Millions of women in Germany suffer from the abdominal disease endometriosis. But years often pass before a diagnosis is made, during which they are not taken seriously.
Janice Owen-Aghedo was no longer alone. Wherever she is, there is Hildegard too. Even now, in a café in Mülheim, Hildegard does not leave the student alone. Owen-Aghedo calls her her “annoying traveling companion.” But she is more than that. Hildegard is brutal. Most days, she causes Owen-Aghedo excruciating pain, sometimes so bad she wants to bang her head against the wall or lies unconscious in the bathroom. Hildegard, that’s what she called her illness. The technical name of the chronic disease is endometriosis. She grows benign tissue in various places in her abdomen; it resembles the tissue that lines the uterus.
Source: Stern
