Endometriosis sufferer had period pain so bad, she attempted suicide twice: why the disease is often misdiagnosed

Debilitating menstrual cramps, nausea, backaches and bowel pain – one Singaporean woman shares her struggle with endometriosis

She explains why she’s educating other women about the incurable disorder to help fellow sufferers find relief, and why hers went undetected for so long

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Namira Binte Mohamad Marsudi’s period pain was agony every month, but doctors couldn’t find anything wrong with her. Then, she was diagnosed with endometriosis.

Published: 7:15am, 29 Mar 2022Updated: 1:21pm, 21 Apr 2023

Not every woman remembers her first period, but 36-year-old Namira Binte Mohamad Marsudi cannot forget hers. At age of 11, the initial sharp pain gave way to several days of throbbing cramps, which the Singaporean was told were “normal”.

“As I got older, the cramps worsened,” Marsudi says. “During every period, I experienced bloating, nausea, backaches, a prickling sensation in my legs and [dizziness]. When I was 26, I noticed that the pain had spread to my bowel. On two occasions, it got so bad that I almost passed out.”

At the time, in 2012, she had graduated from university, a “dream job” as a policewoman and she was in a happy relationship.

Even so, she continued to suffer excruciating pain month after month. Her boyfriend then left her, not wanting to be with someone who was “sickly”, and she missed so many days of work that she was eventually advised to leave the police force.

Marsudi missed so many days of work that she was eventually advised to leave the Singapore police force.

That year, Marsudi’s family physician told her that her painful periods were a result of a condition called dysmenorrhoea and was nothing to be alarmed about.

Not long afterwards, she went to a public hospital known for its female reproductive care where she was prescribed hormonal and contraceptive medications and painkillers.