Period Pain: The Pain I Learned To Normalise with Ella Cunningham

We're closing out our period pain miniseries the way it started. With a real story.

In the final episode of the Period Pain Mini Series, Jess sits down with Ella, founder of Els Lovers, a New Zealand-made brand creating wearable heat packs designed specifically for endometriosis and period pain relief.

Ella takes us right back to the beginning to a musical theatre rehearsal camp, three days before her 14th birthday, when her very first period arrived and brought her to her knees. From that day forward, eight-day heavy periods, severe pain, and chronic exhaustion became her norm. Because her mum had always suffered the same way, Ella assumed that's just how it was for her too.

What followed was years of dismissed symptoms, a GP who attributed her chronically low iron to her plant-based diet rather than the blood she was losing every month, and a gynaecologist at family planning who told her that heavy periods were an opinion. It wasn't until a nutritionist connected the dots, low iron, low B12, IBS-like symptoms, painful heavy periods, and said the word endometriosis, that Ella finally had somewhere to start.

She shares what it took to push for her diagnosis, what her endometriosis surgery in February 2024 actually involved, and why the year and a half she spent with a Mirena afterwards was the most painful of her life and how trusting her body and getting it removed was the decision that finally started turning things around.

Ella also opens up about having to leave her first full-time job out of university at just 21 because her pain had become too unpredictable to manage, and how that painful chapter led her to create Els Lovers. Handmade in Aotearoa from 100% natural cotton, Els heat packs were born out of Ella's own search for something wide enough, long enough, and weighted enough to actually wrap around the places that hurt.

This is the episode we want every young woman who is quietly pushing through to hear. Because how the hell are you supposed to know if your period pain isn't normal if nobody is talking about it?

This is episode five of five of The Cyclist's period pain miniseries. All episodes are available now.

Find Ella and Els Lovers at elslovers.com or on Instagram @elslovers

Follow and connect Instagram: @wearethecyclist Website: wearethecyclist.com

Hit play. And if you know someone who needs to hear this, send it to them.