Chapter 1: The Background

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog. My name is Christine and I'm a 30 year old attorney from Buffalo, NY. Next Wednesday, October 2nd, I'll be having my first ever surgery. It's a laparoscopic diagnostic and excision surgery for endometriosis. Since I've been googling things non-stop since June, I figured that I'd share what I learned so that other people with uteruses can hopefully advocate for their own health.

What is endometriosis?

According to the Mayo Clinic, endometriosis is a disorder in which the endometrial tissue that grows in a uterus grows outside of the uterus. It acts like uterine tissue normally does, which means it thickens and sheds throughout the menstrual cycle.

What are the common symptoms of endometriosis?

Painful and heavy periods, painful ovulation, infertility, diarrhea, constipation, painful urination, painful intercourse (or really, any kind of penetration- tampons, menstrual cups, fingers, sex toys, etc.), fatigue, bloating and nausea. Fun, huh?

What are risk factors for endometriosis?

Getting your first period at a young age, a family history of endometriosis, long periods of menstrual bleeding (more than 7 days), short menstrual cycles (less than 27 days), heavy bleeding and delayed childbearing.

About me:

As I mentioned above, I'm 30 years old. I was 12 when I got my first period, and almost immediately it began to disrupt my life. By the time I was 15, I was getting my period every 21 days and it was lasting a week each time. I missed so much school from the heavy bleeding and cramps. To make matters worse, my school had 85 minute class periods and only allowed each student to use 3 bathroom/locker passes a day. I remember being petrified that I was going to bleed through my pad and have a humiliating accident.

My mom, who passed away 9 years ago, had similar periods and unexplained infertility. It took her 6 years to get pregnant with me, her only child. She was also a teacher in my school district and was concerned about me missing 1-2 days of school every 3 weeks. I went to my primary and went on the birth control. I was on the pill consistently from age 15 until I was diagnosed with a chronic hive condition at 25. When I went off the pill, that's when the issues started again. This isn't to say that things were fine on the pill, I still had the heavy bleeding and horrible cramps, but at least my periods of bleeding were shorter and further apart.

At some point during the last 5 years, I've had all of the above symptoms of endometriosis, often times multiple ones at once. Infertility is the only symptom that is not a concern for me as I do not want children. Despite me mentioning this to my OB/GYN at my yearly appointments and sick visits, endometriosis was NEVER even mentioned to me as an option. It got to the point where my period was lasting 20 days and when I ovulated, I woke up in the middle of the night to vomit. Still, I was dismissed and told that "some women have bad periods."

One of my friends has been dealing with infertility for years. In May she had a diagnostic lap surgery and they found stage 1 endometriosis. After talking to her, I decided to take control of my health and made an appointment to see Dr. Ali Ghomi, a local endometriosis specialist. I found his information on Nancy's Endometriosis Nook, a Facebook group that is an excellent resource in educating yourself about endometriosis. During my consult, Dr. Ghomi said I was a textbook case of endometriosis. However, it couldn't be diagnosed without surgery. I was hesitant because I've never had surgery. However, I'm sick of living in pain and I'm ready to do this. Over the next week leading up to surgery and then after surgery and during my recovery, I hope to keep you updated on what I'm learning and feeling.

My goal:

My biggest goal in starting this blog is to educate people with uteruses and advocate for their health. I think gynecologic care and women's health in general has been long neglected and work needs to be done to fix it. I hope to do my part in helping stop the stigma around women's heath. Also, I was a journalism major in undergrad and I really miss writing. I figured that this opportunity to gain some creative fulfillment and help others out came at a perfect time in my life. I hope this helps whoever stumbles upon it!