Steve Irwin's daughter has 'second chance at life' after 10 year health battle
Bindi Irwin, the daughter of late conservationist and TV star Steve Irwin, has opened up about undergoing surgery that she says has given her a "second chance at life" following a decade of pain.
The 25-year-old Australian television personality, conservationist, zookeeper and actress lived with “insurmountable fatigue, pain & nausea” for 10 years while living with endometriosis - a medical condition that the NHS describes as being “where tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows in other places, such as the ovaries and fallopian tubes”. Bindi - who has been married to professional wakeboarder Chandler Powell since 2020 and they welcomed a daughter named Grace in 2021 - had struggled to find doctors that would accurately diagnose her condition meaning she spent a decade living in pain.
She has now undergone surgery to correct the condition, and now says she is experiencing life on a whole new level. She told Fox News Digital: "My life now looks completely different than it did before I had my surgery.
“Over the 10 years that I was really battling with endometriosis without knowing it, I would get progressively worse every week and in the end, before my surgery, I was barely able to get out of bed. And now on the other side of surgery, I mean, I'm going for daily zoo walks with my family.
Bindi Irwin has opened up about her decade-long health battle - and surgery that has helped her (@bindisueirwin/Instagram)
Bindi and her husband Chandler Powell share a daughter together (Chandler Powell/Instagram)"I'm able to go to our management meetings and check up on our animals and do the filming work that I love and play with my daughter. And it is just so wonderful. I feel like I see the world in a new way now. I'm able to actually do things again. It does feel like a second chance at life."
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Her interview with Fox came after Bindi posted a detailed account of her ordeal via Instagram. Sharing a snap of herself recovering in a hospital bed with a smile on her face, she wrote: “For 10yrs I’ve struggled with insurmountable fatigue, pain & nausea. Trying to remain a positive person & hide the pain has been a very long road. These last 10yrs have included many tests, doctors visits, scans, etc.
“A doctor told me it was simply something you deal with as a woman & I gave up entirely, trying to function through the pain. I didn’t find answers until a friend @lesliemosier helped set me on a path of regaining my life. I decided to undergo surgery for endometriosis. Going in for surgery was scary but I knew I couldn’t live like I was. Every part of my life was getting torn apart because of the pain.
“To cut a long story short, they found 37 lesions, some very deep & difficult to remove, & a chocolate cyst. @seckinmd’s first words to me when I was in recovery were, ‘How did you live with this much pain?’ Validation for years of pain is indescribable. My family & friends who have been on this journey with me for 10+ yrs - THANK YOU, for encouraging me to find answers when I thought I’d never climb out. Thank you to the doctors & nurses who believed my pain. I’m on the road to recovery & the gratitude I feel is overwhelming.”
She urged other women who fear they are suffering from the condition to keep asking questions and seek out answers - while also begged the wider public not to ask her when she will be having more children, warning this would be insensitive to her and others who had been through her ordeal. Bindi's father was world famous 'crocodile hunter' Steve Irwin who died in 2006 aged 44 after he was fatally injured by a stingray.
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