When I was 14 I was picking up my sister's last Bacalaureat exam results. My best friend came with me, it was a short walk from home. I was on my period and already in pain, but nothing I wasn’t used to. On the way home I remember blacking out; not through pain, my vision just completely went black. I grabbed my friend's arm, explained what was happening and asked to sit down. I remember throwing up in a flower bed and my vision returning after a few minutes. That was the only blackout I had, but for the next 25 years I have lived in constant fear of my period, accepting that mine came with pain. Despite regular visits to different doctors and specialists I never knew why.
Around the age of 35, after nearly passing out in the office I decided to investigate my periods again. During a scan the nurse pointed to my womb on the monitor and said “Look, it lights up like a Christmas tree!”. I finally had a diagnosis: it was adenomyosis. I asked the doctor what treatment options I had; she said none but suggested inducing me into menopause. Anger bubbled up inside of me, I wanted to scream.
I decided to ask questions: why is there no treatment? How many other women are in a similar situation, and how do they live with womb related conditions that science has yet to fully understand? Why are we treated as guinea-pigs, switching from one hormonal treatment to another, sometimes with long term side effects?
Through personal experiences of the women I've met and photographed, Yellow Wallpaper examines how women have been excluded from medical research, have not been listened to – especially when experiencing pain, causing women's bodies to become medically, scientifically and socially invisible.