Owala attended school, spent time with friends and helped her parents around the house. But during her period each month, she said, she experienced excruciating pain, vomiting, fever, lightheadedness, heavy bleeding, pelvic pain and acne.

Over time, Owala said, the pain was so severe that she struggled to breathe and passed out. She endured the pain without seeking medical help because she thought it was normal, and said it grew worse in her 20s. After years of suffering, at the age of 30, Owala finally went to see a gynecologist.Owala said she was told that she needed another surgery, but her recovery and insufficient insurance coverage made that difficult. While considering her options, she began researching alternative treatments, particularly after meeting a woman who told Owala that she’d undergone 13 operations.

Owala said she came to believe that surgery had treated a symptom, but not “the root cause” of her condition, which she said was a hormonal imbalance.

A different approach

Owala, whose husband is an exercise enthusiast, decided to take a page out of his playbook and hit the gym.

“I started working out just … for myself, really to get myself into good health,” she said.

She also changed her diet, cutting out sugar, vegetable and seed oils, and wheat. “It’s better to eat in a particular way that the body appreciates if you’re having a particular condition, so that is exactly what I did,” she explained.

With her new exercise routine and diet, Owala said she “sorted the root cause of the problem within four months.”

A return trip to the doctor and an ultrasound confirmed the cysts were gone.