By Ebunoluwa Sessou

In a bid to address the challenges of endometriosis among women, Endometriosis Support Group Nigeria, ESGN, has promised to take the campaign to the National Assembly as a way of finding lasting solutions through policymaking and implementation.

This was disclosed during the annual endometriosis awareness campaign, themed, ‘Go Yellow and Dance 4 Endo” which was held in Lagos.

Speaking the Managing Director, Nordica Fertility Centre, Dr. Abayomi Ajayi, in an interview with Vanguard admitted that policy is very important in the area of advocacy especially addressing the issue of endometriosis.

Provision of infrastructure, awareness, diagnosis and treatment are essential in addressing the issue of endometriosis. Hence, there is a need to get the government involved at all levels, especially legislators, he said.

According to him, “The first assignment is to approach the 10th Assembly after it has been inaugurated, to facilitate the possibility of making the endometriosis issue interesting to them. Possibly, a majority of them might not even know that there is something called endometriosis. We have tried it before and I think it is an issue we need to revisit”, he assured.

Speaking on ‘Go Yellow and Dance 4 Endo’, Ajayi said, the group is exploring every opportunity within its reach to reduce endometriosis.

“For the past 18 years, we have been engaging in ‘Walk’ awareness but this year, we decided to do ‘Dance’.

“For us, we believe all methods will help us to achieve our aim. There is a lot of emphasis on adolescent endometriosis and we are trying to see how to diagnose adolescent endometriosis. And the first thing is an awareness campaign and the best people to engage are people between the age of 12 and 18 and 30 and 35.

“We are trying to link our audience to the young people by using the dance mechanism. We are also doing a secondary school essay competition for young people.

“We are looking at catching the young people before they are 20 years old. We are also looking at catching the older people before they are 30-35 years old, so that we can reduce infertility from endometriosis.

“This is a CSR and it is not profit making. However, funding is a major challenge in championing the cause of endometriosis. If we have enough funding, it can be a life of its own and we will have staff members that will be working throughout the calendar year”, he said.

Also, Clinic Manager, Nordica Fertility Centre, Tola Ajayi, lamented that endometriosis is a disease that affects women adding that it is unfortunate that anything that affects women, men do not understand.

“Men need to understand that endometriosis is not witchcraft or as a result of laziness. We need employers, husbands, friends and families to understand that it is not the woman’s fault.

“If people are aware that there is something called endometriosis and that it is a cause of infertility and that it affects the general well being of a woman, then, the challenges are being addressed.

“The husband must understand that pain during sexual intercourse is caused by endometriosis and then give the necessary support.

”Ending endo inequality is telling the people, especially the government, that there is a need to focus on addressing endometriosis. Everybody needs to know what endometriosis is as well as what women are passing through. People must give psychological and financial support and the only way we can do this is for everybody to know about endometriosis”, she said.