Why will a celebrity not eat and drink during an outing with the cream of the society? OYEYEMI GBENGA-MUSTAPHA sought answer to this poser in this chat with former Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria (MBGN) Chief Nike Osinowo, who is not a friend of food and choice drinks.
For 40 years, former beauty queen Nike Osinowo, a chief, has lived in pains. It was no fault of hers that she did not know about the source of her pains. She was suffering from endometriosis, which gave her pains during her monthly cycle.
Endometriosis refers to a female disorder that occurs when cells called endometrium (the mucous membrane that lines the womb/uterus) choose to grow outside the womb; that is they are found in other areas of the body. These cells may grow in the stomach, anus, brain, mouth, fallopian tubes, ovaries or just any part of the body. With each cycle of the month, they behave as they would in the womb, which is to thicken and shed out as waste.
“This can lead to pain, irregular bleeding and problems of getting pregnant. It is a common condition that occurs in about five to 10 per cent of women within the reproductive age group (15 to 44 years) worldwide and women with this condition have 20 per cent less chances of having children”, said the Medical Director, Nordica Fertility Centre, Dr Abayomi Ajayi, at a briefing to mark this year’s endometriosis month.
As if taking a cue from the medic, Chief Osinowo, who is now ‘The face’ of Endometriosis relived her experience, and importantly, her aim to sensitise mothers on the existence of such a condition and how to help their daughters.
According to the 47-year-old beauty queen, it was not until “I turned 40 and told my story that people understood why I never took alcohol, why I don’t eat at parties, why I was always on pain killers, had to return home at certain time, took to healthy living and exercise. It is because I needed to learn to manage living with pain.
“It is extraordinary that endometriosis has a hold on your life, especially when you are ignorant. This is because ignorance could be divided into two-knowingly or unknowingly. My mother did not know about endometriosis as no one educated her about it, out of her two daughters, one suffered the disorder while the other didn’t and so she couldn’t understand.”
She added: “I am talking about it now so that mothers when they have their young daughters starting their periods and its traumatic should go and sit with the doctor to understand exactly what is happening so that they could help their daughters early enough.
“I have volunteered to save other women from the trauma of infertility, a consequence many of us who suffered through endometriosis have had to go through ignorantly, when in actual fact if it had been discovered early enough could have been prevented.”
The former Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria’s first experience of menstruation unlike her peers was “very traumatic and unbearable”.
She said: “It was an experience that did not indicate to me I was going to suffer a reproductive life with a disorder that would deny me the joy of womanhood. I am braving all odds, to volunteer to be the face of endometriosis for the month of March, which is set aside globally for awareness on the disease and to give support to women who live with the disease.”
With the support of Dr Ajayi, Chief Osinowo has stepped out to help other women who suffer from endometriosis, “to let them know there is every chance of remedy and management for the disorder if discovered early and such women can in fact hold their own babies”
Sharing her experience on the role mothers could play, and power of literacy on the subject, the ageless beauty queen said: “Having been sent to the boarding school at a tender age, I missed the initial sharing of experience with my mum and so, went through the process of menarche “unprepared”.
“It was at the age of 14 and it was the first few days of Secondary School that I had my first period and I was hospitalised. They called in the ambulance and I was in hospital for 10 days because the pain started and it wouldn’t stop and I thought I was going to die. Before the ambulance arrived, I had passed out”
Although it all happened to her in England where, according to her, “It was supposed that the white people know best but they had no idea what was wrong with me because every single student they had dealt with had their periods and got over with it and so couldn’t understand why I was, according to them, dramatising.
“Living with endometriosis is indeed a challenge. When you go to see your doctor, he tells you, you just treat the symptoms and that the disease revolves around the menstrual cycle but it doesn’t. It affects every single aspect of your life.”
And till date, “As Nike Osinowo, I have never had an examination without my period, I have never traveled without my period and there are so many things I have not done without my period. When I am very happy, my period comes, when I am depressed too, my period comes all you do is to learn to just cope with it”, she stated.
Osinowo is simply looking forward: “to experience menopause, hopefully by then, once I stop menstruating, everything is over and it would be better”.
Reflecting on her experiences, she said, “I wish I knew about it early enough and I wish I had someone to blame, I wish I could blame my mother, I wish I could blame my father, for sending me abroad, I wish I could blame the doctors because I have had so many surgeries that I have lost count and indeed tried so many things to make the pain just go away.”
As a woman, you may wonder, if it is easy to check for breast cancer, do pap smear for cervical cancer, why is a check for endometriosis not possible?
“No it is not that easy”, said Osinowo. “But then, there are symptoms, and signs mothers, nurses, aunties, doctors and care givers can watch out for- the pains never goes off because there is no cure. This is I am ready to volunteer as an advocate, to help young girls go through with painful menstruation caused by endometriosis and make sure the sufferings are reduced”.
But what happens to the belief that a woman wouldn’t suffer endometriosis pain once she is able to have a child?
Osinowo said: “It is generally believed that when you are pregnant you don’t have periods and long gaps of not menstruating actually abates the symptoms of endometriosis but then there is the challenge – how do I get pregnant?” she asked rhetorically.
In her case, she is practically affected for almost every time of the month and unlike the belief that severe pains are associated with monthly cycles, that is not her type of experience. “Women with endometriosis don’t want to have sex because it is very painful. If you have intercourse once and its painful, you don’t want to go back or look forward to it because half of the time, you are either bleeding or have pre-menstrual tension,” she explained.
And even in Africa, the situation is worse because, very little is known about the condition. Therefore, a lot of women live with it without ever being diagnosed as the condition is not believed to be common among blacks before now”, he added.
However, every mother looks forward to when her daughter would turn the full moon and become a woman and this is often the break of menarche, that is, the first time a young girl menstruates.
The age of menarche nonetheless depends on the genetic composition of every girl, in some it could be as early as nine, and in some others it could be as late as age of 15. But it is a period worth expecting and experienced!
Another question that often crop up in mind, is how does one develop endometriosis.
According to Dr Ajayi: “Endometriosis is genetic. It is possible to have a mother not suffer endometriosis but any of her daughters could if a sibling of the mother had suffered. Likewise if one’s sibbling suffered, second or third generation of children could suffer the disorder.
“We are not instrumental to choice of our genes, nature does and so we can’t control who among siblings would experience endometriosis but then, it has been found that it is genetically linked.”
And to assist a suffer like Osinowo, “What we do when the disorder is diagnosed early is to abate the pain and give advice that such a woman has her babies quickly and even if there is no partner, may choose to have a donor, give all possible solutions to prevent other conditions such as infertility”, Dr. Ajayi stated.
