'I have four months left to preserve my fertility'

A woman who has undergone major surgery for severe endometriosis, plans to "urgently" freeze her eggs in the hope of one day starting a family.

Iona Hall, 30, from Bristol, underwent two operations in 2024 to remove a 10cm cyst on her ovary and separate her bowels and uterus, which had fused together.

She has set up a crowdfunder to raise the £21,000 needed to cover three rounds of harvesting, which she says must happen in the next four months to preserve her fertility as her egg reserve is critically low.

Hall said: "It feels frightening, but the little eggs I do have left are good quality, so it's not over."

According the NHS, endometriosis occurs when cells similar to those in the lining of the uterus grow in other parts of the body.

It often affects the ovaries, fallopian tubes and the tissue lining the pelvis.

Symptoms include severe abdominal pain, heavy periods, painful sex and fatigue.

It is thought that one in 10 women suffer with the condition, and on average, it takes more than eight years from the first GP appointment to get a diagnosis.

Hall, a self-employed silversmith, first noticed symptoms after coming off the contraceptive pill which she said had been "masking" the pain for 10 years.

"When I was in my teens and early twenties I just thought I was getting urinary and kidney infections all the time," she told BBC Radio Bristol.

"I just thought I was one of those unlucky girls. The pain just never went.

"It got so bad I was waking up in the middle of the night, throwing up from the pain and writhing around on the floor."

Doctors initially misdiagnosed Hall, at the age of 24, with chronic urinary tract infections (UTIs), prescribing her a year's worth of antibiotics.

By the time they realised something was seriously wrong "the endometriosis has spread everywhere," she said.

After undergoing two major operations, doctors warned Hall that her egg count had dropped to "critically low" numbers.

Her anti-Mullerian Hormone (AMH) levels - a measure of egg reserve - prior to surgery was 11.9. It has now reduced to 2.1.

For comparison, the average number for a 30-year-old is around 17, Iona said.

"I was really, really upset," she said. "Freezing my eggs is my only chance to preserve my fertility and give myself the option of a family in the future.

"Endometriosis has taken so much from my life, and I don't want it to take this from me too."