Bindi Irwin felt "desperately alone" after being told her pain was "all in her head".
Bindi Irwin was dismissed for years
The 25-year-old conservationist - who is the daughter of late 'Crocodile Hunter' star Steve Irwin - was diagnosed with severe endometriosis after she collapsed in August 2022, but she had been having her symptoms dismissed by medical professionals for years.
She told PEOPLE magazine: “I was tested for everything. Every tropical disease, Lyme disease, cancer, you name it.
"I had every blood test and scan imaginable. It’s so hard because you feel like it’s inescapable.
"You don’t know what’s wrong with you, and then when people tell you ‘It’s all in your head’ or ‘you’re hormonal’ or ‘just have a cup of tea, lay down,’ you end up feeling so desperately alone because there’s no answers.”
Bindi underwent explorative surgery last year after battling through more than a decade of pain and extreme fatigue with doctors finally concluding she was suffering from the agonising condition - which causes tissue similar to the lining of the uterus to grow in other places.
She added: “I was so scared that they wouldn’t find anything because we had run out of everything else to test for.
“After years of doctors and various people telling you there’s nothing, you really start to believe it.
"You wind up in this strange space of self-doubt, fear and insecurity. That’s hard to overcome.”
During the laparoscopy, doctors found 37 lesions and a cyst on her ovary, which she later had removed via surgery.
Now, she is in a much better place and is no longer in constant pain.
She said: "Now I wake up in the morning, and I don’t have to take anti-nausea medicine or have my heat pack.
"Being able to go for a walk with my daughter and not feeling like I have to throw up in the bushes is just wild to me.
“I feel like I have a second chance at life. I feel brand new.”
Tagged in Bindi Irwin Steve Irwin