Like thousands of women in Northern Ireland, Colleen Crothers waited decades for medical help to treat chronic endometriosis – and, now thanks to an all-island first, she’s hoping her long road will be a thing of the past.
“Robotic surgery came too late for me,” she said. “I hope other women won’t have to wait as long.”
She is talking about a new breakthrough for female patients in Northern Ireland – the da Vinci gynae robot at Belfast City Hospital.
Operated by humans, the robot’s wrists can twist and turn in tight pelvic spaces and it is said to be more precise at complex surgery than a human hand because it is steadier.
Belfast’s da Vinci robot is the first of its kind on the island of Ireland and one of only a few across the UK.
It has the potential to massively reduce complex gynaecological surgical waiting lists in Northern Ireland, which affect thousands of women’s physical and mental health and their ability to have children.
With an average wait of about seven years for complex surgery, which involves several specialities, delayed treatment means some women require a hysterectomy, like Colleen at 41.
She has lived with chronic endometriosis all of her adult life, having first begun to experience chronic period pain aged 14.
But it took another 22 years before she was referred to gynaecology and a scan confirmed she had both adenomyosis and endometriosis.
“I missed out so much of family life due to daily pain – pain that went on for years,” she said.
“I can’t have children – I have had to have a hysterectomy and I’m in early menopause.
“To be told you can’t have children is hard to swallow,” she said.
An urgent case, Colleen missed out on a da Vinci operation by just weeks earlier this year.
