「私は子宮内膜症。あなたにも知って欲しい病気だから、オープンに話します」

子宮内膜症は女性みんなが知っておくべき病気。だから、自分の体験シェアします。
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LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 12: Recording artist Halsey attends the 59th GRAMMY Awards at STAPLES Center on February 12, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)

子宮内膜症、聞いたことはあるけれど自分とは関係のない病気、と思っているかもしれない。だけど、ちょっと待って。

生理のある女性の10人に1人が、子宮内膜症に悩んでいるという。思ったより身近な病気なのだ。女性みんなが知っておくべき、といっても過言ではない。

そもそも子宮内膜症ってどんな病気かあまり知らない、という人もいるのではないだろうか。

子宮内膜症は、本来子宮にあるべき子宮内膜が、卵巣、腹膜など子宮以外の場所にできてしまう病気だ。

生理痛がひどい、セックスをする時に痛みを感じたりするといった症状がある。不妊症になりやすくもなる。

子宮内膜症についてよく知らないと、症状があっても病院に行くのが遅くなり、治療が遅れてしまう。

海外では、子宮内膜症を患った有名人たちが経験をSNSなどでシェアし、この病気についてもっと多くの人たちに知ってもらおうとしている。

ホールジー

子宮内膜症との闘いをSNSで発信している有名人のひとりが、22歳の人気歌手ホールジーだ。

ホールジーは2016年1月に、子宮内膜症であることをTwitterで公表した。


気を失いそうになるほど激しい生理痛に苦しんでいたホールジーは、病院に行っても初めは子宮内膜症だと診断されず、大げさに反応しすぎだと言われた。

心ない言葉に傷付いたホールジーだったが、最終的には子宮内膜症だと判断され、自分が大げさではなかったことが証明された。しかし、同時に子宮内膜症の恐怖に襲われた、と告白している。

それから1年後の2017年1月、ホールジーは子宮内膜症の手術を受けたことをInstagramで公開した。

「今日、つらい手術をいくつか受けました。そのうちのひとつは、子宮内膜症の手術です。私のこれまでの子宮内膜症との闘いを知っている人や、子宮内膜症の経験がある人は、子宮内膜症がどれほど精神的、身体的な苦痛かを知っているんじゃないかな」

「慢性的な子宮内膜症の痛みや、身体が衰弱していくような症状に苦しんでいる人に、子宮内膜症を抱えている時にも、クレイジーで楽しい時間があるってことを伝えたい。私は治療とのバランスをとって、そんな時間をみつけています。あなたにも、そうして欲しいな。数日間、活動をお休みします。SNSは更新できないかもしれないけれど、みんなのこと考えているからね」

レナ・ダナム

女優や作家、監督として活躍するレナ・ダナムも、ソーシャルメディアを通して子宮内膜症を伝えるひとりだ。

ダナムは2016年、Instagramにこう投稿した。

「ご存知かもしれませんが、私は子宮内膜症の治療をしています。子宮内膜症は、10人に1人の女性のリプロダクティブ・ヘルス(性と生殖に関する健康)に影響を与える病気です。私は体から(素晴らしいお医者さんからも)、今は仕事をやめて休むべきだとはっきり告げられました」

「子宮内膜症に苦しむ大勢の女性には、ゆっくり休むというオプションはありません。だから今休める私は、恵まれていると思います。みんなが健康で幸せに暮らせますように」

ウーピー・ゴールドバーグ

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(Matthew Eisman via Getty Images)

女優のウーピー・ゴールドバーグも、長い間子宮内膜症に苦しんだ。彼女にとって驚きだったのは、自分の娘も含めた多くの人たちが、子宮内膜症について知らなかったことだ。

ゴールドバーグは2009年に開催された子宮内膜症基金のイベントで、子宮内膜症をもっと知って欲しいと呼びかけた。

「私は、女性はみんな子宮内膜症を知っているものだと思っていました。ところが、30代の私の娘は知らなかったのです。彼女はかなり進んだ考えを持った人間の一人です。娘が知らなければ、彼女の19歳と13歳の娘も知っているわけがない」

「そして気付いたのです。もし彼らが知らないのであれば、世の中には子宮内膜症のことを知らない女の子たちが山ほどいるんじゃないか。それは母親たちが教えたくないからではなく、単に子宮内膜症について知ろうとしないからじゃないか。子宮内膜症に関するきちんとした情報がない。だから知らない。それを知るために、今私たちは今ここに集まって話しています」

「私があなたに求めるのは、子宮内膜症について誰かに話すこと。話しにくいことだなんて考えずに、とにかく誰かに話してください。男性も、女性も、性別は関係ありません。子宮内膜症は多くの人が知らない、だけど知らなければいけない病気です」

他にも、スーザン・サランドンケイト・フォードといった有名人たちも、経験をシェアしている。パドマ・ラクシュミは、子宮内膜症基金の立ち上げにも関わった。

多くの女性の健康に大きな影響を与えるから、全員に知って欲しい子宮内膜症。経験をシェアしている女性たちの勇気ある投稿や発言は、つらい症状に苦しむ女性を、治療につなげる一歩になる。

▼不妊治療を公表しているセレブ(画像集)▼

不妊治療を公表しているセレブ
マライア・キャリー(01 of20)
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Mariah Carey experienced a miscarriage before she became pregnant with her twins. Following the loss of her first baby, Carey underwent acupuncture and fertility treatments. \n\nIn an interview with Barbara Walters, the singer said: “The main thing I did that was tough was to go on progesterone like every month… and then when I was pregnant, I had to stay with the progesterone for 10 weeks. It minimizes the chance of miscarriage by 50 per cent.”\n\nCarey and ex-Nick Cannon then became proud parents to twins Moroccan and Monroe in 2011. (credit:Rich Fury/Invision/AP)
ジミー・ファロン(02 of20)
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Jimmy Fallon is one of the few celebrity dads to open up about his struggles with infertility. The “Tonight Show” host and his wife Nancy struggled to have a baby for five years before deciding on surrogacy. \n\n“We tried before, we told people and then it didn\'t happen. And it\'s just really depressing. It\'s really hard on everybody,” Fallon explained on the “Today Show.” \n\nThe couple then welcomed their first daughter, Winnie, in 2013 and their second, Frances, in 2014. The couple had both girls via gestational carrier. (credit:Getty)
ブルック・シールズ(03 of20)
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Brooke Shields and husband Chris Henchy underwent IVF to get pregnant. Unfortunately, Shields suffered a miscarriage before conceiving her first child, Rowan, who was born in 2003. The couple then conceived their second child naturally. Grier was born in 2006.\n\nThat same year, Shields released her memoir “Down Came the Rain” about her struggles with infertility and postpartum depression. “After a while, when you’re not successful, you start to associate the word ‘failure’ every time you pee on a stick and it doesn’t come out the right colour,” she wrote. (credit:Andy Kropa/Invision/AP)
クリッシー・テイゲン&ジョン・レジェンド(04 of20)
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Chrissy Teigen and John Legend struggled to conceive their daughter, who was born on April 14. Just one month before the couple announced their pregnancy news, Teigen revealed that the couple was having fertility struggles. \n\nOn talk show “FABLife,” the co-host and model said, “Honestly, John and I are having trouble. We would have kids five, six years ago if it’d happened. But my gosh, it’s been a process!” (credit:Frank Micelotta/Invision/AP)
ジェイミー・キング(05 of20)
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Following the birth of her first child James in 2013, Jaime King opened up about her struggles to get pregnant. \n\n“This is the truth about conceiving my son and struggles after 8 yrs of pain and undiagnosed PCOS [Polycystic ovary syndrome] & Endometriosis,” she wrote. “9 doctors until Dr. Randy Harris diagnosed me & saved my life from a severe ectopic, 5 miscarriages, 5 rounds of IVF, 26 IUI\'s, most with no outcome, 4½ years of trying to conceive.”\n\nBesides James, King and her husband Kyle Newman are also parents to a son named Leo, who was born in 2015. (credit:Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
ヒュー・ジャックマン(06 of20)
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Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness have two adopted kids: Oscar, 15 and Ava, 10. While adoption was always part of their parenting plan, they had hoped to have some biological kids first. \n\n“Trying to have children is wonderful and when you feel as though that’s not going to happen, there’s a certain anxiety that goes with it,” Jackman said to Australia’s Herald Sun in 2011. \n\nThe couple tried a few round of IVF before going ahead with their adoption plans. “From the moment we started the adoption process, all the anxiety went away,” the dad-of-two said. “I don\'t think of them as adopted – they\'re our children.” (credit:Brendon Thorne via Getty Images)
マーク・ザッカーバーグ(07 of20)
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Mark Zuckerberg is now a proud father to a baby girl named Max, who was born in November 2015. However, before the Facebook CEO and his wife Priscilla Chan welcomed their daughter, Zuckerberg revealed the struggles they faced when trying to conceive. \n\n“We\'ve been trying to have a child for a couple of years and have had three miscarriages along the way,” the 31-year-old wrote on Facebook. “Most people don\'t discuss miscarriages because you worry your problems will distance you or reflect upon you -- as if you\'re defective or did something to cause this. We hope that sharing our experience will give more people the same hope we felt and will help more people feel comfortable sharing their stories as well.” (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Sarah Jessica Parker & Matthew Broderick(08 of20)
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Sarah Jessica Parker welcomed her first child, James, with husband Matthew Broderick in 2002. When the couple tried to conceive a second child, they experienced a number of difficulties, which is why they decided to go the surrogate route.\n\n“It would be odd to have made this choice if I was able to, you know, have successful pregnancies since my son’s birth,” the actress said on “Access Hollywood” in 2009. \n\nLater that year, Parker and Broderick welcomed twin girls Marion and Tabitha. (credit:Getty)
Emma Thompson(09 of20)
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After Emma Thompson and husband Greg Wise welcomed their daughter Gaia in 1999, the couple struggled to have a second child. After several failed attempts at IVF, Thompson became clinically depressed. \n\n“For years I counted people\'s children in the street and thought I\'d never recover,” she said in an interview. “But you do, of course.”\nThompson’s husband also opened up about the couple’s struggle to conceive. “IVF is very upsetting,” he said in 2014. “It’s a brutal process and it’s very emotional. It’s really hard. But then you pick yourself up, look around and see this unbelievably beautiful little baby you’ve got anyway.”\n\nThompson and Wise eventually went on to adopt a boy named Tindyebwa, who was a Rwanda orphan and former child soldier. He was 16 years old when they adopted him in 2003. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Angela Bassett & Courtney B. Vance(10 of20)
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In 2006, Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance welcomed their twin boys, Bronwyn and Slater, via surrogate. The couple underwent fertility treatments for seven years before considering surrogacy.\n\nIn 2013, Bassett reflected on her experience. “After trying and trying, I unfortunately couldn’t have my babies,” the actress told JET Magazine. “It was my reality. I heard about the surrogate option and it worked out beautifully. (credit:Getty)
Gordon Ramsay(11 of20)
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Gordon Ramsay and his wife struggled to conceive due to his low sperm count. The 49-year-old chef revealed this on his TV series “The ‘F’ Word” and later spoke about it on “Larry King Live” in 2007. \n\n“You plan a family, and it doesn\'t happen naturally. You depend on the IVF,” Ramsay explained. “We had a miscarriage, which was quite a severe blow for our confidence. I had a very low sperm count on the back of standing in the kitchen for that length of time close to the stove. So we went through the motions. It was something we didn\'t want to hide. I\'m far from being embarrassed about it.”\n\nRamsay and his wife Tana now have four kids: Megan, twins Jack and Holly, and Mathilda. (credit:Jason LaVeris via Getty Images)
Courteney Cox & David Arquette(12 of20)
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Before Courteney Cox had her daughter Coco with ex-husband David Arquette, she had multiple miscarriages. The “Friends” star previously told People, “I get pregnant pretty easily, but I have a hard time keeping them.” (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Tyra Banks(13 of20)
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Tyra Banks became a first-time mom earlier this year when she welcomed baby boy York with boyfriend Erik Asla via gestational surrogate. The former “America’s Next Top Model” host previously revealed that she had undergone IVF treatments, which were unsuccessful. \n\nLast September, Banks told People: “I\'ve had some not happy moments with that, very traumatic moments. It\'s difficult as you get older. It\'s not something that can just happen.” (credit:Getty)
Nicole Kidman & Keith Urban(14 of20)
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Nicole Kidman and husband Keith Urban welcomed their first child, Sunday Rose, in 2008. Two years later, the couple welcomed their second daughter, Faith, via gestational carrier. \n\nAfter Faith’s birth, Kidman opened about her infertility struggles on Australia’s “60 Minutes.” “Anyone who\'s been in the place of wanting another child or wanting a child knows the disappointment, the pain and the loss that you go through trying,” the actress said. “We were in a place of desperately wanting another child. I couldn\'t get pregnant.”\n\nKidman also has two other kids, Isabella and Connor, whom she adopted with Tom Cruise. (credit:C Flanigan via Getty Images)
Tom Arnold (15 of20)
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Tom Arnold welcomed a son with wife Ashley Groussman in 2013 after years of trying to have kids. Previously, the actor revealed that he has a low sperm count, which affected many of his past relationships (Arnold has been married three times prior to Groussman). \n\n“It is hard on the women,” the actor told People in 2013. “I’ve tried with other people, but since there is a God we were unable to conceive. Now God said, ‘This is it!\'”\n\nThree-year-old Jax is Arnold and Groussman’s only child. (credit:Rich Fury/Invision/AP)
Elizabeth Banks(16 of20)
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After years of unsuccessful attempts at getting pregnant, Elizabeth Banks and husband Max Handelman turned to surrogacy to have kids. “It was frankly the only way for my husband and I, who have been together for nearly 20 years, could have a child that was half him and half me. So, for us, it was absolutely the way to go,” the actress said in 2012.\n\nBanks and her husband now have two sons – Felix, 5 and Magnus, 3 – thanks to a gestational carrier. (credit:Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
Mark McGrath(17 of20)
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After Sugar Ray frontman Mark McGrath and his wife Carin welcomed twins Hartley and Lydon in 2010, he blogged about his struggles and experience on People.\n\n“My fiancée Carin and I tried for about a year and half to have a baby and when the old conventional way didn’t work out (not without Herculean efforts!) we tried IVF and got pregnant on the first try — hence the twins,” he explained. “I find it strange that many high-profile couples are reluctant to say they used IVF, but to each their own I guess. For us, it was a blessing and nothing short of a miracle!” (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Celine Dion & René Angélil(18 of20)
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The Canadian singer has been very open about the couple\'s failed attempts at IVF. When their twins Eddy and Nelson were finally born in 2010, the couple’s first son, René-Charles, was already nine years old. \n\nDuring her second pregnancy with her twins, the songstress described her fertility struggles to People saying, “You know what? We had a miscarriage. We tried three more times. It did not work… We are trying again for the fifth try. It’s aboard right now. All aboard.” (credit:Getty)
Helena Bonham Carter(19 of20)
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Helena Bonham Carter and former partner Tim Burton experienced fertility struggles after welcoming their first child, Billy, in 2003. The actress then tried fertility drugs and acupuncture before considering IVF. However, Carter then became pregnant unexpectedly and gave birth to her second child, Nell, in 2007. \n\n“I think we might have gone for a round of IVF, but that would have been that,” the actress admitted. “There was an argument for just having one child, because we thought if that’s the way it’s meant to be, so be it.” (credit:Anthony Harvey via Getty Images)
Rod Stewart(20 of20)
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Rod Stewart and wife Penny Lancaster struggled for two years to give their son, Alastair, a sibling. The couple saw fertility experts in the U.S. and U.K. and finally conceived after their third round of IVF. The couple’s second son, Aiden, was then born in 2011.\n \nStewart also has six other kids from various relationships. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)


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ハフィントンポストでは、「女性のカラダについてもっとオープンに話せる社会になって欲しい」という思いから、『Ladies Be Open』を立ち上げました。

女性のカラダはデリケートで、一人ひとりがみんな違う。だからこそ、その声を形にしたい。そして、みんなが話しやすい空気や会話できる場所を創っていきたいと思っています。

みなさんの「女性のカラダ」に関する体験や思いを聞かせてください。 ハッシュタグ #ladiesbeopen#もっと話そう女性のカラダ も用意しました。 メールもお待ちしています ladiesbeopen@huffingtonpost.jp