Endometriosis is a disorder that causes the uterine tissue that sheds during a menstrual cycle to grow on the outside of the uterus. The tissue grows like normal and is shed during the menstrual cycle but it has no way to exit the body This can, in some cases, cause severe pain. The pain can be continuous, during the menstrual cycle, or both (Staff). Here is my experience with Endometriosis.
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Age 15
I get my first period. Totally not a big deal. I didn’t have cramps, the bleeding was light, and it only lasted 3 days max. I even had a little code that I would tell my mom if I forgot what I needed. “I forgot to feed my turtle.” I did not take periods seriously.
At one point during this year my family had a plan to go tubing while I was on my period. I talked to my mom and we went out and bought some tampons. I tried one and I couldn’t insert it, it was too painful. Since I wasn’t concerned about anything at the time I didn’t tell my mom that it was too painful to insert the tampon. I went on my merry way. Later this same year I went on a school trip to Orlando, Florida. This was the first experience I had with a minorly sucky period. I had some pretty bad cramps, but they went away with Advil, so again, I wasn’t concerned.
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Age 16
I wake up in a sheen of sweat. My pillow was soaked. I look over at the clock and I see that it is 3:00a.m. I go to the bathroom to get some Advil. I collapse to the floor because my cramps have made my legs stop working (probably not actually, but it certainly felt like it). I start screaming for my mom. My brother whose room is right next to the bathroom comes into the bathroom and asks why I am screaming. I scream at him to get mom. He is very concerned. At this point we both thought I was dying. I truly believed I wouldn’t be alive in the next hour. My mom comes rushing in and asks what’s wrong. I tell her what is going on and she comes back with Advil, water, and a heating pad. After the Advil kicked in–mind you, I was still in pain–I could sleep. I missed school for two days because of the pain. The next time I got my period I felt as though I was more prepared. The night before I thought I was going to get my period I took some Advil and slept with my heating pad on. In reality, I was not at all prepared. I woke up again in excruciating pain. I told my mom that I needed to go to the hospital, but she recognized that it was my period and told me to wait it out. After this period we went to the doctor and I explained to her that I didn’t want to have these excruciating cramps anymore and she told me I should consider going on birth control, because it could help. I was all for it. I started my first set of pills that same day.
Age 17
Nothing new happened during this year. My cramps were still bad, but I just pushed through the pain. It only happens once a month, right? Golly, was I wrong.
Age 18
I’m in college. Yay! I’m living in the dorms and I am so pumped. My first couple of periods were pretty uneventful. November rolls around and I have my period. I wake up with cramps and I really have to go to the bathroom. I walk into the bathroom stall and the next thing I know I wake up leaning against the stall door. Yup, folks, I blacked out on the toilet. I was in so much pain that I passed out ON THE TOILET. I got up and went back to my room. I didn’t have time to dwell on it because I had to get to class–I was still under the impression that I couldn’t skip a single class. The walk to class and the class itself was uneventful. However, when class was over I couldn’t stand up because of the pain. I was so horrified. People from the next class were already walking in and I was just sitting there trying to figure out what I should do. I clenched everything and stood up. As I was walking across campus the pain came back and I just stopped in the middle of a walkway. One person ran into me and other people gave me the “WTF? Why did you just stop walking in the middle of the walkway?” look. I was mortified. I walked very very slowly to Student Health and made an appointment. Once there they told me to go ahead and sit in the waiting room. There was no way I was sitting. Once down I was not going to get up. So I awkwardly stood in the waiting room until they called my name. Once in my doctor’s office I told him about what was going on and he asked if he could examine me. I just wanted to figure out what was wrong with me so I was all for it. I had a hemorrhoid. If you’ve never had one they suck. A lot. Hemorrhoids are inflamed veins in the rectum and anus. When you use the bathroom with a hemorrhoid it feels like you are pooping out shards of glass. It is awful. After that experience I was not looking forward to having more periods.
After a few more periods of similar experiences I was tired of it. I went to the doctor and told her I didn’t want my period anymore. She didn’t question it, we switched my birth control and I stopped taking the placebo pills. Bye bye period, not at all sorry to see you go. I no longer got hemorrhoids or severe cramps. I was jumping for joy.
Age 19
I stopped jumping. At one point, I was pretty sure I had a yeast infection. I go to Student Health and my doctor tells me she is going to swab my vagina to test it. I put my feet into the stirrups and she starts. I scream out because the q-tip was causing me serious pain. I yell at her to stop. It wasn’t all that nice. Sorry, girl. I didn’t mean to yell. She mentions that she thinks it is weird that I was in that much pain, but doesn’t continue the conversation. I leave with a ton of questions. A few months go by and I think I have another yeast infection. This time I go to urgent care. My feet are back in the stirrups and the doctor is sitting there with the q-tip. I get nervous, but I also recognize this needs to get done. I scream, again. I was so embarrassed. She tells me this was concerning and that I should go see a gynecologist. I leave urgent care and walk out to my car. I was waddling for the next couple of days, yeah, it was that painful. I make an appointment with a gynecologist in town. My doctor sits down and chats with me. She tells me that it is weird that I have that much pain while on my period and during exams. She also goes on to tell me that it is really dangerous to continuously take my birth control and not have my period. I thought that sounded like a load of bologna. I didn’t see her again. I made another appointment with a doctor in the town 45 minutes away. She was wonderful. She told me that it wasn’t dangerous to take birth control continuously, she even said there are several studies that show that since your uterus and ovaries are not active there is less of a chance of you getting ovarian or uterine cancer. She also sat and listened to my every complaint about my period. How I get cramps, hemorrhoids, and how tampons hurt, amongst other things. That is the first day I heard about Endometriosis. I am still not technically diagnosed with Endometriosis because I would have to get surgery or a highly invasive exam in which they stick a probe with a camera on the end up past the cervix. Since my symptoms are controlled pretty well by birth control–I still have cramps and occasional spotting–I didn’t find that necessary and neither did my doctor. My doctor thinks it’s highly likely that I have it, but until my symptoms are no longer controlled by birth control she doesn’t think I need the surgery or exam to diagnose it.
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Age 20
I have switched my birth control a few times to figure out one that works for me. I have tried to start dating, but as it turns out people don’t like to hear that I might not be able to have sex with penetration. So that’s my life with Endometriosis. I am learning to live with it, but it is still really hard sometimes.
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Note: Periods suck and they hurt, but they shouldn’t be excruciating. You should, for the most part, still be able to live your life pretty normally. If your periods are as bad as mine explained above you should chat with your gynecologist, like soon. Endometriosis can lead to infertility and if you want to give birth to your children you quite obviously don’t want to be infertile.
References:
Staff, Mayo Clinic. “Endometriosis.” 20 August 2016. Mayo Clinic. Document. 28 March 2017.
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