- Supporters and warriors to march to end the silence and stigma attached to the medical condition
GOSEGO MOTSUMI
After postponing the annual Endometriosis Walk in 2020 due to COVID-19, the first “Endo Awareness Walk” after the pandemic is slated for Maun on 25 March 2023.
March is Endometriosis Awareness Month across the world with the aim of increasing awareness and highlighting the symptoms of the debilitating condition that affects 1 in 10 women.
“We have been having this walk since 2015 in Gaborone and this time around we are taking it up north to spread awareness and people are excited,” the Founder of Botswana Endometriosis Foundation, Kgomotso Gagosi, told Time Out.
Pathology of endometriosis
“We realised that people don’t understand this condition. We are hosted by Cresta Riley’s Maun and will be visiting three schools and clinics in the principal town of the Okavango before the walk on the 25th of March.”
Explaining the pathology of the condition, Gagosi said endometriosis is an inflammatory condition that occurs in women when tissue starts growing outside the uterus.
This tissue is the same as that which lines the womb internally. While there are many studies now on this condition, there is still no cure, and awareness is a huge problem.
“The condition has always been there but more people are only now becoming aware,” she said. “The longer one stays without knowledge of the condition, the higher the chances of one having other conditions.”
Infertility
She noted that the Endo Walk is one way of raising awareness while addressing the stigma that surrounds the infertility that results from endometriosis.
“Symptoms differ from one person to the next,” she explained. “Endometriosis has stages. You could experience excruciating pain at Stage 1 while someone in Stage 4 may have no pains at all.”
Yellow Fridays
Gagosi added that they have plans of staging the walk across the country to spread awareness of endometriosis further.
She disclosed that the foundation has introduced Yellow Friday when supporters of the cause come decked out in yellow every Friday to express solidarity with endometriosis warriors as the world observes the endometriosis month.