Endometriosis

Some of the hardest aspects of having endometriosis are definitely dealing with the flare-ups and also having to deal with the possibility of not being able to have a child. I myself cannot have children. I actually just had a hysterectomy a couple of weeks ago and endometriosis has spread to my other organs but hopefully through menopause it will burn itself out and I will no longer have to deal with flare-ups or continuous growth. Another hard aspect I would say dealing with the exhaustion has got to be a big thing that a lot of people don't recognize comes with it. Exhaustion is very constant. It is continuous and it doesn't ever really go away but after my hysterectomy things a lot of things changed for me.

I believe that one of the hardest aspects of endometriosis is just getting diagnosed in the first place. A lot of people suffer with severe menstrual cycles and for me it was years before I advocated enough for myself to realize that I had a condition like endometriosis. I went through multiple doctors, different OBGYNs who did not really take many of the steps to diagnose and then was transferred to a fertility doctor who did multiple ultrasounds and an MRI and then surgery to diagnose and treat my endometriosis. But really, it's important to advocate for yourself, your health, your body, your pain and know that it's not normal and to trust in yourself that you're doing the right thing by changing doctors and continuing to press the issue if you're not getting the results that you're looking for.

I would say the hardest aspects with endometriosis, besides the obvious pain that you do experience, is how to communicate and, you know, having a supportive family and friends around you who don't really understand what you're going through. There's definitely been times, plenty of times, where I've had to cancel plans with with family or friends and, you know, it's a time where a lot of them don't understand why and, you know, one day you may be fine, so they think you're cured, and then the next day you're in just tons of pain and can't even get out of bed. So that's definitely something that is hard to deal with, so it's super important sometimes just to have kind of a support group. I'm a part of a support group for endometriosis on Facebook that's incredibly helpful and gets me through those hard times.

The hardest aspect for me is when I really look forward to something and then I'm always ill with a migraine or too tired to go to it, so that can be really annoying. So I'm trying to plan less things if I have something in the build-up to something that I'm looking forward to. Also is trying to get my husband to understand the condition when I'm not feeling like doing some things or get behind the housework or don't sleep well. It's hard to get it across to him what it is like. He always ridicules the amount of painkillers that I take seeing as he never takes anything, so this is difficult as well. And with Covid obviously he's missed out on coming to appointments, so hasn't spoken to doctors like I have as well.