Bindi Irwin: 'Doctors told me endometriosis pain was all in my head!'

Bindi Irwin was told by doctors that the pain caused by her endometriosis was "all in [her] head".

The 24-year-old conservationist underwent explorative surgery last year after battling through more than a decade of pain and extreme fatigue with doctors finally concluding she was suffering from the agonising condition - which causes tissue similar to the lining of the uterus to grow in other places - and is just glad to be able to "laugh again", especially after medics had tried to write her symptoms off as "hormones".

Bindi - who is married to Chandler Powell and has four-year-old Grace with him - told Access Hollywood: "As time went on it hurt to laugh, and I didn’t want anyone to hug me because it hurt everywhere. It was so painful. After surgery as I’ve started to heal, it’s so nice because I can belly laugh again without wincing in pain. The world feels brighter, and it means to much to be able to laugh with my family again. To laugh with my daughter. It’s so special.

"Every day I would wake up and wonder how I was going to get up and take on the day.

"I think that’s something that we don’t talk about a lot. Endometriosis is unbelievably painful, but it can also feel very lonely. I was told by quite a few doctors that it’s hormones, it’s in your head and that feeling that it’s all made it, that my pain doesn’t exist that’s what eats away at you."

The 'Crikey! It's the Irwins' star - who is the daughter of the late 'Crocodile Hunter' star Steve Irwin - is now just grateful for the support of her family, who she says helped get her through the ordeal.

She said: "To be honest, my brother, my mum, my husband, my daughter, they are the people who got me through it. I kept going for them and kept looking for answers for them,” she said. “The gave me strength when I didn’t have my own."