Member-only story
Endometriosis’ nasty cousin, and the power of self-advocacy
Why you should advocate for yourself
Ever since I started menstruating when I was only 11 years old, that week has always been a black hole in my life. I would lie in bed, in pain, consume painkillers as if they were candy (and it would help little), and just put my whole life on hold until it passed.
Every time a doctor would ask me about my periods, I would say they were pretty painful, and they would shake it off, saying that that was normal.
Over the past few years, however, activism on endometriosis started growing stronger and stronger on social media, and I became convinced that something was wrong with me. I had too much bleeding, too much pain around the days of my period and on those days for it to be deemed as “normal.” It wasn’t normal.
I read a lot about endometriosis and decided that I needed to take matters into my own hands, so to speak.
I insisted with my family doctor to do a pelvic and a vaginal ultrasound, which came back clear. Still, I knew that endometriosis wasn’t always diagnosed via ultrasound, so I insisted on getting an MRI.
The result was not what I expected. The MRI was clear for endometriosis, but I did have adenomyosis.
