Bindi Irwin: Wildlife Warrior’s searing message about battle with ‘invisible illness’ endometriosis

Bindi Irwin has opened up on her long battle with an “invisible illness” in searing detail, urging others with the condition not to give up.

After years of pain, the conservationist and Wildlife Warrior was finally diagnosed with endometriosis in 2023.

On Tuesday, she took to social media to mark the end of endometriosis awareness month, outlining the toll the condition has had on her health.

“In the last three years, I’ve had over 50 endometriosis lesions cut out of my body. A chocolate cyst that was adhering my ovary to my side was removed. An appendectomy and a hernia repair,” she wrote on Instagram.

“I’ve felt indescribable, inescapable pain. Trying to keep my invisible illness to myself after being told by doctors it was just ‘part of being a woman’. I spent 10 years being undiagnosed.”

Endometriosis is when tissue similar to the lining of the uterus occurs outside the womb and in other parts of the body, causing pain and sometimes infertility. It affects one in seven women.

“As a teenager and young woman, I felt weak and deeply insecure. I was trapped in my own body,” Irwin wrote.

She urged everyone to remember this “invisible disease each and every day” and to lend support, compassion and grace to the millions who suffer.

“No one deserves to suffer in silence. If you’re in pain, my heart breaks for you. I believe you. Please find answers. And don’t give up on yourself. I know how hard that can be.”

Within hours, Irwin’s post was flooded with supportive comments commending her bravery, including from her mother, Terri Irwin.

She wrote, ”I am so proud of you for sharing your journey, Bindi. I have learned that it is important for women to seek out a surgeon who performs excision surgery instead of ablation. Everyone deserves to live without pain!”