Table 2 Participant Descriptions and Reported Bothersomeness of Endometriosis-Related Fatigue

Quotation

Participant descriptions

  “Like somebody completely drained your energy out of you. And it’s really hard to like function and complete your daily tasks as you normally would if it wasn’t that time of the month.”

  “The best way I guess I could describe it is, I guess it’s, when you’re pregnant and you’re sleepy and you’re tired. It just comes on like that.”

  “Lethargic, more just tired, I mean just feeling drained. No mental clarity.”

  “You just feel really sleepy and tired and run-down.”

  It’s mental fatigue, it’s physical exhaustion, and especially the first day or two I come home, I need to take a nap. I’m just spent. And so it seems like I can’t get enough sleep.”

Participant-reported bothersomeness

  “Extremely bothersome. It’s curtailed my work, my social life, me wanting to get up and just do everyday things. It’s impacted my life in so many ways. The pain I can deal with, but the fatigue is what really doesn’t allow me to do the laundry, clean up, go run these errands, get out of bed, take a shower.”

  “Quite bothersome … But as you talk through like all the things that it affects, it’s like ‘This really sucks.’ I try not to think about it because you don’t want to get in a negative but it literally affects every part of my life in one way or another.”

  “I would say quite bothersome. If it’s something that stops you from doing what you’re doing. If it interrupts your daily activities, your daily routine, your plans, that’s quite bothersome.”

  “Extremely bothersome. Just not being able to do anything. I’m a go, go, go type person, and me having to shut my whole world down, it’s hard for me. And I’m thinking maybe it’s a way of saying I need to sit down and rest, but it bothers me a lot.”