Tayla Williams is a 23 years old netballer who grew up on a farm near Balaklava in the states mid north. Growing up in the country she was involved in any sport she could, playing everything from netball, basketball and tennis to calisthenics. Eventually she had to settle on committing to just one sport and by this stage netball had won the race. Tayla competed in underage state competitions for South Australia over many years and was successful in winning 3 gold medals at these tournaments. She has been a contracted athlete with the Adelaide Thunderbirds for two seasons now and most recently won the Suncorp Super Netball Premiership in 2023. Last year Tayla completed a Bachelor of Sport and Exercise Science and a Bachelor of Nutrition and Food Sciences and now currently works part time as a sport nutritionist. 

Growing up being involved in sports, she began to understand a little more about cycles and how important it was to be able to manage a period during sporting events. Over this time she began to seek more of an understanding of what was considered “normal” and what shouldn’t just be put up with. Determining what was normal and what wasn’t, was and still is, the most difficult part of managing cycles. Explaining pain or experiences with your cycle to coaches, support staff or even medical experts can be really challenging. Her experience with pain and voicing her concerns was always a struggle, and truthfully, still is a struggle at times. To have such a large part of your life, and often ability to perform impacted by a period at least once a month, can be physically and mentally debilitating, particular if you don’t know who to turn to, or if support staff don’t have the expertise in the area. 

It took Tayla a lot of years, 7 to be exact, which also happens to be the average time to achieve a diagnosis of endometriosis, to receive some understanding of why her pain was so debilitating all the time – endometriosis.