Bindi Irwin Details Terrifying Moment She Thought She Was Miscarrying
Bindi Irwin
Months after first revealing her diagnosis to the world, Bindi Irwin is opening up about the horrific realities of living with endometriosis.
The conservationist sat down with Good Morning America for an interview that aired on Oct. 20, where she looked back on nearly a decade of struggling to find the cause for her unexplained and debilitating pain, fatigue, nausea, and more, all of which started in her early teens.
She fought for years with doctors who brushed her symptoms off as a normal part of being a woman, undergoing MRI after ultrasound after CT scan and more in a desperate bid for answers.
With each test and scan coming back "completely clean," she said the "scariest thing was that there were no answers."
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women's Health estimates that more than 11 percent of American women between the ages of 15 and 44 are affected by endometriosis, which is when tissues similar to the lining of the uterus grow outside of the uterus. Many of those women suffer a myriad of incorrect diagnoses before learning what is truly wrong with them, if they ever do.
As Irwin progressed through her pregnancy with her first daughter, now-2-year-old Grace Warrior, she experienced so much pain she feared she was miscarrying at multiple points.
"It would just be excruciating pain in my side, and I would think that I was losing our beautiful daughter," she recalled as a result of the "severe, unexplained pain." Today, she and her husband, Chandler Powell, consider themselves very lucky to have her, knowing how difficult it can be for some women with endometriosis to get pregnant.
“Now I’m a completely new person.”
Bindi Irwin opens up for the first time on TV about her experience living in pain before finding out about her condition after going through a surgery earlier this year. @evapilgrim brings us her story. pic.twitter.com/O9K4F3qn33— Good Morning America (@GMA) October 20, 2023
Today, she compares her health to what it was back then as "night and day," after undergoing a surgical procedure that found thirty-seven lesions and a type of ovarian cyst known as a chocolate cyst. When she woke up from surgery, the first thing her doctor said was, "How did you live with that much pain?" which completely validated her exhausting battle.
"That validation meant so much to me," she said through tears.
Months later, her brother Robert described her as "a new woman," recalling how quickly she "snowballed" after masking her symptoms on Dancing With the Stars.
"She was in a bad way, but so many people go undiagnosed; so many people don't ever get treatment or address endometriosis. So it's very important to keep asking questions—keep it on your radar," he said, noting that he'd "inadvertently" found himself "a big women's health advocate" and calling for men and women both to be "made aware" of the disease.
The 25-year-old first opened up about her health battle in March, sharing a photo of herself in the hospital. At the time she had debated sharing her medical history with the public, but ultimately felt that she had a "responsibility...to share [her] story for other women who need help."
She expressed a similar sentiment on GMA, relieved to finally be able to play with her daughter the way she wants to and get back into the thick of her conservation work and hoping that others may "find comfort in [her] story."
She continued, "Maybe my story resonates...maybe if you've gone through undiagnosed, unbelievable pain, you will be able to say, 'Hey, that girl has symptoms similar to mine. Maybe this is what's wrong with me.'"
Next: Bindi Irwin Shuts Down Rumors of Feud With Brother's Girlfriend With Single Photo
