Endometriosis: Woman with years of pain says symptoms cost her job

In November, Dee gave evidence at the Senedd’s Disability and Employment Inquiry, which aimed to evaluate what more could be done to reduce and remove barriers to employment faced by disabled people.

“When we started exploring reasonable adjustments, I didn’t understand that I was disabled under the Equality Act, or know I was allowed to call myself disabled,” Dee said.

“We have such a narrow view of what disability is, and what it looks like.”

A Social Model of Disability was formally adopted by the Welsh government in 2002, but Dee said there were “still too many employers who don’t know about it.”

Endometriosis as a chronic condition doesn’t automatically qualify as a disability under equality law – but, a person living with endometriosis can be disabled by their condition – and the law accepts this.

Endometriosis symptoms that worsen over time as a ‘progressive condition’ are also covered by the Equality Act 2010.