’t go away. It
is still here and I’m learning to cope with it.
I hope those coming after me won’t have to
cope the way I am. I expect they will have
more relief because they would have been
educated.
Symptoms
The number one symptom is severe pain,
pain that you cannot imagine. That pain
during periods is known as dysmenorrhea.
A lot of people confuse dysmenorrhea with
endometriosis. Dysmenorrhea could be a
symptom of lots of things, but anyone
experiencing painful periods should see a
doctor.
Unfortunately, endometriosis cannot be
diagnosed without putting you to sleep and
doing a laparoscopy to see what is going
on. There are many well equipped clinics
around and it is easy to diagnose because
our doctors are so well versed in
laparotomy. It is not normal to have pain
during periods.
Why me?
There is this thing about endometriosis,
that it is a disease not truly understood
because we haven’t done enough research.
Where does it come from? How you get it is
still not thoroughly understood because
enough awareness has not been created.
Unlike HIV/AIDS and cancer, a few years
ago, there was no hope for a cure but now
there is more awareness and people do not
die of these disorders as before. But it is
not the same about endometriosis.
This makes me wonder. Is it because it is a
female thing? Is it because I’m a woman,
considered a 2nd class citizen in the
world? Must I suffer because I’m a
woman? You wonder and ponder over
these things. I need answers to these
questions. Why do I have it and my sister
doesn’t? Is it hereditary? Someone should
tell me. If I give birth to a girl, would she
have endometriosis? This is why we need
serious awareness.
My sister doesn’t have this disorder. My
mother doesn’t have it, but then, I look at
my mother’s siblings and I discovered I
have a sister that doesn’t have a child. I
wonder if she suffered from endometriosis.
I have a distant male cousin that doesn’t
have a child. Does it also affect boys? There
are so many unanswered questions. If I
lock you up in a room for a month, you
won’t finish answering my questions. I have
so many questions. We live in a country in
which we believe in symptoms more than
the causes.
No to sex
Women with endometriosis do not want to
have sex because it’s painful. It is very, very
painful. So you do not want to have
intercourse once and it is painful, you’ll not
want to go there. It’s not something you
are going to look forward to. I have read
books on this. And even when you try to
forget the fact that you do not want to, half
the time you are bleeding. You are either
bleeding, or you do not want.
So, on the average, my friends’ periods last
about 5 days, mine, if I’m lucky, lasts 7-10
days and if I’m super, duper lucky, lasts
less than seven days; if I have eaten what I
should, and exercised constantly, it’s not
so bad. Exercise works. If you look at a
girl’s menstrual cycle, 26-27 days, remove
the 10 days she’s been menstruating and
remove the days she doesn’t want, when
she has pre-menstrual tension.
When every part of you is sore, on those
days, you are not going to want, and even
on the remaining five or so days that you
are ‘OK, you are not going to want to have
intercourse because it is going to be
painful. You just don’t want to. So you
cannot have a proper relationship with a
man.
Pain: Between menses and
endometriosis
Sometimes it is difficult to tell the
difference, that is why it is necessary to do
tests. If all these symptoms are on, it is not
the one you take analgesics.
The pain from intercourse occurs when
there is the presence of endometrium. If
diagnosed early and you interrupt the
sequence, other things may not follow, can
advise appropriately, infertility may follow,
or told to have baby quickly, donor, or give
appropriate advise.
See the doctor
If you have a daughter with pain, she
would talk because she would think she is
dying. I thought I was dying because I was
ignorant. Go with her to see a doctor when
there is pain. There are different tests.
Doctors test with their hands, then they use
the scan. I did that. The important thing is
that when something goes wrong, pain is
not normal, something is wrong, not to
decide what to do, but, as a good mother,
you take her to the hospital.
Breaking the silence
Endometriosis is as old as day but women
do not talk, because they are embarrassed
to talk about anything down there. What a
woman is going to tell you is that she
doesn’t like to sleep with her husband? To
get a woman to start talking to you about
her periods, even that will make you to be
seen as a loudmouth. Even talking about
her periods, it is not easy to get a woman
to start talking about it. But doctors are
able to pick it up because they are infertile.
Women are expected to have children in
these parts and, if they are incapable of
that, they have to find out why. Then they
go to the doctor who traces it to
endometriosis. Ultimately infertility would
arise and they have to go to a fertility
doctor.
Face of endometriosis
The face of endometriosis isn’t particularly
glamorous. Even me, with my independent
view, my laid-back attitude, it’s not easy.
When I thought about it, I have a mother
and family. I know what happened when I
turned 40 and I talked about my
endometriosis. I got thinking and I almost
put it off. But I said no, this is time for
action, we can’t keep postponing it. If they
had postponed the research and awareness
campaigns into HIV/AIDS or cancer, there
wouldn’t have been the breakthroughs we
have today.
Knowledge is power, information is king
How do you get people to talk? It is
awareness, awareness, awareness. The
more I talk about it, no matter how
embarrassing the more awareness I’m
creating. Talking about it is embarrassing;
I’m not immune to embarrassment, by the
way. Before coming here, I took my shame,
locked it up and put the key in my bag and
said I would face you and tell the truth the
way it is.
Endometriosis, a disease
A disease is something that is not
supposed to be there, and that is what
endometriosis is. You are not supposed to
have endometrial tissue in your abdomen.
Surgery removes it, but the moment you
menstruate, the pain comes back.
My understanding is that I have a uterus,
every woman does. Something lines it. Just
like when you want to bake, you line your
pan with baking paper.
That baking paper or lining is the
endomentrial tissues. But mine isn’t just
confined to my uterus. It’s in my fallopian
tube, it’s everywhere. Everywhere this
tissue is, when you menstruate, that tissue
will be doing the same thing. And you feel
pain. Anywhere that tissue is, it behaves as
if it is in the uterus.
The purpose of menstruation is to shed the
lining and come out. I know someone who
has endometrial tissue in her gut. Even in
the brain. When you menstruate, it also
menstruates and you feel pain there.
Menstruation is made to shed and come
out.
I have traced it back to the Old Testament.
The woman that wouldn’t stop bleeding
and you wonder why? So it has been since
the beginning.
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