Partners affected by endometriosis


The disease of endometriosis can seriously affect the partners and family of women who suffer the disease.







I have received this personal story submission at the website from a husband whose wife has endometriosis and he is at his wits end and does not know how to cope.  The problem is that there do not seem to be any support groups for the husbands and partners, where they can get advice and much needed emotional support.

 

This is an issue that seems to be overlooked.  Sometimes partners have to step-up and take on a role of carer, cook, parent and no doubt bread-winner as well.  This can put serious strain on a relationship and it is well known that many partners give-up and leave a relationship because they just cannot cope.

 

Maybe if they had more support then they too would feel less isolated and left struggling and not knowing how to cope.  I remember there used to be a couple of online support resources for men but even they seem to have disappeared.

 

This is the distressing story I received from a man who was in this situation and he expresses the many problems he is facing.

 

 

‘ I am a husband of an ENDO wife and I can testify that this has crippled my wife as well as our relationship/marriage.



From the very onset of our relationship I knew she had this Illness called Endometriosis and I was told that she has very little chance of conceiving a child but that did not bother me and we pursed our relationship and got married and 5 months after being married we had our first blessing Liam.


It came as big shock as the Dr's told us - she has 5% chance, so we were extremely blessed. Few years later - we had a second child - another blessing Luan.



Long story short, it was up and down with her health and she was crippled with many things, often being out of work due to various sort of pains that she battled with daily. I have tried my best to support her throughout these times to the best of my ability, however this has become increasingly more difficult as time went along.



It appears that her condition is getting worse with time, I need to highlight that from my experience an ENDO sufferer cannot endure stress, the moment life throws stress on her path - it results in pain.

 

Unfortunately, with two kids, keeping a job and normal life, it is inevitable that life has become a whole lot more stressful than ever before hence resulting in a lot more down days for my wife.



I am at the end of my wits; I have become a plain walking dead man not knowing anymore what to say or do about the whole situation.



With two kids, I am in a position where I have taken up the role of both mom and dad for the past few years and I need to admit - it has really not had a great effect on us.



Am I the only husband in this position?’

 



If anyone knows of any online resources that supports partners and family of women with endometriosis, could they drop me a line and I can pass this on. Thank you.

 

In my brief search this is the only resource I could find:

http://endometriosis.org/resources/articles/family-and-partners/  



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