Influences Mie Mack Cappelen (25) first became known when she participated in the second season of “Love Island”. Since then, she has gained a large following on social media.
On Instagram, the 25-year-old has chosen several times to be open about her diagnosis of endometriosis.
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Endometriosis is a chronic disease in which tissue of a similar type that grows in the uterus grows outside. The condition often causes severe pain, and in some cases chronic pain.
– “Pushed” me
Cappelen first contacted her GP back in 2016. She had started having pain in her stomach all the time, even when she was not menstruating.
Subsequently, the flu had countless doctor’s visits. There they tried to investigate the 25-year-old for various things, such as allergies and muscle pain, but she claims that she still never got the right referral.
In 2021, Cappelen was finally operated on for the disease, after five years of pain and various examinations.
The mother of the 25-year-old knew a doctor who could see her.
– It felt very good, because I had given up a bit, the influencer explains about the operation and adds:
– The only thing that made me have the last conversation with the doctor was my mother, who “pushed” me into it. It was also my fear that it might affect my chances of having children. It drove me the most, because I had basically turned to living with the pain.
– Takes a lot of painkillers
But despite the operation, the sufferer still feels pain.
– It is a perpetual problem, she says to Dagbladet.
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The pain is something that affects Cappelen’s mood. She has low energy levels, feels depressed and loses motivation.
– I take a lot of painkillers to function in normal settings. Like for example when I’m out and about, when I walk more than usual and various social settings where you’re out for a whole evening.
ENDOMETRIOSIS: Mie Cappelen has shared about the disease on social media since 2021. Photo: Screenshot from Instagram
sea view
The 25-year-old describes the abdominal pain as cramp-like, as if someone is holding and twisting her stomach.
– I really want to cut off that part of my body, because the whole area is so painful.
Follow-up after surgery
– What I miss in the healthcare system, and especially when it comes to women’s health, is that you get follow-up.
Cappelen says that the follow-up she received in the first six months after the operation was an information letter.
– The pain does not necessarily go away after surgery, because you have been with it for so long. The body feels broken in many ways.
Today, the 25-year-old is being treated at the Oslo Women’s Health Centre. She believes the treatment there has helped her a lot.
High demand
In 2021, after the surgery, Cappelen started sharing about the disease to his followers.
– I feel that if I don’t talk about it, no one else will. There are very few people who get involved in women’s health, apart from those who are patients themselves. I find that very strange when it concerns all of us, says the influencer to Dagbladet and adds:
– I was terrified
– I get an enormous amount of response, and that just shows how much demand there is from people who need help.
– Not good enough
In an email to Dagbladet, Bærum Hospital writes that it is not good enough that patients are discharged with only an information letter in hand.
Furthermore, the hospital points out that the Directorate of Health has recently sent a report to the Ministry of Health and Care where several agencies have considered measures that could improve the offer for patients with endometriosis and adenomyosis.
“During the work on the report, it has emerged that there are shortcomings and challenges in the current service offering which can lead to this patient group experiencing a failure in the healthcare service offering and a lack of coordinated services,” the email states.
Dagbladet has previously been in contact with the senior physician at the gynecology department at Oslo University Hospital (OUS), Guri Bårdstu Majak.
She said that endometriosis is a disease that comes with many different needs, and that the follow-up after surgery must therefore be individualized according to the degree of the disease.
– I escaped from the hospital
However, she acknowledged that they often do not have enough capacity to follow up all the patients who are in their care.
Majak also called for more accessible information about endometriosis out there.
– We have a great need for good information to be available to everyone throughout the country.
