Brainz Magazine Exclusive Interview
Wendy K Laidlaw is a women’s health pioneer and the world's leading expert on healing endometriosis naturally. As a visionary, her mission is to revolutionise and modernise the gynaecological field worldwide. She is a multi-best selling author, online entrepreneur, podcaster, online summit host and founder & CEO of Heal Endometriosis Naturally. Wendy achieved all this after putting her stage IV endometriosis into remission after suffering for over 33 years. Six years on Wendy has put all her previous conditions into remission naturally and still remains pain-free!
Wendy now helps women all around the world achieve the same results through her three best selling books, online Challenge and online specialist Programs, including a new Certified Coach Training Program for Health Care Professionals, so that women can go back to living their life free from symptoms and pain. Wendy has been featured on over 36 national radio stations including the BBC, appeared in Vogue Magazine and The Telegraph. She hosts the 1 endometriosis podcast and is the host of Ultimate Emotional Health Summit (in its second year).
What you work with is such an important issue and we would like to learn more about it, your work, and how you ended up where you are today?
I founded HealEndometriosisNaturally.com in 2016 when I had finally cracked the code on how to end my endometriosis, adenomyosis and ovarian cysts naturally. About 12 months prior to this I had started researching how to heal naturally because my body was dangerously ill, I found myself bed-bound and I was only getting worse. I had been suffering from endometriosis for over 33 years and the condition had now reached stage IV - the most severe stage of the condition despite trying all approaches and modalities. I had also begun suffering from adenomyosis, chocolate cysts, hypothyroidism, chronic depression, mitochondrial dysfunction, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, and glandular fever. The plethora of conditions my body was enduring put me on the brink and I was near-total organ failure. I was so unwell that I had almost been exclusively bed-bound for the three years leading up to 2016. I scarcely made it out my front door. Tasks as simple as visiting the bathroom could be arduous and walking down my staircase to the kitchen for something to eat was, at the best of times, cripplingly painful. It all got so bad that I questioned whether it was worth continuing on like this.
“I even asked myself: Was it worth living?”
Back then, I saw no way out. I had been embroiled in the medical system since my endometriosis began at the mere age of 11 and it had finally left me dangerously ill. Since then, I had gone through six surgical procedures, all of which failed to make me better and instead bestowed upon me more symptoms and additional side effects like adhesions and cysts. I was prescribed a range of drugs and supplied with an arsenal of painkillers but it was all to no avail. Nothing they offered to me could tame the spread of my endometriosis and abate the pain. Eventually, the doctors treated me like a nuisance, some sort of hysterical female and an irritating ‘body in a bed’. Some medical professionals even went as far as to the reason that their ‘medical tools’ were not working for me because I was attention-seeking and just imagining all my conditions. In short, the gynaecological professionals washed their hands of me. They couldn’t ‘fix’ me so it was best to just ignore me. That wasn’t without lastly suggesting a hysterectomy, which is a barbaric surgery that involves removing all of a woman’s reproductive organs. It is wholly unnecessary and ineffective in almost all instances. I knew this though.
My mother had suffered terribly from endometriosis as well and she had been strongly advised to get a hysterectomy. She did and sadly, all of her endometriosis symptoms came back but with added ferocity and insult of additional symptoms and conditions. I was devastated. And I don’t say that lightly. The gynaecological medical profession that was there to ‘fix’ my ‘broken body’ could do nothing and all of their previous attempts had only aggravated my symptoms. If they could do nothing, what could I do? At this especially bleak point, the universe presented me with two immensely simple, yet profound experiences. They are my ‘Bumble Bee Story’ and the ‘I Cut My Finger Story’. I will cover these later on but the essence of these observations was that I realised that I had to try a different path and that my body was always wanting to heal itself, so, therefore, I reasoned, something must have been stopping that natural process. And that was when my healing journey began back in 2016.
I reverently tried to pursue a new path (with no idea where to find it) and a new way to allow my body to heal (with no understanding of the human body, let alone myself). From my bed, I retrained in nutritional therapy, psychotherapy, and psychology and became a certified life coach. I read and researched as much as my exhausted brain and battered body allowed. Gradually, I began to crack the code, piece together and understand what I believed was stopping and preventing me from healing and what was making me worse. So, I began to address these main pieces, which I would come to call The Laidlaw Protocols and what had been preventing the healing before: The 5 P’s (Poisons; Produce, Products, Property, Past & People).
The improvement was slight to begin with but starkly noticeable within 6-9 months. It was the first time I had improved in over three decades. I began feeling less lethargic. The intensity of the pain in my pelvis and stomach, (which I used to describe to my curious son as akin to being stabbed with tiny knives or a barbed wire being scraped up and down on my insides) was beginning to subside. My many other symptoms seemed to be lessening as well. It would take me a few years to fully recover from every single one of my multiple conditions, which, given my extensive illness, was a relatively quick time period. I realised I was on to something.
It is all so clear to me now why I hadn’t been healing before and why I had been so ill. I had been purely trying to ‘manage symptoms’ rather than tackling the root causes. My symptoms and conditions were a manifestation of the many poisons around me and things deeper than my conscious mind could appreciate. Each time I tried to ignore all this with medication or surgery my body resisted with greater force to try and shake me out of my ignorance. In any other scenario, in any other profession, it would seem preposterous to ignore the root causes of an issue but in modern-day health care and the gynaecological medical machine, it seemed few people were looking at it this way.
When I ultimately achieved my pain-FREE body I knew that this message had to be shared and following my natural instinct to help others, I started to write my first book, set up my website and began building out an online program to provide practical, progressive and positive guidance.
I really saw no other choice. I never wanted any woman to end up as badly as I was. I am so glad to have helped thousands of women through my online programs, international multi-best selling books and podcast already and I hope to help tens of thousands and then millions more. In fact, three of my paperback books have become Amazon Bestsellers and my podcast is currently the top endometriosis podcast!
For those who do not know what endometriosis is or have only heard about it, do you want to tell more in detail about what it means to have endometriosis?
Endometriosis is when the tissue that’s supposed to line a woman’s uterus, starts to grow or migrate outside of it. The tissue can grow on the lining of the pelvic cavity, on the ovaries and fallopian tubes, and can sometimes spread to other organs like the intestines. Endometriosis causes a lot of pain, normally around the abdominal, pelvis area and/or lower back, and particularly during periods, ovulation and/or during or after sex.
There are many important things to know about the condition but some key points are:
It is most common in women during their 20s and 40s – However, the condition can affect a woman of any age, even young girls.
It can take years to be diagnosed – The average time for endometriosis to be properly diagnosed is around 7 years, due to the uncertainty of how it develops and the difficulty in identifying it. Which is ludicrous in this day and age when we can send rockets up to Mars. Many women unfortunately either ignore their particularly painful periods without getting them checked out or are dismissed by doctors or gynaecologists when they do seek help.
It comes in four stages – These are: minimal, mild, moderate and severe (stages I - IV). The stages all differ in the endometrial tissue’s location, amount, and depth but unfortunately, the pain can be just as debilitating at stage one.
It doesn't mean you can't have children – there are many theories that having endometriosis can negatively impact your fertility – but this isn’t entirely true. Only when it’s not treated may it cause infertility. If you’re diagnosed, don’t worry, the prospect of children isn’t ruled out as I had two beautiful children myself whilst I had endometriosis (despite being told I would never have any children).
In addition to the pain you suffered, what other challenges have you encountered during your journey and how have these affected you?
Yes, both in coming to terms with my past childhood which had a significant amount of trauma and recognising the importance of separating myself from the many toxic people that once surrounded me which was very challenging.
It took many years and really those elements were the final few pieces in my healing journey. Once I had processed the trauma and had a safer group of people in my life, my health improved even more. I would go as far as saying that People and Past, (two of The Five Poisons), are the most crucial elements too healing. These elements are highly undervalued and under-appreciated namely because our society puts a lot of shame around putting in firm boundaries with toxic individuals and/or sometimes ceasing all contact if necessary. We also are not encouraged to share emotions and be comfortable with unpleasant feelings. From a young age, we are fed with the narrative of being a ‘good girl' who doesn’t cry and is always stoic and happy. That is unrealistic and causes a lot of inner turmoil and upset.
Due to this, the journey is not always as easy as taking a painkiller, but it is infinitely more effective and impactful. I have had many women say that my programs were transformational and have been the best commitment they have ever made due to the new understanding they have of their bodies and emotions. Whilst this journey takes effort, dedication and lifestyle changes, it is no magic, quick-fix, but does work when you know what to address and change.
A little brief, what do you offer in your programs?
For my EndoBoss® Academy 6 months program, to put it very simply, I guide women on how to systematically address and deal with The Five Poisons which underpin the inflammation and hormonal imbalance in endometriosis condition. This involves a lot of in-depth and specialist information, education and inspiration that is supplied via expert content on our membership site and educational webinars. Women are taught about the Laidlaw Protocols which included The Three Daily Basics and also receive personalised 1-1 weekly coaching support from my EndoBoss® Coaches to help keep them growing on the healing pathway if/when the journey gets tough.
I do offer awesome introductory online programs like the 21 Day Unstoppable EndoBoss® Challenge and Embracing Emotions, Empathy & Energy Program, which teach things such as the importance of self-care without guilt, journaling, meditation and listening to their inner instincts and intuition. These are powerful programs particularly as this is what most women, myself included, struggle on; the food and products are the easy parts by comparison!
Finally, I offer EndoBoss® Certified Coach training in the Laidlaw Protocols to women. This is open to heart-centred women who have healed themselves in my previous programs or who wish to ‘heal and train’ and change careers. This allows many more women to be positively impacted and empowered. I will discuss this in more detail later on.
I am also about to start a NEW Pilot Online Program for Health Care Professionals to share the healing secrets, specialities and sensitivities of a woman with endometriosis and what she needs to heal. By expanding into training nurses, doctors, nutritionists, functional medicine doctors, naturopaths and dieticians, who are often the first port of call, my aim is to widen the knowledge and information of what is possible out with the mainstream gynaecological medical field.
What keeps you motivated?
One of my biggest motivators and my main mission now is to ensure that no woman has to end up as chronically ill and debilitated as I was. I am still to meet someone else who got as deathly ill as me and for that, I am glad. But thinking back to my mother, it was tragic to see what the condition did to her. It is still distressing to me to think back to how I once was. No person deserves to go through that.
I became especially passionate about this mission when my daughter started to show signs of endometriosis during my recovery time. I love her so much and I couldn’t and wouldn’t let that happen to her. Thank goodness that, to this day, she is completely healthy now and free from any pain because of the knowledge and information that I have been able to hand down to her.
Another special thing I have come to believe is that all situations have some form of inherent meaning and that we can and must find the lessons in each encounter that life throws our way. For example, let me delve into both my ‘Bumble Bee Story’ and ‘I Cut My Finger Story’ that I mentioned earlier.
Bumble Bee Story
The story of the bumblebee occurred one day when I had made it out into my back garden and to my little summer house. It was a beautiful day and being someone who loves the sun, I forced myself out of bed that day so that I could at least enjoy a little of the good weather (which is a rare occurrence in Scotland!). As I sat on the sofa, cradling my hot water on my painful abdomen, I noticed a big, beautiful bumblebee fly in through the open glass door. She looked like a Queen Bee and she buzzed around.
After a few minutes, she appeared to be struggling to get back out of the summer house. She furiously buzzed against the glass windows and glass door windows pane, banging and trying with all of her might to break through and return to the flower-filled garden.
*Bang*, *Bang*, *Bang*.
Over and over again, she tried to break through the glass. The same result. She couldn’t escape. There was nothing that she was going to be able to do to break through that glass door window pane. That’s when it struck me. That was what I was doing with the gynaecological medical field. I was continually following the path of painkillers, drugs and surgery but still not getting better. Metaphorically speaking, just like the bumblebee, I was banging my head off of the medical glass, time and time again and expecting a different result.
What did I expect? As the famous quote by Albert Einstein goes: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results”. And I felt that I was going to go insane if I continued on this same pathway. Wanting to help, I stood up and with my book, I gently guided her, to the right and towards the open doorway from which she had originally entered and out into the garden she flew.
Like the bumblebee had done, I needed to take a different route. Go to the ‘right’. Think ‘outside the box’. Something had to change and I realised the only person that could make that happen was me! Metaphorically speaking, I had to quit flying into the impassable window and instead fly out the open door right next to me. And so, with this observation, I recognised that my only option out of pain was to try something different and that meant abandoning the mainstream gynaecological medical approach that was making me sicker.
I Cut My Finger Story
The story of how I cut my finger is really quite straightforward. I cut my finger, and over the coming hours and subsequent days, I noticed it healing. The cut was firstly clotted and stopped bleeding, then a scab formed, and the surrounding area became slightly pink. Within a week the scab was peeling and another week later, the new skin underneath showed little sign of once being lacerated. It was amazing. It brought my attention to a simple, yet undeniable fact. The body is always wanting to heal itself! You cannot actually consciously STOP the healing process even if you tried. Just like your heartbeat, you have no voluntary control over that incredible process.
When I cut my finger, my body almost instantly got to work on repairing it. So, I realised, if my body wasn’t healing, then something had to be stopping that natural process. And therefore, to heal, I had to figure out what was preventing or interfering with this innate process.
What makes you feel ‘out of your comfort zone?
How do you handle these types of situations?
I frequently feel out of my comfort zone before launching a new book or online program or approaching what I refer to as a new period of growth. This is where I have some desire to reach out to new people in new ways with new ideas but I can feel the inner conflict of wanting to expand, stretch and grow more personally and professionally but another part has the dreaded fear of failure or judgement.
I recognise this now for what it is and try my best to remain an ‘observer’ of the thoughts and feelings and not become them, or react to them, knowing that when I listen to the small voice within or journal or meditate on the subject, then I will be correctly guided.
I have learned to welcome those unpleasant feelings of fear and uncertainty and recognise that when I am out of my comfort zone something greater will appear beyond that. Keep that in my mind when you feel out of your comfort zone. It is something magical as you are about to grow and experience the world in new wonderful ways. I live by the phrase “Feel the fear and do it anyway” as Susan Jeffers said.
Journaling and meditation have been fantastic tools that I use daily to help me through such situations as well. They help to ground me to the here and now, to my feelings and thoughts and help me address anything that is troubling me subconsciously or playing in the back of my mind.
What is the next big goal or project for Heal Endometriosis Naturally - with Wendy K Laidlaw and how can someone get in contact with you?
The next big project is to train health care professionals and practitioners so that I can spread this endometriosis naturally message even further. It works well for me to help women individually but it really limits my ability to have the global impact I seek.
1 in 10 women are estimated to have endometriosis which is a huge number and I suspect the real figure is even higher. Look at it this way, most women have painful periods and are told that pain with a period is normal. But it is not normal to have pain with a period. So this is such a crucial message for the sake of billions of woman’s health and quality of life.
Related to this, I know my books are incredibly important as they are very accessible to a lot of women and a fantastic tool for information, education and inspiration for healing. Ultimately, I know of thousands of women who have put their endometriosis into remission just by reading and implementing the suggestions in my book ‘How I Ended My Endometriosis Naturally’ as it has everything you need in it to identify the root causes.
So, I am currently writing a few more books including my Endometriosis Naturally Cookbook with 131 Recipes (2nd Edition), Endometriosis Success Stories, Endometriosis Secrets and Embracing Emotions. I have some workbooks due out in 2022-2023 as well to help women be guided on a practical day to day steps they need to take to heal.
In the long run, my vision is to work with governments, schools and educational establishments to modernise the information and education about girls' and women’s bodies. I would also like to help the medical training organisations to modernise and revolutionalize the gynaecological field training and pioneer a simple blood test to help women get an earlier diagnosis, then natural options and avoid painkillers, drugs and invasive surgeries are like laparoscopies and hysterectomies so they are the exception and no longer the norm.
Ultimately my vision and intention are to empower, educate and inspire women to realise the power they have over their own bodies and to become a Boss of Endometriosis; an EndoBoss®!
You can learn more and download the FREE Top 5 Quick-Start Tips at https:// HealEndometriosisNaturally.com
