The Wiggles' Lachy Gillespie on Emma Watkins' 'frightening' endometriosis battle.

The Wiggles’ Emma Watkins has been nothing but strong during her battle with endometriosis.

As the very-popular Yellow Wiggle, Emma’s decision to be open about her struggles brought much-needed attention to the disease.

Endometriosis, often called just endo, is a disease where tissue lining of the uterus grows outside the womb. It attaches to other organs and can cause severe cramps, bleeding and infertility.

Speaking on Monday’s episode of ABC’s Australian Story, she and her fellow Wiggles spoke about her diagnosis.

The 28-year-old said she first felt tired and run down in mid-2017, and was also dealing with heaver-than-usual menstruation, nausea and leg cramping.

“However, when you’re on the tour and when you travel so much, your cycle goes out of whack. And so I think initially when the bleeding started to continue, I just thought maybe I was really in tune with other women. And so I thought that my cycle was just hopping on to other people’s.

“I honestly… I just didn’t think that much of it.”

Then, while The Wiggles were filming in studio, she collapsed.

Emma’s ex-husband and bandmate Lachlan Gillespie recalled how ‘frightening’ this was.

“She was just absolutely in agony. She couldn’t get up and she didn’t know why. She just had such strong cramps and couldn’t move, so that was really frightening.”

Once Emma saw specialist Professor Jason Abbott, he found it was “absolutely crystal clear” that she had endometriosis.

“I was really surprised when he went to see Jason how full on he said it was. That was a big ‘woah’ moment,” Lachy said.

Professor Abbott recommended surgery, which Emma underwent in April.

 

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Thank you for all the well wishes ???? Operation went well and now in recovery ????????????????????????

A post shared by Emma_Wiggle (@emma_wiggle) on Apr 18, 2018 at 8:47pm PDT

Her recovery was challenging, with Emma saying she “felt very dizzy all the time” and had slow reflexes, but she fought hard to be well enough to return for The Wiggles’ US tour just six weeks after surgery.

It hasn’t been smooth sailing – she has had to adapt the shows to meet her physical limits.

Blue Wiggle Anthony said that although it looks like Emma is fine now, that’s not the reality.

“On the last tour, she was on the ground,” he said. “We were going to call an ambulance, she was in such pain. And that happened maybe two, three times since she’s been back.”

Emma is getting stronger every day and told Australian Story she how realised it was okay to be vulnerable and tell her bandmates how she’s really feeling.

She also said she went public because she knew if she didn’t, people would have assumed she was taking a break because she’s pregnant.

At the same time as she was dealing with her health problems, Emma’s personal life turned tumultuous.

Emma and Lachy announced the end of their marriage in August.