'13 years of fighting for answers': Bindi Irwin gives health update after undergoing emergency surgery in the US

Bindi Irwin has shared a health update after undergoing emergency surgery in the US earlier this year.

The 27-year-old said she can "finally say that I'm feeling better".

The Wildlife Conservationist and CEO of Australia Zoo shared an emotional post on Instagram.

"13 years of fighting for answers. 51 endometriosis lesions, a chocolate cyst, and my appendix were all removed across two surgeries with @seckinmd," the post started.

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"My hernia from giving birth that was unzipping – was taken care of. I can FINALLY say that I'm feeling better. Genuinely healing."

Irwin said she can now "function in everyday life without wanting to throw up or pass out from the pain".

"Slowly, slowly gaining my strength back. I cannot express the gravity of my emotions as I am beginning to recognise myself again," the post continued.

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She said she felt "utterly ashamed as a teenager and young adult being told that my pain was just part of being a woman".

"I felt lesser. I felt hurt. I felt weak. That is not ok. Young girls and women shouldn't feel alone with pain in the driver's seat of their lives," she wrote.

"We need to take away the stigma of talking about women's health. It's time to have open discussions and make change on a global scale."

Irwin has been applauded for her comments which echo the experiences of women suffering endometriosis around the world.

Irwin was in the US with her mother Terri and brother Robert for the annual Steve Irwin Gala in Las Vegas in May when she was rushed to hospital in excruciating pain.

She underwent emergency surgery for a ruptured appendix and during the surgery, underwent further treatment on her endometriosis.

Irwin later took to Instagram to assure fans she was OK.

"Hey guys, Bindi here, I just wanted to thank you so much for your incredible well-wishes," she said in a video.

"I just got out of surgery about an hour ago.

"I had my appendix removed. I also had 14 new endometriosis lesions that had to be removed. And they kindly stitched up my hernia as well."

She continued by thanking her doctor and medical staff at Lennox Hill Hospital in New York, saying she is "forever grateful" to them for their care of her and thanked everyone for their support.

Irwin later told Kylie Kelce on the Not Gonna Lie podcast: "Endometriosis has been part of my life since I was 13 so it's been a long journey, but they removed more lesions which was really exciting, and the disease itself goes undiagnosed for many many years for most women who have it, so it's really tricky, so I'm really glad that they found more to take out.

"So it's up and up, where every day is better, but yeah, I'm excited," she said. "Hopefully no more surgery for a little while, cause I've had a few now."

Bindi spoke of her struggle for a diagnosis.

"It took me ten years, so it was ten years before I had my first surgery," she said.

"I cannot even remember how many doctors I went to. Doctor after doctor, specialists ... I had every test you could imagine. Blood tests and CT scans and MRIs and x-rays ...

"You name it, and I was checked for it."

"And what's interesting is that nothing showed up on all of those tests. According to those tests I was a healthy young woman, and I kept saying this can't be normal, because I was in agonising pain," she said.

"And it was around my period, I would have this horrible pain," Bindi said, explaining soon the pain "echoed out into other areas of my life".

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"So I was in pain every day," Bindi said, adding that she was also experiencing nausea and fatigue.

It was after the birth of her daughter Grace in 2021 that she says the pain became so bad, she would "lie on the floor".

"I just couldn't move," she said.

It was a doctor in the US that eventually diagnosed her via exploratory surgery.

"That validation, I woke up and he said, 'I don't know how you functioned being in this much pain every day.'"

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