British athlete Andrea Mason puts SA’s ‘period poverty’ and female reproductive matters in the spotlight

It’s a crisp morning at the Coetzenburg sports grounds in Stellenbosch, where Andrea Mason is speaking next to the university swimming pool, sipping rooibos tea. 

At 39 years old, Mason has a string of endurance titles including 10 Ironman challenges under her belt. Two weeks ago, she swam 35km across False Bay, followed by 360km by bicycle, and then a 2,335m climb up Seweweekspoort Peak, the highest point in the Western Cape. 

What does she think of while practically submerged in seawater for more than 10 hours?

Mason laughs. “I sing a lot,” she says. “I have a ridiculous jukebox in my head. I will think of a word, then find a song that has that word and sing it in my mind, but it’s really random.” 

Mason’s Western Cape challenge was one of many to drum up support for her charity called Lady Talk Matters, which raises awareness and money for women and girls struggling with reproductive issues around the world. The charity is busy negotiating with the Stellenbosch municipality to open an office in Kayamandi, where it will make and distribute reusable sanitary pads, free. 

Referring to her athletic feats, Mason says: “A pretty cool life. But what people don’t see are the hurdles I have faced along the way.” 

From an early age, Mason faced severe gynaecological — or “lady problems” – including endometriosis, only diagnosed and treated after 13 years, multiple fibroids and early-stage cervical cancer; all of which culminated in her having a full abdominal hysterectomy at 35.

“I always had problems when I was at school,” she says. “I would pass out in the middle of class; if I was swimming, sometimes I would end up blacking out in the middle of the pool and the lifeguards would have to jump in and get me. At the time, it was put down to me over-training because I would get up in the morning and swim for two hours before school; go to school and get picked up at lunch to go and train more, then go back to school, and swim again afterwards. Because people thought I was overtraining, I was sent to a sports psychologist.” 

The daughter of a British military officer, Mason attended 19 schools. Despite her strenuous athletic training as a teenager, inevitably during the week she was menstruating, her performance would falter. Finally, a gynaecologist diagnosed endometriosis, which, Mason says, affects one in 10 women — often unknown to them, as the severe associated period pains are commonly dismissed as “normal”. 

Four years after her hysterectomy, Mason founded Lady Talk Matters, through which she put female reproductive matters such as endometriosis and “period poverty” on the agenda.

“Is it fair that women are punished for natural processes that can ultimately lead to the creation of human life?” she says. “I think not.” 

Global network endometriosis.org echoes Mason’s statistic, estimating that one in 10 women worldwide suffers from endometriosis in their reproductive years, aged between 15 and 49. It describes the condition as tissue similar to the lining inside the uterus — called the endometrium — found outside the uterus, where it induces a chronic inflammatory reaction that may cause scar tissue.  

Symptoms include painful periods, painful ovulation, painful sexual intercourse, heavy bleeding and sometimes infertility. There is no cure, but through specialists, the condition can be managed.  

Famous women who have spoken out about having debilitating pain due to endometriosis include celebrity chef Padma Lakshmi, who has detailed how the condition placed pressure on her former marriage to author Salman Rushdie, and actress and producer Lena Dunham, who had a hysterectomy aged 31. 

Mason cautions that endometriosis experts do not consider a hysterectomy as a clear-cut solution: “Because, there are so many ladies who have a hysterectomy, and then three, four months, or six months down the line, they’ve still got a significant amount of pain, and then there’s no going back. So a hysterectomy is something that a lot of gynaecologists will try and avoid. They’ll rather try and manage the condition through giving you hormone treatment that effectively puts you into menopause, but temporarily, so you can always reverse it.” 

Mason’s next challenge later this year will be in the United Kingdom, where she will swim 66km (this is 1,320 Olympic pools), cycle 812km, run 42km, with a total climb of 3,402m, in five days. Again this will be a bid to attract donations for Lady Talk Matters.