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I was clustered around a baggage reclaim belt, my eyes wide, anticipating the arrival of my suitcase so that I could head out into the balmy Balinese summer and lift my face to the sky. I'd been daydreaming about this moment for the past few months, on crowded train journeys, at my desk and during the frosty trudge to my front steps; that moment where that warm air envelops you like a welcoming hug and the airport doors close behind you, marking the beginning of your holiday.

Except, in all the various iterations of my impatient daydreaming, I'd never pictured this moment featuring a deep pain throbbing through my abdomen, breath-catching bloating and a dull ache through my legs that made each step feel as though I was wearing ankle weights. It was my endometriosis, exacerbated by the travelling, making it known that my holiday wasn't going to be as seamless as I'd hoped.

That was six years ago, but similar situations had become the norm for me since I'd been diagnosed with endometriosis, like an agonising Groundhog Day. From the time I was forced to sit for hours at the bottom of Sigiriya Rock, an ancient rock fortress near the town of Dambulla in Sri Lanka, while my husband hiked up to the top with a group of other tourists to witness an ethereal sunrise from 180ft up (to caveat here, he did offer to stay with me but I refused), to the holiday where I lay in bed for a full three days, curled up into the fetal position, feeling nauseous and anxious, listening to the sound of my family splashing around in the pool just outside my window.

And I'm not alone. Many women find that travel exacerbates their endometriosis symptoms. Like Lauren, who was diagnosed with endometriosis and PCOS in her early 20s, and was forced to spend almost the entirety of her honeymoon in bed. "I generally avoid long-haul flights because I always end up feeling exhausted and sore for days afterwards, but I wanted to push myself for such a special occasion," she tells me. "We'd always discussed going to the Maldives for our honeymoon, but the reality of it was less romantic beach walks and sunset cocktails and more watching endless episodes of Gavin & Stacey while I rocked myself side-to-side to try and ease the searing pain in my lower abdomen. I was so bloated and stiff that I wasn't even able to walk around the resort - whenever I left the room, we had to ensure that a resort buggy was waiting outside for me."