21/11/2024
I was first hospitalized for pelvic pains in elementary school. Over a decade later in 2019, I was officially diagnosed with stage 3 Endometriosis. My pelvic pain wasn’t just during my period but during other times of the month as well. I was medically gaslit for years being told that my pain was all in my head.
Left alone in the ER waiting rooms during extreme Endo flareups to bleed thru my pants and pads on multiple occasions, all as I cried out in agony. I was told by ER nurses to take the medication they were offering me (Tylenol) or I wouldn’t get to see the doctor. I was told that my extremely painful and hard Endo belly was just the way my body looked and I needed to “get over it”.
I was told that everything I was experiencing was “just anxiety“ and that I did not need referrals to specialists for further investigation. I just needed to take an anxiety medication that only numbed my personality, not my chronic pelvic pain.
I was told to go on birth control to stop my periods, but my pain did not end there, it only got worse. I had a Mirena IUD implanted into my retroverted uterus, which made me profusely vomit, pass out and proceeded to cause horrific pain for two years straight.
I was put into medically induced menopause on two separate occasions before my 23rd birthday.
I have had multiple surgeries for Endometriosis, only for each of them to leave me in more pain than the last.
My previous family doctor that I had for over a decade dismissed all my pain and symptoms, medically gaslit me, and ultimately was negligent in sending off any referrals to any sort of specialist.
I was told to stop being so sensitive.
I was called fat by nurses.
I was called drug addicted by doctors.
All because I vocalized how bad the pain was.
It took a walk-in doctor to believe me. Someone that had never met me before, and I will forever be grateful for her.