02-06-2025
Doctors said their pain was 'in your head' for years, until this surgeon came along
When Adriana Veljanovski's kids were little, she remembers being in agony almost all the time.
"No matter where you went, you were constantly in pain," she said.
"You'd be at a kid's birthday party, smiling with everyone, and sometimes you'd turn around the corner and just be like, 'oh my God', and duck down for a bit and think, 'I'm in so much pain'.
"Then you'd just come back out and get on with it. I lived with a hot water bottle 24/7, I didn't know what else to do."
By this point, the woman from the NSW Illawarra region - who is now 45 - had lived with excruciating pelvic pain for decades, and had been told by multiple doctors there was nothing that could be done.
"I had pelvic pain as far as I can remember, and I also had discolouration in my legs and swelling," she said.
"I had that from a young girl up until an adult, but the pain kept getting worse and I wasn't able to run like everyone else, I wasn't able to go up stairs and I was always short of breath."
"I used to go to the doctors and they would try to help me but couldn't figure out what was going on," Ms Veljanovski said.
"It got to a point in my late 20s where I was in pain 24/7.
"We'd go back to the doctors to try again, but sometimes they would say 'it could be in your mind', and that's where you start thinking, 'am I crazy?'.
"I've called ambulances because the pain was so intense, and they couldn't see anything.
"They just said, 'Oh, you got a pooling of blood, it may be just your periods'."
One day she couldn't see her usual doctor, so went to another GP for an assessment.
"I broke down and I said to her, I'm in pain 24/7, the pain is so intense I can't even get out of bed," she said.
"I said to her, 'I feel like I'm going insane, everyone's trying to help us, but no one can find the answer'.
"So she sat there quietly and went through my whole record and she turned around and said to me, I think you've got May-Thurner Syndrome."
Also known as iliac vein compression, this meant the major line that carried blood from her left leg back to the heart was completely closed, and her body had been making new blood vessels to do its job.
"It was so compressed, the blood was pooling and I had internal bleeding," she said.
Immediately, she was referred to pioneering Wollongong surgeon Dr Laurencia Villalba.
"I was booked straight away in for surgery," Ms Veljanovski said, who was 37 when she finally got treatment.
"I've jogged for the first time, I can go up and down stairs with no problems. And there's no pain. None at all."
The treatment Ms Veljanovski received was a relatively simple stent, like the ones used to treat blocked arteries in heart surgery.
Now, a new paper co-authored by Dr Villalba and Associate Professor Theresa Larkin has confirmed the remarkable success rate of the minimally invasive procedure.
The two University of Wollongong researchers have detailed their findings - which involves putting a balloon or stent inside the vein to fix the blockage - provided significant and sustained relief for close to 100 per cent of patients.
Dr Villalba said the results were astounding and offered hope to those suffering from chronic pelvic pain.
"Women who once struggled to sit, work, exercise, have intercourse, who experienced immense pain on a daily basis, have been given back their lives and their freedom," she said.
"We have followed these patients for almost a decade now and have observed long-term benefit, meaning the pain did not come back."
Chronic pelvic pain affects up to 25 per cent of women of reproductive age and nearly half of Australian women at some point in their lives. Dr Villalba's patients had Pelvic Congestion Syndrome (varicose veins in the pelvis), which is increasingly being recognised as a main contributor to chronic pelvic pain - with some research attributing a third of cases to it.
She said women often suffered in silence, dismissed by medical professionals or discouraged by their experiences attempting to seek help.
"There is a widespread misconception that pelvic pain is normal. It is extremely common, but that does not mean it is normal," Associate Professor Villalba said.
"Pelvic pain of 'venous origin' is not commonly investigated, leaving up to a third of patients underdiagnosed and undertreated, and depriving them of the opportunity to live life with their full potential.
"It is not uncommon for me to hear women who have been told 'It is all in your head', or 'You need to learn to live with the pain', when doctors can't find a reason for the pain."
The study focused on 113 women, aged between 17 and 88, who underwent the procedure. Some had been suffering from pelvic pain for up to 25 years, with an average of seven years.
When Kasey started suffering excruciating pelvic pain in her 40s, she was sent home from multiple GPs and specialists with little more than Panadol and a dismissive attitude.
"I got told, even through specialists, that it was all in my head," the Wollongong woman said.
"The pain was excruciating all down in my pelvic area. It was debilitating.
"I was in and out of doctors and specialists and they blamed it on endometriosis, and then I was in and out of hospital, and they'd just give you pain relief and then it comes back again."
"I had pain for two years before I knew what it was. Sometimes I couldn't sit, I couldn't stand."
Finally, one GP took her seriously and suggested she have an internal ultrasound while her symptoms were flaring up.
Like Ms Veljanovski she had May-Thurner Syndrome and an almost completely compressed left iliac vein.
"That explained why I was pretty much lethargic and tired, and every time I'd do exercise, I would have to sleep for three hours," Kasey said.
"I just had no energy whatsoever."
She said Dr Villalba's surgery changed her life.
"That was just a game changer for me," Kasey said.
"She pretty much saved my life.
"I remember waking up from the surgery and immediately saying, 'Oh my God, I can breathe, the pain is gone' and Dr Villalba said "You're not the only patient that has said that".
Happily for Ms Veljanovski, her treatment has also meant her daughter - who, like her mother, started showing symptoms of pelvic congestion when she was young - won't have to live with years of pain.
"When she wasn't as active when she gave up ballet, she had the same symptoms - dizzy, her legs would start swelling, she wasn't feeling well, she had severe stomach pains," Ms Veljanovski said.
"But she's lucky hers wasn't compressed, and now Dr Villalba is monitoring her as well.
"Because this condition is starting to become more well-known, and we've caught it beforehand, that means she can exercise, monitor it and get her scans done and she might not even need the stent in."
When Adriana Veljanovski's kids were little, she remembers being in agony almost all the time.
"No matter where you went, you were constantly in pain," she said.
"You'd be at a kid's birthday party, smiling with everyone, and sometimes you'd turn around the corner and just be like, 'oh my God', and duck down for a bit and think, 'I'm in so much pain'.
"Then you'd just come back out and get on with it. I lived with a hot water bottle 24/7, I didn't know what else to do."
By this point, the woman from the NSW Illawarra region - who is now 45 - had lived with excruciating pelvic pain for decades, and had been told by multiple doctors there was nothing that could be done.
"I had pelvic pain as far as I can remember, and I also had discolouration in my legs and swelling," she said.
"I had that from a young girl up until an adult, but the pain kept getting worse and I wasn't able to run like everyone else, I wasn't able to go up stairs and I was always short of breath."
"I used to go to the doctors and they would try to help me but couldn't figure out what was going on," Ms Veljanovski said.
"It got to a point in my late 20s where I was in pain 24/7.
"We'd go back to the doctors to try again, but sometimes they would say 'it could be in your mind', and that's where you start thinking, 'am I crazy?'.
"I've called ambulances because the pain was so intense, and they couldn't see anything.
"They just said, 'Oh, you got a pooling of blood, it may be just your periods'."
One day she couldn't see her usual doctor, so went to another GP for an assessment.
"I broke down and I said to her, I'm in pain 24/7, the pain is so intense I can't even get out of bed," she said.
"I said to her, 'I feel like I'm going insane, everyone's trying to help us, but no one can find the answer'.
"So she sat there quietly and went through my whole record and she turned around and said to me, I think you've got May-Thurner Syndrome."
Also known as iliac vein compression, this meant the major line that carried blood from her left leg back to the heart was completely closed, and her body had been making new blood vessels to do its job.
"It was so compressed, the blood was pooling and I had internal bleeding," she said.
Immediately, she was referred to pioneering Wollongong surgeon Dr Laurencia Villalba.
"I was booked straight away in for surgery," Ms Veljanovski said, who was 37 when she finally got treatment.
"I've jogged for the first time, I can go up and down stairs with no problems. And there's no pain. None at all."
The treatment Ms Veljanovski received was a relatively simple stent, like the ones used to treat blocked arteries in heart surgery.
Now, a new paper co-authored by Dr Villalba and Associate Professor Theresa Larkin has confirmed the remarkable success rate of the minimally invasive procedure.
The two University of Wollongong researchers have detailed their findings - which involves putting a balloon or stent inside the vein to fix the blockage - provided significant and sustained relief for close to 100 per cent of patients.
Dr Villalba said the results were astounding and offered hope to those suffering from chronic pelvic pain.
"Women who once struggled to sit, work, exercise, have intercourse, who experienced immense pain on a daily basis, have been given back their lives and their freedom," she said.
"We have followed these patients for almost a decade now and have observed long-term benefit, meaning the pain did not come back."
Chronic pelvic pain affects up to 25 per cent of women of reproductive age and nearly half of Australian women at some point in their lives. Dr Villalba's patients had Pelvic Congestion Syndrome (varicose veins in the pelvis), which is increasingly being recognised as a main contributor to chronic pelvic pain - with some research attributing a third of cases to it.
She said women often suffered in silence, dismissed by medical professionals or discouraged by their experiences attempting to seek help.
"There is a widespread misconception that pelvic pain is normal. It is extremely common, but that does not mean it is normal," Associate Professor Villalba said.
"Pelvic pain of 'venous origin' is not commonly investigated, leaving up to a third of patients underdiagnosed and undertreated, and depriving them of the opportunity to live life with their full potential.
"It is not uncommon for me to hear women who have been told 'It is all in your head', or 'You need to learn to live with the pain', when doctors can't find a reason for the pain."
The study focused on 113 women, aged between 17 and 88, who underwent the procedure. Some had been suffering from pelvic pain for up to 25 years, with an average of seven years.
When Kasey started suffering excruciating pelvic pain in her 40s, she was sent home from multiple GPs and specialists with little more than Panadol and a dismissive attitude.
"I got told, even through specialists, that it was all in my head," the Wollongong woman said.
"The pain was excruciating all down in my pelvic area. It was debilitating.
"I was in and out of doctors and specialists and they blamed it on endometriosis, and then I was in and out of hospital, and they'd just give you pain relief and then it comes back again."
"I had pain for two years before I knew what it was. Sometimes I couldn't sit, I couldn't stand."
Finally, one GP took her seriously and suggested she have an internal ultrasound while her symptoms were flaring up.
Like Ms Veljanovski she had May-Thurner Syndrome and an almost completely compressed left iliac vein.
"That explained why I was pretty much lethargic and tired, and every time I'd do exercise, I would have to sleep for three hours," Kasey said.
"I just had no energy whatsoever."
She said Dr Villalba's surgery changed her life.
"That was just a game changer for me," Kasey said.
"She pretty much saved my life.
"I remember waking up from the surgery and immediately saying, 'Oh my God, I can breathe, the pain is gone' and Dr Villalba said "You're not the only patient that has said that".
Happily for Ms Veljanovski, her treatment has also meant her daughter - who, like her mother, started showing symptoms of pelvic congestion when she was young - won't have to live with years of pain.
"When she wasn't as active when she gave up ballet, she had the same symptoms - dizzy, her legs would start swelling, she wasn't feeling well, she had severe stomach pains," Ms Veljanovski said.
"But she's lucky hers wasn't compressed, and now Dr Villalba is monitoring her as well.
"Because this condition is starting to become more well-known, and we've caught it beforehand, that means she can exercise, monitor it and get her scans done and she might not even need the stent in."
When Adriana Veljanovski's kids were little, she remembers being in agony almost all the time.
"No matter where you went, you were constantly in pain," she said.
"You'd be at a kid's birthday party, smiling with everyone, and sometimes you'd turn around the corner and just be like, 'oh my God', and duck down for a bit and think, 'I'm in so much pain'.
"Then you'd just come back out and get on with it. I lived with a hot water bottle 24/7, I didn't know what else to do."
By this point, the woman from the NSW Illawarra region - who is now 45 - had lived with excruciating pelvic pain for decades, and had been told by multiple doctors there was nothing that could be done.
"I had pelvic pain as far as I can remember, and I also had discolouration in my legs and swelling," she said.
"I had that from a young girl up until an adult, but the pain kept getting worse and I wasn't able to run like everyone else, I wasn't able to go up stairs and I was always short of breath."
"I used to go to the doctors and they would try to help me but couldn't figure out what was going on," Ms Veljanovski said.
"It got to a point in my late 20s where I was in pain 24/7.
"We'd go back to the doctors to try again, but sometimes they would say 'it could be in your mind', and that's where you start thinking, 'am I crazy?'.
"I've called ambulances because the pain was so intense, and they couldn't see anything.
"They just said, 'Oh, you got a pooling of blood, it may be just your periods'."
One day she couldn't see her usual doctor, so went to another GP for an assessment.
"I broke down and I said to her, I'm in pain 24/7, the pain is so intense I can't even get out of bed," she said.
"I said to her, 'I feel like I'm going insane, everyone's trying to help us, but no one can find the answer'.
"So she sat there quietly and went through my whole record and she turned around and said to me, I think you've got May-Thurner Syndrome."
Also known as iliac vein compression, this meant the major line that carried blood from her left leg back to the heart was completely closed, and her body had been making new blood vessels to do its job.
"It was so compressed, the blood was pooling and I had internal bleeding," she said.
Immediately, she was referred to pioneering Wollongong surgeon Dr Laurencia Villalba.
"I was booked straight away in for surgery," Ms Veljanovski said, who was 37 when she finally got treatment.
"I've jogged for the first time, I can go up and down stairs with no problems. And there's no pain. None at all."
The treatment Ms Veljanovski received was a relatively simple stent, like the ones used to treat blocked arteries in heart surgery.
Now, a new paper co-authored by Dr Villalba and Associate Professor Theresa Larkin has confirmed the remarkable success rate of the minimally invasive procedure.
The two University of Wollongong researchers have detailed their findings - which involves putting a balloon or stent inside the vein to fix the blockage - provided significant and sustained relief for close to 100 per cent of patients.
Dr Villalba said the results were astounding and offered hope to those suffering from chronic pelvic pain.
"Women who once struggled to sit, work, exercise, have intercourse, who experienced immense pain on a daily basis, have been given back their lives and their freedom," she said.
"We have followed these patients for almost a decade now and have observed long-term benefit, meaning the pain did not come back."
Chronic pelvic pain affects up to 25 per cent of women of reproductive age and nearly half of Australian women at some point in their lives. Dr Villalba's patients had Pelvic Congestion Syndrome (varicose veins in the pelvis), which is increasingly being recognised as a main contributor to chronic pelvic pain - with some research attributing a third of cases to it.
She said women often suffered in silence, dismissed by medical professionals or discouraged by their experiences attempting to seek help.
"There is a widespread misconception that pelvic pain is normal. It is extremely common, but that does not mean it is normal," Associate Professor Villalba said.
"Pelvic pain of 'venous origin' is not commonly investigated, leaving up to a third of patients underdiagnosed and undertreated, and depriving them of the opportunity to live life with their full potential.
"It is not uncommon for me to hear women who have been told 'It is all in your head', or 'You need to learn to live with the pain', when doctors can't find a reason for the pain."
The study focused on 113 women, aged between 17 and 88, who underwent the procedure. Some had been suffering from pelvic pain for up to 25 years, with an average of seven years.
When Kasey started suffering excruciating pelvic pain in her 40s, she was sent home from multiple GPs and specialists with little more than Panadol and a dismissive attitude.
"I got told, even through specialists, that it was all in my head," the Wollongong woman said.
"The pain was excruciating all down in my pelvic area. It was debilitating.
"I was in and out of doctors and specialists and they blamed it on endometriosis, and then I was in and out of hospital, and they'd just give you pain relief and then it comes back again."
"I had pain for two years before I knew what it was. Sometimes I couldn't sit, I couldn't stand."
Finally, one GP took her seriously and suggested she have an internal ultrasound while her symptoms were flaring up.
Like Ms Veljanovski she had May-Thurner Syndrome and an almost completely compressed left iliac vein.
"That explained why I was pretty much lethargic and tired, and every time I'd do exercise, I would have to sleep for three hours," Kasey said.
"I just had no energy whatsoever."
She said Dr Villalba's surgery changed her life.
"That was just a game changer for me," Kasey said.
"She pretty much saved my life.
"I remember waking up from the surgery and immediately saying, 'Oh my God, I can breathe, the pain is gone' and Dr Villalba said "You're not the only patient that has said that".
Happily for Ms Veljanovski, her treatment has also meant her daughter - who, like her mother, started showing symptoms of pelvic congestion when she was young - won't have to live with years of pain.
"When she wasn't as active when she gave up ballet, she had the same symptoms - dizzy, her legs would start swelling, she wasn't feeling well, she had severe stomach pains," Ms Veljanovski said.
"But she's lucky hers wasn't compressed, and now Dr Villalba is monitoring her as well.
"Because this condition is starting to become more well-known, and we've caught it beforehand, that means she can exercise, monitor it and get her scans done and she might not even need the stent in."
When Adriana Veljanovski's kids were little, she remembers being in agony almost all the time.
"No matter where you went, you were constantly in pain," she said.
"You'd be at a kid's birthday party, smiling with everyone, and sometimes you'd turn around the corner and just be like, 'oh my God', and duck down for a bit and think, 'I'm in so much pain'.
"Then you'd just come back out and get on with it. I lived with a hot water bottle 24/7, I didn't know what else to do."
By this point, the woman from the NSW Illawarra region - who is now 45 - had lived with excruciating pelvic pain for decades, and had been told by multiple doctors there was nothing that could be done.
"I had pelvic pain as far as I can remember, and I also had discolouration in my legs and swelling," she said.
"I had that from a young girl up until an adult, but the pain kept getting worse and I wasn't able to run like everyone else, I wasn't able to go up stairs and I was always short of breath."
"I used to go to the doctors and they would try to help me but couldn't figure out what was going on," Ms Veljanovski said.
"It got to a point in my late 20s where I was in pain 24/7.
"We'd go back to the doctors to try again, but sometimes they would say 'it could be in your mind', and that's where you start thinking, 'am I crazy?'.
"I've called ambulances because the pain was so intense, and they couldn't see anything.
"They just said, 'Oh, you got a pooling of blood, it may be just your periods'."
One day she couldn't see her usual doctor, so went to another GP for an assessment.
"I broke down and I said to her, I'm in pain 24/7, the pain is so intense I can't even get out of bed," she said.
"I said to her, 'I feel like I'm going insane, everyone's trying to help us, but no one can find the answer'.
"So she sat there quietly and went through my whole record and she turned around and said to me, I think you've got May-Thurner Syndrome."
Also known as iliac vein compression, this meant the major line that carried blood from her left leg back to the heart was completely closed, and her body had been making new blood vessels to do its job.
"It was so compressed, the blood was pooling and I had internal bleeding," she said.
Immediately, she was referred to pioneering Wollongong surgeon Dr Laurencia Villalba.
"I was booked straight away in for surgery," Ms Veljanovski said, who was 37 when she finally got treatment.
"I've jogged for the first time, I can go up and down stairs with no problems. And there's no pain. None at all."
The treatment Ms Veljanovski received was a relatively simple stent, like the ones used to treat blocked arteries in heart surgery.
Now, a new paper co-authored by Dr Villalba and Associate Professor Theresa Larkin has confirmed the remarkable success rate of the minimally invasive procedure.
The two University of Wollongong researchers have detailed their findings - which involves putting a balloon or stent inside the vein to fix the blockage - provided significant and sustained relief for close to 100 per cent of patients.
Dr Villalba said the results were astounding and offered hope to those suffering from chronic pelvic pain.
"Women who once struggled to sit, work, exercise, have intercourse, who experienced immense pain on a daily basis, have been given back their lives and their freedom," she said.
"We have followed these patients for almost a decade now and have observed long-term benefit, meaning the pain did not come back."
Chronic pelvic pain affects up to 25 per cent of women of reproductive age and nearly half of Australian women at some point in their lives. Dr Villalba's patients had Pelvic Congestion Syndrome (varicose veins in the pelvis), which is increasingly being recognised as a main contributor to chronic pelvic pain - with some research attributing a third of cases to it.
She said women often suffered in silence, dismissed by medical professionals or discouraged by their experiences attempting to seek help.
"There is a widespread misconception that pelvic pain is normal. It is extremely common, but that does not mean it is normal," Associate Professor Villalba said.
"Pelvic pain of 'venous origin' is not commonly investigated, leaving up to a third of patients underdiagnosed and undertreated, and depriving them of the opportunity to live life with their full potential.
"It is not uncommon for me to hear women who have been told 'It is all in your head', or 'You need to learn to live with the pain', when doctors can't find a reason for the pain."
The study focused on 113 women, aged between 17 and 88, who underwent the procedure. Some had been suffering from pelvic pain for up to 25 years, with an average of seven years.
When Kasey started suffering excruciating pelvic pain in her 40s, she was sent home from multiple GPs and specialists with little more than Panadol and a dismissive attitude.
"I got told, even through specialists, that it was all in my head," the Wollongong woman said.
"The pain was excruciating all down in my pelvic area. It was debilitating.
"I was in and out of doctors and specialists and they blamed it on endometriosis, and then I was in and out of hospital, and they'd just give you pain relief and then it comes back again."
"I had pain for two years before I knew what it was. Sometimes I couldn't sit, I couldn't stand."
Finally, one GP took her seriously and suggested she have an internal ultrasound while her symptoms were flaring up.
Like Ms Veljanovski she had May-Thurner Syndrome and an almost completely compressed left iliac vein.
"That explained why I was pretty much lethargic and tired, and every time I'd do exercise, I would have to sleep for three hours," Kasey said.
"I just had no energy whatsoever."
She said Dr Villalba's surgery changed her life.
"That was just a game changer for me," Kasey said.
"She pretty much saved my life.
"I remember waking up from the surgery and immediately saying, 'Oh my God, I can breathe, the pain is gone' and Dr Villalba said "You're not the only patient that has said that".
Happily for Ms Veljanovski, her treatment has also meant her daughter - who, like her mother, started showing symptoms of pelvic congestion when she was young - won't have to live with years of pain.
"When she wasn't as active when she gave up ballet, she had the same symptoms - dizzy, her legs would start swelling, she wasn't feeling well, she had severe stomach pains," Ms Veljanovski said.
"But she's lucky hers wasn't compressed, and now Dr Villalba is monitoring her as well.
"Because this condition is starting to become more well-known, and we've caught it beforehand, that means she can exercise, monitor it and get her scans done and she might not even need the stent in."
