Carla Cressy worked as a model from the age of five until she was 17, but kept collapsing on shoots.
“It was really embarrassing and I couldn’t do it anymore,” she says.
From the age of 13, when she started her periods, she was plagued by excruciating pain but she was only finally diagnosed with endometriosis when she was 25.
By then, doctors had removed her appendix, mistakenly thinking she had acute appendicitis.
“I was hospitalised for chronic constipation several times. I wasn’t able to eat, I was vomiting and in such severe pain but I kept being told it was a stomach bug.”
Carla ended up retraining as a beauty therapist because she felt she was “unemployable and unreliable” due to her health.
“I would have a client, then sit in a boiling hot bath to ease my stomach pain. It was horrible, but it was the only way I could earn a living,” the 35-year-old from Essex says.
One in six women with endometriosis are estimated to leave the workplace due to the condition, which causes tissue similar to the lining of the womb to grow outside it.
Carla recently gave evidence to an ongoing inquiry, external into how the condition affects women in the workplace, external.
There is currently no legislation in the UK to ensure workers with menstrual health conditions are treated fairly if they need time off work.