Battle Bred: March is Endometriosis Awareness Month
This post is going to be a bit longer than others because it’s personal.
So check it: At the tender age of 11,
I became a woman!
I went to the bathroom and usual, took a wipe, and there it was, proof of my departure from childhood into womanhood.
I…was…ecstatic!
I frantically called for my momma and she gave me a crash course in the do’s and don’ts of hygiene and sent me on my way.
That first period was pretty decent, kinda heavy, but decent.
At the time, I didn’t realize that that wasn’t normal.
I had no reference point to compare and it did not occur to me to ask my momma because I just assumed it was normal.
This kicked off years of heavy bleeding and me thinking it was normal. Then…the cramps kicked in. And when I say kicked, I mean KICKED. My uterus decided that a baby must be present and every month that I didn’t give her one, she tore down the drapes in a fitful display of blood, rage, and pain.
And…it…was…pain. It’s the kind of pain that I imagine vampires felt in Twilight when Jane would unleash her power for crippling pain on them expect this was real and it was frequent.
Sometimes, the pain occurred even when I wasn’t on my cycle.
Countless doctors told me that the pain was normal. The amount of bleeding was normal. The clots were normal. The times when I couldn’t sit up straight and would lie on the floor in a ball of suck, completely normal.
I eventually learned to skin and grin it and it wasn’t until a fluke series of tests related to a supposed abdominal tear that a doctor suggested that I may have endometriosis.
Now, to learn ya something:
Endometriosis is an often painful disorder in which the endometrial tissue which grows along the lining of the uterus begins to grow outside of the uterus. Most commonly, these growths can appear on a woman’s ovaries, bowel, or tissues that line the pelvis.
The exact cause of endometriosis is not known but there have been linkages to certain occurrences such as scar tissue on the reproductive organs.
Most women suffer symptoms for almost a full 10 years before being diagnosed.
About 176 million women worldwide suffer from endometriosis
The average women is 27 at the time of diagnosis
Endometriosis is 1 of the top 3 causes of infertility
“Endometriosis? WTH is that?” was my initial thought. It led me down a Google rabbit hole in which the first thing that popped up was the words, “possible infertility.”
Those words hit me, went through me, utterly destroyed me.
I come from a big family, both born into and made, and I had plans of contributing to that family but as I stared at those words on the screen, I began to doubt my ability to. My momma told me not to panic because it was just a suggested diagnosis.
So, at the age of 20, I had my first laparoscopic surgery that confirmed that I did indeed, have Stage 2 Endometriosis.
I had conflicting feelings.
On the one hand, I now knew what had been causing my pain and a vague idea of how to treat it.
On the other hand, those two words kept cycling through my head.
During my surgery, the doctor excised much of my endo and then put me in medical menopause for 6 months. I was period and pain-free for 8 months.
When Uti (my uterus) woke up, she awoke with a vengeance! I called my doctor at the time and told him of my pain. He suggested a hysterectomy. I was 21…
I never went back to him.
12 years later and I am still battling endometriosis.
I am listening to my body.
I am learning.
I am spreading awareness.
I am educating.
I am advocating for others.
There is no cure for endometriosis but there are certain things that can lessen symptoms such as:
Rest
Meditation
Exercises
Nutrition and Diet
Pain medication
Birth Control
Surgery
It takes an average of 10 years for a woman to be diagnosed with endometriosis. It took 9 years for me and I’ve been battling it for 22 years. Some days are easier than others, but I keep moving.
I am an Endo Warrior supported by a network of Endo Sisters worldwide.
Many women are never diagnosed with endo because they think what they're experiencing is normal or doctors tell them that it is.
Listen to your body and be your advocate!
I am 1 in 10.
