Late one night, curled around a heat pad, pulse racing, I realised something didn't add up. I already had stage four endometriosis, but the pain felt different: heavier, deeper, like my uterus had set into concrete. I asked about adenomyosis. "You already have endo. That explains it," came the answer. Except it didn't.

The Double Diagnosis No One Talks About

Think of endo and adeno as storm systems colliding. Endometriosis is tissue similar to the uterine lining growing outside the uterus, such as on the bowel, bladder, and ovaries, causing inflammation and scarring. Adenomyosis is when tissue burrows into the uterine muscle, thickening and sensitising it. One spreads. The other embeds. Both bleed, inflame and disrupt. Together, they can amplify fatigue, pain, bloating and fertility challenges. Many of us live with both and fall through diagnostic cracks.

Why the System Prefers Simplicity (and Why That Hurts)

Medicine likes clean boxes; women's bodies are ecosystems. Symptoms overlap, MRIs hedge, and you get referred to specialists who each see their slice. You end up holding the puzzle pieces. Dual diagnosis often equals diagnostic purgatory, not because you're complicated, but because the system isn't designed for complexity.

The Emotional Weight of Complexity

Living with two chronic conditions is logistics and grief in equal measure. Think scans, results, explanations, cancellations. After enough dismissals, doubt creeps in. But, if you're lucky, the doubt turns to fire.

Building My Care Team (and My Sanity)

No single saviour; a team. A lead gynae, a colorectal surgeon, a pain specialist who reframed "pain-free" to "more manageable," a pelvic physio who retrained muscles I didn't know I clenched. An acupuncturist who gave me two hours of peace. It wasn't linear or cheap, but it was necessary. Somewhere in that chaos, Scarlet Period came to life.

Designing My Own Relief

Scarlet’s hero product, the rae Heat Pad, came to life on the bathroom floor - me, doubled over, clutching a wheat bag that turned cold before it helped. I wanted something better. So I worked with Melbourne engineers and designers to build rae: wireless, rechargeable, discreet, with temperature governance and safety cut-offs - relief you could wear, not juggle. Pain didn’t make me weak; it made me inventive.

A Holistic Kind of Healing

After enough surgeries, you stop believing in quick fixes. Healing is layered: medical, emotional, and practical. I got serious about inflammation, swapped late-night deadlines for early baths, lifted weights to rebuild strength, and treated self-care like infrastructure. Most of all, I listened: my body whispers long before it screams.

Why We Need a New Narrative

One-condition frameworks erase the reality that many of us live between labels. We deserve a system that treats women’s pain as data, not drama, and one that recognises co-conditions, funds research accordingly, and designs tools that respect our lives.

You can’t compartmentalise the body - or the woman living in it. If you’ve ever felt “too complicated,” it’s not you; it’s the framework. Until medicine catches up, we’ll keep designing our own answers - honest, functional, and unapologetically ours.

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Jo Barry owns Scarlet Period, a 100% self-funded, female-owned Australian brand creating design-led products for real bodies and real pain. Living with endometriosis and adenomyosis, she developed the rae Heat Pad, a wearable heat device that recently won Australia’s Good Design Award for Consumer Product of the Year. She believes we can positively change women's health with better design and more honest conversations.

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