Rachel Lever - Living with ‘Endo’

Women's Soccer Coaching

Rachel Lever is women’s youth academy manager at Manchester City, overseeing the under-16s and under-21s. She also lives, and coaches, with endometriosis.

It is a debilitating condition, where tissue similar to the lining of the womb starts to grow in other places, such as the ovaries and fallopian tubes.

Some of the key symptoms include severe pain that stops or restricts normal activity, feeling sick, heavy periods and, sometimes, fertility problems.

In the UK, it takes, on average, eight years - yes, years - for someone to be diagnosed with endometriosis.

Lever describes herself as “fortunate” for being diagnosed after just a couple of years.

But it wasn’t good luck that got her the diagnosis. It was advocating for herself at a time when she knew something was really wrong.