Halsey gives emotional speech about the pain of endometriosis: 'Keep f****** fighting'

Halsey delivered an emotional speech about her battle with endometriosis at The Endometriosis Foundation's 2018 Blossom Ball.

The singer, whose real name is Ashley Nicolette Frangipane accepted The Blossom Award at the ceremony and delivered powerful words about her painful journey with endometriosis.

Halsey teared up as she described how her miscarriage before a Chicago concert at The Vic Theatre resulted in an endometriosis diagnosis.

"I didn't even know I was pregnant and I had a miscarriage and I remember laying in a bed in a hotel room with a towel between my legs, bleeding and staring at my very young, very scared, very male managers who had no idea what was going on and I remember them looking at me and saying, 'I mean, it’s 33 million impressions, this concert is kind of a big deal,'" she says.

She made a choice saying, "I took a Percocet and put on an adult incontinence diaper and I wore a long t-shirt that would cover it and I got on stage and I performed in front of about 1,200 screaming teenage girls."

"It was in that moment that I realised that part of being a woman and dealing with reproductive health is being treated like you’re not a human, is being treated like you’re a robot and you’re supposed to wake up everyday and get over it," she added.

She went to Planned Parenthood where she found out that she had endometriosis.

Halsey said she felt like "less of a woman because I couldn't be intimate with my boyfriend, because I couldn't go out when my friends wanted me to, because I was dealing with digestion problems and bleeding problems and fainting."

She added, "It was really hard to feel like that confident, 20-something year old girl who wanted to get on the stage with her middle finger held high and make everyone sing along with her.”

Halsey further explained that reproductive issues are often considered taboo and addressed the need to keep their menstrual cycles hidden.

"I didn't know what was going on when I got my diagnosis and I had spent a lifetime tucking my tampons into the sleeve of my sweatshirt when I would go to the bathroom, god forbid anybody knew that I was menstruating because it was like the most shameful thing of all time," she said.

Halsey concluded, "Keep talking to your friends, keep supporting your loved ones, to the women in your life, make sure that they don’t feel ashamed to talk about their reproductive rights, to talk about their reproductive experiences, because the only way for this - for us to gain control of this - is to speak about it. I am so honoured to be here and to be supporting my endo sisters in the room, around the world, I can’t thank you guys enough. Keep f****** fighting."

Halsey read a moving poem at the Women's March in New York in January, which was heard around the world.