This is a firsthand account submitted through SWHR’s Share Your Story portal, as part of SWHR’s Women’s Health Perspective series.
Ever since my late teens, I had irregular and painful periods. I didn’t know this was unusual. For over 10 years, I went from doctor to doctor, being told that it’s normal, to take Midol, and that everyone goes through this. I would force myself to function through the pain, and as a professional dancer who lives with pain every day, this became my normal.
Over the years, my symptoms grew worse, sex became more and more painful, and eventually I could not use tampons.
At age 29, I finally got a doctor to take me seriously and agree to perform surgery when I told them my pain was more painful than my torn ACL and that sex with my husband was nearly impossible due to pain. In surgery, they found that my endometriosis was so bad they had to cut some of my nerves during its removal.
The difference after my surgery was night and day, and I suddenly had no more pain at all. I spent 10 years in my own hell, being told, “Everything was fine, this is normal” when I knew I wasn’t fine and it couldn’t be normal – and if someone had listened to me, I could have found treatment sooner.
Today, I don’t receive any care beyond normal check-ups. No specific follow-ups have ever been discussed with my doctors, though I live with the fear of my endometriosis and pain returning. My hope is that the recent attention to women’s health will finally help innovate some new testing and treatment options for endometriosis. I don’t want anyone ever to have to go through what I have been through.