Two years after revealing her endometriosis diagnosis, Bindi Irwin is opening up again about the heartbreaking reality of living with the condition.
She’s now sharing a powerful message about a question no woman should ever have to answer.
Only a few people knew
Living with endometriosis is incredibly tough – just ask Bindi Irwin. Her journey to finding answers after years of pain has been nothing short of challenging.
Bindi has often shared how the uncertainty over the years was the hardest part. Doctors didn’t believe her, she started doubting herself, and she struggled to function in her daily life. In a recent interview with Courier Mail, she revealed that she was afraid to talk about what she was going through.
It took her a long time to open up about it, and nobody knew what was happening to her, except for her mother, Terri Irwin, her brother Robert, and her husband Chandler Powell.
”It is scary when you open up about your most vulnerable and painful times, when you talk about when you felt you were sitting in a very large hole and didn’t know if you were going to crawl out,” Bindi says.
Her friends didn’t understand
Everything began when Bindi Irwin got her first period. With it came pain, nausea, and fatigue, which only worsened as she got older. Despite this, Bindi tried to carry on with life as usual. She got married in 2020, and from the outside, no one suspected she was suffering in secret.
But living with the disease was suffocating for 26-year-old Bindi. Her close friends couldn’t understand why she was acting so strangely.
”Everyone else thought I was becoming this flaky person because I would bow out of commitment after commitment at the last minute, because I was in so much pain,” she says.
Reactions after sharing her story
When Bindi Irwin was finally diagnosed with endometriosis, an incurable disease in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside of it, she felt a sense of relief. Last year, she took to Instagram to reveal that she had undergone surgery.
She wanted to help others by sharing her story, but the reactions weren’t quite what she had hoped for.
”In some ways the response to telling my story was devastating because so many women came forward. It broke my heart, some of their stories were identical to mine, some had taken even longer to get a diagnosis, and there was a plethora of women’s health issues shared with me, and with each other,” she told the Courier Mail.
The question that sparked debate
Endometriosis can make it harder for women to have children, and according to Honey9, up to 50 percent of people with the disease may experience infertility. Given this, it’s pretty incredible that Bindi Irwin gave birth to a daughter, Grace Warrior Irwin Powell, on March 25, 2021.
In a recent YouTube Q&A with her husband Chandler Powell, the couple addressed one of the most persistent questions they often face: ”Are you two planning on having another child?” The question, while innocent in nature, struck a nerve for Bindi.
“How often do we get asked that, Chandler?” she asked with a mix of exhaustion and emotion. Chandler, who has been by her side through every step of her endometriosis journey, answered gently: “Daily.”
For the couple, the birth of their daughter, Grace, was nothing short of a miracle.
Chandler reminded viewers just how lucky they were to have their little girl, given the challenges Bindi faced with her condition.
”It was an absolute miracle that we had Grace and we are revelling in every little moment we have with our little miracle baby,” he said and added: ”We are so happy with our family of three.”
Bindi’s heartbreaking plea
Bindi, with the grace and compassion that has come to define her, took a moment to respond to the question.
”I get that people are curious,” she began, ”but before you ask something so personal, please take a moment to consider what someone might be going through. Just because everything looks fine on the surface, doesn’t mean it is. The journey people have been on might be filled with struggles and heartache that you can’t even imagine.”
”We feel very lucky to have Grace. She is our beautiful girl but she will probably be our one child. But you never know. Maybe we will be blessed with another little one down the road, that would be incredible.”
Bindi also shared her feelings about the word “only” when it comes to her daughter, Grace.
”Sometimes it’s so easy to say Grace will be our only child and I do not like the word ‘only’. Grace is our child. She is our one beautiful, perfect, amazing little girl. Every single day I think about how lucky we are to have her.”
Her response struck a chord with many at the Q&A. One fan expressed their appreciation in the comments, saying: ”As someone with multiple chronic illnesses, I LOVE the advocacy and awareness work you do for endo and other invisible illnesses. It means so much.”
I’m so glad Bindi is sharing her story! Breaking the stigma surrounding endometriosis is half the battle, according to her, and Bindi is doing an amazing job by being so open about it. Share this story if you agree!