Carys, 43, suffered the pain of endometriosis for decades. Radical surgery ended her suffering… and helped her lose ten stone

The pain first began when Carys Thurlby was a teenager. She remembers sitting in her GCSE exams ‘chewing on paracetamol’ as the agonising sensations ripped through her pelvis and into her legs.

At first it would happen only around the time of her period. However, over the years it became constant.

By 19, Carys had a diagnosis – endometriosis, a long-term condition where tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows elsewhere in the body, typically in the pelvis, triggering intense pain.

The condition, which affects about 1.5 million women in Britain, can also cause painful periods, pain during sex, fatigue and fertility problems. There is still uncertainty about what causes it (see panel below) and there is no cure.

It would take two decades for Carys, now 43, to find a solution that eased her pain – a full hysterectomy. And today she insists that the invasive, irreversible and controversial surgery radically transformed her life – and her body – for the better.

Until that point, Carys, a trainee educational psychologist from Worcester, says her endometriosis ruled over all aspects of her life. ‘Every day was about scraping through to survive,’ says Carys.

‘I didn’t have any hobbies and barely a social life.’

Due to the pain she was forced to take a year out of university and, when she went back, the agony was worse than before. It also disrupted her plans to become a teacher. ‘It would have been too much to be standing up teaching all day,’ she says.

Due to her endometriosis, Carys and her husband David also struggled to have children.

After 12 years of trying, Carys eventually had two: Laurence, now nine, and Merryn, now seven, via IVF. However, the process cost the family £45,000.

And on top of the pain and fertility problems, endometriosis also affected her weight, by limiting her ability to exercise and influencing her diet. At her heaviest, Carys, who is 5ft 6in, weighed 20st.

‘I barely moved,’ says Carys. ‘After a full day’s work, I was exhausted by the evening. I’d snack on sugary food because it made me feel better for a few minutes. Then I’d feel worse. It’s a cliche, but it was comfort eating. A vicious cycle. I hated my weight, but I was in too much pain to do anything about it.’

Over the years, Carys tried a series of endometriosis treatments. This included the contraceptive pill, which suppresses the female sex hormone oestrogen. Studies show that the painful lesions triggered by endometriosis feed off oestrogen, so reducing the amount in the body can ease symptoms.

When this failed, Carys had multiple rounds of surgery to get these lesions removed. However, after several years the pain would return, which is a common experience for endometriosis patients. According to the charity Endometriosis UK, around a half will find symptoms return within five years, as abnormal tissue grows back.

However, everything changed for Carys when, five years ago, her specialist asked if she would consider a hysterectomy.

The operation, which involves removing the uterus and sometimes also the cervix, fallopian tubes or ovaries, is most commonly offered to treat fibroids – non-cancerous growths in the womb – or cancer.

However, it is also used to treat severe endometriosis, as evidence suggests it can significantly ease painful symptoms. This is largely because a hysterectomy stops periods permanently, which are often a major trigger for endometriosis pain.

Surgery is generally considered a last resort. Only about 6,000 women have the procedure for this purpose every year on the NHS. In part, this is because a hysterectomy is major and irreversible surgery. As with other major operations, there are also risks including bleeding, infection and, more rarely, damage to surrounding 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.

A major review 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.’

To sponsor Carys, visit justgiving.com and search for Carys Thurlby.