Johannesburg – Millen Magese has walked runways around the world and modelled in many magazines, but her biggest focus is raising awareness about endometriosis.
The 34-year-old, who lives in New York, has been in South Africa for the International Endometriosis Month this month to raise awareness about her cause.
“When you’re growing up, your mother always warns that you’ll have pains, you have to be strong and not tell anyone, but my pains were really, really bad. I could not hide it,” Magese said of her teenage years in her home country of Tanzania.
“You’re told that during your period you have to keep doing what you usually do, but I could not do anything.
“I couldn’t go to school or wake up and my dad had to carry me to hospital each time I had my period.”
Magese’s pains started at the age of 13.
She became a model after her father told her about international supermodel Iman.
“At the age of 16, I wanted to be a leader somewhere, but I didn’t know where because I was so shy. I was shy because my neck was so long and I was too tall. One day my dad asked me if I knew Iman, and he showed me a picture of her and told me that she’s a supermodel because she’s confident about her neck.
“That gave me the confidence, and even though I grew up as a tomboy, I became Miss Tanzania in 2001.”
In 2004, Magese moved to South Africa and joined local modelling agency Ice Models.
“They could not understand why I would lose jobs because of my period. So my booker mentioned a doctor in Sandton. That’s when I was diagnosed with endometriosis,” she said.
She had surgery in 2005 and has had 12 more operations since.
“It was so hard for me to understand why I had to go for so many operations.
“I don’t know if it was because of my stressful job, but the growth would regrow all the time. Each time I saw my doctor, he’d ask how I was even able to walk. I’ve had constant back pain since I was 14.”
Magese said that although she has always wanted to talk about it, the subject was taboo.
In 2013, her doctors in New York told her that both her fallopian tubes were blocked and they need to harvest some of her eggs if she wanted to have children.
She took 63 fertility injections in 14 days.
“They only got three eggs and can only use two of them.”
This is what set her on her path to activism.
“If I am able to access all the best treatment and information, but what about a poor woman or girl who just wants to have a healthy baby?” she said.
Local celebs like Bonang, DJ Sbu and Nandi Ngoma have supported her campaign by tweeting “#manyfacesofendo”.
The Star