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Table 5 Impacts of Endometriosis-Related Fatigue on Mood and Emotions, Relationships With Family/Partner, and Work/School

From: Patients’ perspectives of endometriosis-related fatigue: qualitative interviews

Quotation

Mood and emotions

  “I would say I’m a little more depressed during my period. A little bit more emotional. More sensitive.”

  “I think fatigue, typically when I’m tired, I’m grouchy.”

  “It almost makes me feel like something’s a big deal when it’s not. You can’t just like let something go. It irritates you.”

  “[When fatigued, I am] Short tempered, irritable, less understanding and patient.”

  “It’s more just kind of feeling disappointed because you can’t do as much as you want to do.”

Relationships with family or partner

  “Well I decide not to take my children to play with friends or that type of a thing.”

  “Sometimes I don’t want to get up and do things with my kids or take them places.”

  “And as far as my husband, I probably just am not around him as much. I just go to my room and watch TV in my bed.”

  “When I am at home, I’m not as interactive and playful with my kids. My husband takes more of the responsibility instead of me helping out as much as I would be.”

  “I feel like I’m failing my kids partly like at school just because I’m like, ‘You have this due.’ And it’s one of those reminders that like I can tell myself 12 times, write it down on the calendar, and I just feel like I’m so tired that I’m forgetting until it like clicks again, oh that’s right.”

  “Our sex life sometimes sucks. Because I’m just like, ‘I don’t feel like it.’”

Work or school

  “There are days where I modify my activities, meaning I may have had plans to go install cabinets [for work] on a certain day and I might end up staying back and working in the office instead.”

  “Like mental capacity. Like you just can’t, you’re not focusing as well. I’m not focusing as well because I can tell that I’m just tired. So … my mentality for that day will be like, ‘I just need to get home. I just need to get through this day.’ So productivity goes down, overall attitude is down, and then level of focus.”

  “On those bad days when I’m at work, it’s hard to focus during those days, and so I would say sometimes I do leave the office early because I’m useless.”

  “There have been days where I’ll stay home. I don’t go to work.”