Table 4 Impacts of Endometriosis-Related Fatigue on Day-to-Day, Social, and Physical Activities

Quotation

Day-to-day activities

  “It makes it difficult to do normal things. Just taking care of my kids, getting them to school, making lunches, cleaning up, doing just normal everyday activities.”

  “So simply like going to the grocery store, I’ve skipped out on stuff like that. And like, ‘Oh, I’ll wait till tomorrow,’ just because of how bad I’m feeling. It can be simple things.”

  “I go to bed with the kitchen a mess because I’m tired and normally I don’t do that. I like to wake up with a kitchen clean.”

  “Well if I needed to do laundry on that day, during that period, it probably wouldn’t get done.”

 “I won’t even be able to take a shower and brush my teeth.”

  “And I have to kind of like force myself and really psych myself up to, ‘Hey, the dishes ought to be done. Hey, the laundry has to be folded.’ And so that’s a battle too.”

Social activities

  “I’d rather stay at home than to go and be social.”

  “Every once in a while, if I have girlfriends that want to get together and socializing in the evenings, I’ll skip on that to go to bed because I’m tired.”

  “I don’t schedule anything [during my period]. I try to pinpoint my period. If I know it’s coming close, I don’t schedule anything.”

  “If I have something going on that can be canceled, you better believe, it gets canceled.”

  “I don’t do anything. I will sit at home. I don’t really even go to church with this. I don’t feel like doing nothing.”

  “I’ve spent so many years of my life trying to plan anniversary trips or family vacations around my period because I’m so miserable.”

  “I just don’t want to be around people because I don’t want to go off the crazy end, so I try to avoid social encounters.”

Physical activities

  “I don’t have energy to work out. I try to work out 2 to 3 days a week, and I don’t have energy for that. I don’t do anything physical.”

  “I’m not as motivated to go to the gym to work out.”

  “I just feel so bad today that I’m not going to work out. Like I’ve gone a week without working out because my cycle’s about to come and I’m just feeling really bad.”

  “I have a dog. Sometimes I don’t want to go for a long walk because I just can’t do it today.”

  “Well, I do not want to run. I typically run after my shift with my partner for a little while before I go home. And on days where I’m exhausted from my period, I’m like I tap out.”

  “It keeps me on the sofa instead of [being active] … because really I’m an active person. I like hiking and cycling, and I don’t get many opportunities to get out because of my work schedule, and so when I miss that opportunity because I’m just feeling tired and bummed, that’s what it mostly impacts.”