Endo Women: Agony But Not Defeat

I’M NOT sure how to spell Cristiano Ronaldo. Ditto with Manolo Blanix. Well, I can spell endometriosis. Can you? Do you know what it is? Have you even heard of it? 
     Hordes of women know more about a football player or a designer shoe label than they do about a disease they probably have, might have had for years and continue to suffer under in all sorts of horrid ways, while thinking that they’re experiencing something natural. It's like they've been drowning ... drowning in blood.
     I’ve been living with endometriosis since that fateful day at age 13 when I was awakened by the worst physical pain ever experienced in my life thus far. I didn’t know the real cause of this for many years. “Hey, it’s just your period.” Sound familiar? Listen, my story could be your story.
     At the heart of her every woman wants to feel safe and good in her skin. Our bodies are not just temples, but our playgrounds, universities, sanctuaries, love-nests, hospitals, the home that moves with us always.

No shelter here

     In my country, women have not been encouraged to face endometriosis like persons coping with a chronic disease: armed with information, prepared to make lifestyle changes, open to using complimentary forms of therapy: the way advanced medical fraternities abroad are treating with it.
     No, the first line of defence being advocated by too many specialists here is complete removal of the patient’s womb.
     The New York Presbyterian Hospital, and others, lists endometriosis as more common than AIDS and cancer among women. It is the most common chronic ailment affecting women and girls today.
     Imagine, 176 million females worldwide have been diagnosed with endo, and still many more times that have it, but remain undiagnosed, while the numbers continue to grow. That’s a staggering pandemic.
     Now imagine all those women, whatever their age, circumstances or desires, being given as their first, perhaps even their only option, hysterectomy.
And science cleverly created the “little blue pill.” Yea, we’ve “come a long way, baby.”
     I’m so heartbroken when I hear otherwise perfectly healthy women, many of them in their twenties, lamenting the loss of their human right to bear a child. 
     Even women who opt out of motherhood should have the right to make a proper decision about her body based on accurate diagnoses, facts, and "do no harm" choice of solutions.

Gimme shelter

     Sisters, it hardly seems that anyone cares to inform us about this disease much less to help us against it. So the endo-coper has to get stepping herself.
     There is life past the pain. Learning where and how to access this life means making changes. ABC Endo is going to help you: providing methods applicable to where we are; sometimes with a certain irreverence, always with deep empathy.
     I know the problems leeching life from you in your suffering. But I also know that around the world women are making the decision to change their lives and taking back their lives as a result. They are opening to new therapies and attitudes. They are holding on to hope.
     Think of your struggle as a game of chess, and yourself as the queen. Chess takes focus, a cool head and imaginative, but well-calculated strategies: all the things that will help you capably meet the challenges of endo.
     What’s more, the chess queen is the most powerful piece in the game. That’s what I want each of you to become: your most powerful champion in the battle against endometriosis.
     Endo is a real “do or die” situation. We all know there are many ways to die: in body, mind, soul, spirit. Always remember the flip side: there are many ways to live.  Take back your life!

             In beauty may you walk.

Lady in red dress, swimming: Photo by Engin Akyurt from Pexels




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