Carys Thurlby first experienced the debilitating pain as a teenager. During her GCSE exams, she recalls trying to get through the papers while “chewing on paracetamol” as severe pain spread from her pelvis down into her legs.
Initially, the symptoms appeared only around her period. Gradually, however, the pain intensified until it was no longer confined to a particular time of the month.
At 19, Carys finally received a diagnosis of endometriosis. The chronic condition occurs when tissue resembling the womb lining develops elsewhere in the body, most often around the pelvis, where it can cause severe and persistent pain.
Endometriosis affects an estimated 1.5 million women across Britain. Alongside painful periods, it can lead to pain during sex, extreme tiredness and difficulties becoming pregnant. Doctors still do not fully understand its cause, and there is currently no cure.
It took another 20 years before Carys, now 43, found lasting relief through a full hysterectomy. Although the invasive and irreversible operation remains controversial, she says it transformed both her health and her life.
Before the surgery, the trainee educational psychologist from Worcester says endometriosis controlled almost every part of her existence. “Every day was about scraping through to survive,” Carys says.
“I didn’t have any hobbies and barely had a social life.”
The pain eventually forced Carys to take a year away from university. When she returned, her symptoms had become even more severe, disrupting her ambition to become a teacher. “It would have been too much to be standing up teaching all day,” she explains.
Endometriosis also made it difficult for Carys and her husband, David, to start a family.
Carys Thurlby, now 43, spent two decades searching for a way to control her pain. She is pictured at her heaviest, when she weighed 20st
Carys now weighs 9.5st, having reduced her body weight by more than half since her hysterectomy. She says she never imagined she could feel so healthy and free from pain
After 12 years of trying, the couple eventually had two children, Laurence, now nine, and Merryn, now seven, through IVF. The treatment came at a financial cost of £45,000.
The condition affected more than Carys’s fertility and pain levels. Because exercise was difficult and her eating habits changed, it also contributed to significant weight gain. At 5ft 6in, she reached 20st at her heaviest.
“I barely moved,” Carys says. “By the end of a full working day, I was completely exhausted. I would turn to sugary food because it made me feel better for a few minutes, but then I felt worse. It was comfort eating and it became a vicious cycle. I hated my weight, but I was in too much pain to change it.”
Over the years, Carys underwent several treatments for endometriosis, including the contraceptive pill. The medication suppresses oestrogen, the female sex hormone that studies suggest can fuel the painful lesions associated with the condition. Lowering oestrogen levels can therefore help reduce symptoms.
When medication did not provide enough relief, she underwent repeated operations to remove the lesions. Yet the pain returned after several years, a familiar pattern for many patients. Endometriosis UK says symptoms come back within five years for about half of those affected, as abnormal tissue can grow again.
A potential turning point came five years ago, when Carys’s specialist asked whether she would consider a hysterectomy.
The major operation removes the uterus and may also involve taking out the cervix, fallopian tubes or ovaries. It is most often performed to treat conditions such as fibroids, which are non-cancerous womb growths, or cancer.
However, hysterectomy can also be considered for severe endometriosis. Research indicates that the procedure may substantially reduce pain, largely because it permanently ends periods, which are a significant trigger for many people with the condition.
For endometriosis, the surgery is generally viewed as a final option. Around 6,000 women undergo a hysterectomy for this reason on the NHS each year. Doctors are cautious because it is irreversible major surgery, with possible complications including bleeding, infection and, more rarely, damage to nearby organs.
However, another reason hysterectomy is not routinely offered is because experts still debate how effective it is at relieving the pain of endometriosis. While some patients experience a dramatic improvement, others continue to suffer symptoms.
One factor may be whether the patient also has a closely linked condition called adenomyosis.
This is where tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows into the muscular wall of the uterus, causing inflammation and often severe pain during periods.
Unlike endometriosis elsewhere in the body, adenomyosis is effectively cured by removing the womb. This means women suffering from both conditions may be particularly likely to see their period-related pain improve after a hysterectomy.
Studies suggest that about 40 per cent of endometriosis patients also have adenomyosis.
In 2023, the then BBC Breakfast presenter Naga Munchetty revealed that she suffered from ‘extremely painful’ adenomyosis, which she described as the ‘evil twin sister of endometriosis’. One flare up was so bad that her husband ended up having to call an ambulance.
While removing the womb will typically ease the pain caused by adenomyosis, it may not provide a long-term fix for endometriosis.
In 2021, a major research review concluded that, for endometriosis patients who have their womb removed, the risk of symptoms returning was about 50 per cent.
‘A hysterectomy can be helpful for managing pain triggered by adenomyosis, but it’s not a cure,’ says Dr Lucky Saraswat of the University of Aberdeen.
‘Endometriosis is, by definition, where this tissue grows outside of the womb. So removing the organ won’t remove all the symptoms. Patients will often experience temporary relief but then the tissue will grow elsewhere and the pain will return.’
Instead, experts say removing the womb and the ovaries offers a more definitive solution. This is because endometriosis lesions feed off oestrogen, which is produced in the ovaries.
‘Removing the ovaries is crucial,’ says Dr Saraswat. ‘Do this and the endometriosis can go dormant and the risk of it returning is limited.’
However, the procedure triggers early menopause and infertility.
‘We wouldn’t ordinarily offer this to women in their 20s,’ says Dr Saraswat. ‘It’s not for anyone looking to have a family. And early menopause triggers a number of tough symptoms that most women want to avoid.’
However, for Carys, things were more complicated.
In her 30s, in a bid to end her pain, she opted to have her ovaries removed but not her womb – a procedure known as an oophorectomy. It had not been a success and her painful symptoms had continued.
This meant that, while research suggests that removing the ovaries is more effective than taking the womb, a hysterectomy was – as her specialist explained – Carys’s only remaining option.
‘It was pretty terrifying,’ she says. ‘I knew that this was it – if this didn’t work, I might be in pain for the rest of my life.’ The procedure was not easy for Carys either. She was in hospital for five days, where she caught Covid, leaving her unwell.
But within four to six weeks, she began to notice something: she was no longer in pain all the time.
‘For the first time in my adult life, I could simply stand up,’ she says. ‘Before, the moment I walked into a room, I’d look for somewhere to sit. I couldn’t stand for too long.
‘Now I found myself on my feet more and more, without even thinking about it. People even told me they could see in my face that I wasn’t in as much discomfort.
‘Sometimes I do feel the occasional stabbing pain. But I can go days without noticing it. For the first time in years, the condition isn’t dictating everything.’
It was at this point that Carys began to think about her weight.
She had been well aware that she was obese. However, dealing with her pain had always been her main priority. And exercise had always seemed out of reach.
She considered weight-loss surgery – where a balloon is inserted into the stomach, restricting appetite. However, she decided against it, largely because she had been through so many operations by then. ‘I nearly let myself be talked into it,’ she says. ‘Then I thought, what am I doing?’
In September 2024, Carys began counting her calories, which helped her lose a small but noticeable amount of weight.
Buoyed by this success – and revelling in her lack of pain – Carys began doing dance exercise classes at her local leisure centre.
Slowly, the exercise fuelled the weight loss. And the weight loss fuelled the exercise.
By August 2025, Carys was down to 14st. Then, out of nowhere, her dance classes were cancelled.
On a whim, she downloaded the Couch To 5K app – designed by the NHS to help patients get into running. At first, she could not run for more than a minute.
‘It was horrible,’ she says. ‘But when I finished I was so proud of myself that I did it again the next day. And the next.’
She finished the programme in six weeks and continued to run.
In November, Carys completed her first 10km race and, in May, she completed a 34-mile ultra-marathon over the Malvern Hills in Gloucestershire.
She is now training for the London Marathon next year.
Her target is to raise £4,000 for Caudwell Children – a charity that supports disabled and neurodivergent children.
Carys now weighs 9.5st, meaning she has more than halved her body weight since she had her hysterectomy, and says she never thought she would be so healthy – or pain-free.
‘I never imagined I would be able to walk long distances, never mind run,’ she says. ‘For so long, this pain dominated my life. It goes to show just how much you can achieve when you are pain-free.’
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