// BBC HEALTH NEWS — SALUTE
I lost my job in a primary school due to endometriosis
Hayley lost her job as a teaching assistant last October, after being told she was unfit to work
Hayley Locksley was 11 years old when she started her periods and excruciating pain became part of her life.
"I used to spend every month in the sick room at school," she says.
Hayley, from Shefford, Bedfordshire, would often pass out from the pain but the doctors' advice was to take paracetamol.
Aged 24, she was diagnosed with endometriosis - a condition that affects one in 10 women, where tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows outside of the uterus.
Hayley says she loved her job working in a nursery, but her employers questioned whether her symptoms were real and asked her to use annual leave to cover sick days.
After she had surgery for endometriosis, Hayley decided to switch to office work, due to it being less physically demanding. But her new colleagues asked why she was spending so long in the toilet.
"I had to explain that my bladder sometimes did not empty fully, causing severe pain and horrendous diarrhoea. I found the questioning embarrassing and humiliating," she says.
Hayley had her appendix removed because doctors thought that was the issue, until she was diagnosed with endometriosis
After having her daughter, who is now aged seven, Hayley decided to pursue her dream of working with children again and became a special needs teaching assistant in a primary school four years ago.