A short 200-word essay for Endo India – Requested perspective
Photo By Marilyn Tuna – 2024 Perth Royal Hospital
It took me over a decade to be diagnosed, largely through my own rigorous research, using the limited credible information available while navigating the persistent taboo surrounding women’s health. Now, as a 41-year-old woman with a teenage daughter, I can see that, as a society, we have much to be thankful for in terms of changing attitudes and advocacy. However, we need medical professionals, researchers, along with the broader medical community to meet in the same space so that the progress we have made can truly take effect. We can no longer maintain an “us and them” mentality.
To date, I have undergone 13 surgical interventions, countless hospital admissions, and the loss of my fertility at age 36 due to a hysterectomy. I have also lost my business, my athletic career, and, for the past three years, my financial autonomy following serious spinal complications that left me significantly disabled for an extended period. In Australia, policy makers still fail to fully recognise endometriosis and the range of conditions that commonly coexist with it, such as EDS, hEDS, and POTS. As a result, those living with these conditions are forced to navigate an invisible, incurable illness while also remaining largely invisible within government and public health systems.
Now, at an age where pain has become part of me, years of suffering and dismissal have led to a radical realization: I can endure the pain, but the lack of empathy and meaningful policy hurts far more.
By Marilyn Tuna – Fremantle West Australia
Written for Endometriosis India
11/03/2026
Giddy up MFs – Fiona Stanley has a BIG DAY OUT ROOM
By Marilyn Tuna
What will 2026 bring us? admittedly I’m still a bit low key cooked from 2025.
With school holidays still very much employing most of my time, I find myself roaming from room to room wondering what fucken day it is , while wondering what direction I’m heading with my own artistic momentum or lack of atm, due to endless meals to cook, laundry to do and teenagers to wrangle.
With my residency ending at Fremantle Arts Center on the 31st of December I had landed myself a new more permanent space to spread my creative wings, PS Art Space – About – PS. Feeling rather out of my depth in this space as a ” try hard photographer and mix media artist ” surrounded by extremely talented legit painters who have welcomed me with open arms, a welcome energy that has inspired me to just ” do art that makes me happy ” , with yet another hospital visit just before my 41st birthday leaving me unable to walk due to an endo flare that could have rivaled an internal atomic bomb.
After an ambulance ride to hospital nurtured by an extremely nurturing young paramedic, incredibly empathetic about my long history with endo and spinal issues I welcomed her care, on arrival into the ED ramping I was swiftly placed in the waiting room in a wheelchair that caused me agony that is impossible to articulate. Again, I was met with a nurse who could see how much pain I was in, she snuck me into the ” sensory deprivation room ” me and my stepmother welcomed the new location but had us feeling confused yet incredibly thankful. We sat in the room wondering how to navigate this space. I can tell you after you have been pumped full of pain killers and the lights dimmed allowing the room to illuminate suddenly a deep feeling of nostalgia hit me, like that very first time you took a class drugs and saw chemical brothers play the Boiler Room at Big day out .. , A mix of complete wonder yet a touch of WTF IS GOING ON.
Then the come down began and I was transported back into the white halls of hell, shipped into a procedure room to deal with a plethora of young, tired doctors who as per usual insisted this was a lower back issue even though i looked 6 months pregnant and couldn’t walk. But sometimes when you are coming down you just can’t be fucked with cooked people talking shit, so you just smile and nod. My main concern was my titanium handwear in my lumbar spine, after an x-ray and an admission I started planning my escape.
The escape plan was in motion after seeing the physio, who had no idea why i still had absolutely no reflexes in my legs nut could manage to walk with a granny frame. Finaly, she decided i would be safe to leave under strict conditions, take walking frame home, have physio come to my home and don’t do anything stupid …. that i could not promise as the next day was my 41st birthday…
I found myself in the very location that has inspired desire lines, standing in front of a mirror in a hospital bathroom making fun of the situation as a whole.
The shirt my step mum had packed for me while the ambulance prepared me for hospital had been instrumental in my general attitude for the stay, with the words ” giddy up ” printed on the back .. my amusement was not wasted as I used the walking frame to get from A to B , with me wondering if onlookers thought I was ” taking the piss” and unfortunately, I was not.
After my escape from the white halls of hell, my mind would always wonder back to Desire Lines the project that had engulfed most of 2025 and what direction I would take it in for 2026 … And then came a lightbulb moment, use the images that I have printed to create mixed media works. Renewed with an injection of both artistic inspiration and whatever the doctors pumped into me, ” giddy up mother fuckers ” it’s time to SLOWLY roll forward.
So, the plan, there is no plan, and I feel that’s bloody good enough at this stage of the game. I would like to seek out some participants to pose for me in the studio again so if your keen id love to hear from you , because my art is really about you the people, the art form of connection and authenticity.
2026 …. giddy up we are on the ride now might as well enjoy it.
Words by Marilyn Tuna
07/01/2026
marilyntuna.art 