Irwin, who originally announced her illness in March, claimed in the video that she began “noticing” symptoms when she was 14 years old and would frequently experience “extreme fatigue, nausea, and pain.” She said she had been looking for answers for years, having blood tests, CT scans, and MRI ultrasounds all of which revealed she did not have the illness.
She eventually stopped looking for answers when one doctor informed her that her agony was “just part of being a woman.” However, it wasn’t until she gave birth to her daughter Grace several years later that the anguish grew more “intense.” “After having beautiful Grace, my pain levels were out of this world,” she recalled.
“I can remember countless times of Grace needing me and me crawling to her cot at night,” she explained. “I can remember being with Grace and just laying on the floor in agony because I would have stabbing pain in my side and I literally could not get up. Or I would throw up, or I was scared I would pass out.”
“I was so scared because I was worried if I was alone with Grace, something would happen to me, and she would be on her own,” she added.
She claimed she felt she needed to act when her family went on their yearly crocodile research trip in August 2022. Irwin said she was in extreme pain after trying to climb a “tiny hill” with Grace in her arms.
“… The pain hit me out of nowhere,” she said. “I had to hand Grace to Mom and just curl up in the fetal position on the ground because the stabbing pain in my side was insurmountable.”
She stated she didn’t understand she had endometriosis until her friend Leslie told her tale, and their symptoms matched. Her friend advised her to have exploratory surgery to determine the extent of her endometriosis.
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Irwin stated that she chose to undergo the operation in December around the holidays so that both she and her husband Chandler Powell’s families could be present to care for Grace as she healed. She stated that they discovered 37 lesions and a chocolate cyst on her ovary, which she later removed by surgery.
In the caption for the video, Irwin thanked her mother and brother for “being there with me every step of the way,” and said that it was “because of them” that she had a “second chance at life.” She also thanked her husband’s parents for watching Grace during her surgery and the Australia Zoo/Wildlife Warriors team for their “support” while she was away. She finally thanked her fans for their interest and questions on her journey.
“Thank YOU for your incredible questions about my endometriosis journey, I hope this video may shed some light on my story to help you or someone you know battling with this disease,” she ended the post.