Donegal’s youngest county councillor, Dakota Nic Mheanman, says her battle with undiagnosed illness could force her to have surgery in Romania.
Sinn Féin Cllr Mhic Mheanman has been living with symptoms of endometriosis since she was a teenager.
Despite seeking answers for almost 10 years, the 25-year-old Ballybofey woman has been unable to get a definitive answer.
Painful periods have left her bedbound at times.
“It feels like barbed wire in your stomach, like getting stabbed,” Cllr Nic Mheanman tells Donegal Daily/Donegal Woman.
Cllr Nic Mheanman grew up believing that her agonising cycles were “just normal for women”.
After an emergency C-section to deliver her baby girl in 2023, she finally got to see a gynaecologist about her pelvic pain this March.
“I was fed up, I needed to figure this out,” she said.
“They did find adenomyosis and said that is probably what is causing you the pain, because it can happen after a C-section. I kept saying I’ve had this long before the section, I’ve had this for years.”
On the topic of a laparoscopy (keyhole surgery) to investigate endometriosis, she said her consultant advised against it for the time being.
Throughout her late teens, Cllr Nic Mheanman said she always felt as if she was being dismissed by medics.
“It’s hard enough to tell someone you have problems, but to not be taken seriously and to be told ‘you will be grand’ is worse,” she said.
“Thankfully my GP now is very supportive and gives me validation for my symptoms. When I was younger I would give up talking to doctors, thinking it’s all in my head and I need to relax more.
“You are going around in circles feeling so hopeless, thinking ‘I just have to live with this’.”
Dismissal was the word that emerged from a meeting on endometriosis care held in Ballybofey in recent weeks. Sinn Féin Senator Maria McCormack led the event, which discussed the need for more awareness, research and options for women affected by the progressive disease.
“The fact you can’t get healthcare in your own country is shocking, for a disease that affects about one in nine,” said Cllr Nic Mheanman.
If a laparoscopy is not offered to her here, Dakota is planning to travel to Bucharest for a specialised MRI.
“That is what I will have to do to get answers, at least then I can bring the results back to Ireland to get my options,” she said.
Pearse Doherty TD, pictured with Senator Maria McCormack and Cllr Dakota NicMheanman at the Endometriosis information awareness event. (North West Newspix)
Dakota ran in the June 2024 local elections to build a better future for her daughter. Now an elected councillor for the Lifford-Stranorlar area, her challenge is to fit her search for her own healthcare between her council duties and childcare.
“I would rather not have to go abroad, but unfortunately many women do,” she said.
“It seems to be the only solution. Although we have an endometriosis clinic in Dublin it’s still not enough because we don’t have the specialist equipment. The only way they can diagnose is through the laparoscopy surgery but even then, consultants are not all trained to identify it.
“Other people will tell stories of having laparoscopies in Ireland and they are told there is no endometriosis found, and they go abroad and they are told they have it.”
Cllr Nic Mheanman says there is a need for change, and she believes that it starts with multi-disciplinary teams in Irish hospitals equipped with diagnostic and pain management services for women.
“It has to come back to government and the issue of funding,” she said.
“I would like to see more skilled specialists in endometriosis, we need better MRIs, more training and more funding for research.”
Building on from Senator McCormack’s campaign, Cllr Nic Mheanman plans to bring up endometriosis in the Donegal County Council chamber and to call on government to implement changes and funding.
“Endometriosis needs to be taken seriously and people need to get educated on how serious it is,” she said.
“Young women can become infertile if they progress to the point of needing a hysterectomy. We need to realise that it’s a progressive disease, and that it’s so important to catch it early.
“All TDs need to hear the personal stories of the women and what they are going through.”
Tags:
