Actor's 17-year endometriosis battle reveals NHS 'medical gaslighting' crisis

Daneka Etchells was twelve when her body told her something was wrong. Her periods arrived heavy and brutal, accompanied by pain that made her wince. Her friends seemed fine. She was not. When she went to her doctor, she received the pill—a standard answer to a problem that the pill could not solve. She kept returning. The doctors kept offering variations on the same response. Nothing changed except that the years accumulated, and the condition inside her grew.

For seventeen years, Etchells moved through the NHS seeking answers. She was experiencing endometriosis, a condition that affects one in ten women, though no one told her that for a very long time. The disease was growing on her nerves and ligaments, spreading across the structures that connected her legs to her spine. By the time a female GP finally listened—really listened—and referred her to a gynaecologist, the damage had calcified. The endometriosis had been growing unchecked for so long that it had caused permanent nerve damage. Etchells now lives with chronic pain and uses a mobility aid to move through the world.

What she experienced, she told the BBC, was medical gaslighting: the systematic dismissal of her concerns by professionals who should have taken her seriously. The term describes a particular kind of harm—not a misdiagnosis, but a refusal to believe the patient's own account of their body. Etchells is neurodivergent, and her case took longer than the average nine years it takes most women to receive an endometriosis diagnosis. The delay cost her. She was performing at Shakespeare's Globe, one of the most prestigious theatres in London, when she realized her body could no longer sustain the work. She was using a walking stick constantly. She could barely climb stairs. The pain was so severe, the fatigue so complete, that she eventually could not leave her house for months. She took six months off work. Then she made a decision: she would pay for private surgery herself.

Etchells saved money, borrowed from friends, and launched a GoFundMe campaign. She negotiated with the surgeon's secretary for a better rate. She underwent excision surgery to remove the lesions. The procedure brought relief—she felt lighter afterward—but it could not undo what had already happened. The permanent nerve damage remained. The chronic pain remained. She returned to performing, but she carries the cost of those seventeen years in her body every day.

Now Etchells is on stage in a new adaptation of The Secret Garden, a production led by disabled artists that reimagines the classic story. The original novel, published 115 years ago, follows a young girl who discovers a locked garden and her disabled cousin Colin, hidden away in the house. In the traditional ending, Colin is miraculously cured—he walks, he runs, he is fixed. But playwright Tom Wentworth, who created this new version, rejected that narrative. Wentworth is queer and disabled. He spent long periods in bed as a child, much like Colin, but his life did not end in miraculous recovery. Instead, he rewrote the story so that Colin remains disabled but gains the language to advocate for himself, to be heard, to get what he needs.

Wentworth has his own experience of medical dismissal. He has cerebral palsy, and when he develops urological problems, doctors tend to attribute everything to his existing condition rather than investigating what is actually happening. He has filed complaints with his local Patient Advice and Liaison Service multiple times with mixed results. Through this new version of The Secret Garden, he is trying to teach young people to recognize when they are being gaslit and how to speak up for themselves.

Healthwatch England, which works with the NHS to improve patient experiences, confirms that what Etchells and Wentworth experienced is disturbingly common. The organization hears most frequently from young people, women, and LGBTQ+ individuals who report feeling unheard by healthcare professionals. Conditions like endometriosis and ADHD are particularly prone to diagnostic delay and dismissal. The Department of Health and Social Care has acknowledged medical gaslighting as a real barrier in its renewed Women's Health Strategy. The NHS has introduced Martha's Law, which allows patients to request rapid review if their condition is deteriorating. But systemic change—particularly in how the NHS handles patient complaints—has not yet arrived.

Etchells now sees a dedicated endometriosis team who listen to her. But the permanent damage remains. On days when she cannot take strong pain medication because of work, she has learned to do something that strikes her as darkly ironic: she medically gaslights herself. She tells herself the pain is not there. She performs through it. She has become expert at the very thing that harmed her.