A couple people sent me this article about a Canadian woman who received such poor care for her endometriosis she ended up travelling to the UK to get her surgery and, I really wish I could say I'm surprised... https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/ont-woman-gets-endometriosis-surgery-in-the-u-k-after-canadian-doctors-dismissed-her-symptoms-for-years-1.5203871

I didn't have endo on my diaphragm (as far as I know) but I did have it on my bowel, which makes it deep-infiltrating Stage 4. (I still have some on my bowel, BTW, since the surgeon didn't want to resection it and risk giving me a colostomy bag for life.)

I have so much empathy for Christina, and so much anger at the Canadian (and North American) health care system(s). They fail so many women, and it's really all because they don't listen to them.

It really shouldn't take 10+ years to get someone to take your pain seriously.

People tell women that period pain is normal, but they don't understand how *intense* this pain is. Endo can cause pain worse than childbirth for days every single month. That's truly not an exaggeration.

We pour so many resources into birthing, and almost none into endo.

It really shows you that your reproductive system only really matters when you're trying to have babies, and when you're not, well you can just gtfo.

Anyway, believe women.

Actually, this isn't my final word on this.

Believe women, but also:

Women who are Black, or Indigenous, or people or color, are less likely to have their pain treated than white women.

Fat women, disabled women, women with depression or anxiety, too.

The system makes it impossible for almost any woman with endometriosis — or PCOS, or any other kind of reproductive or "invisible" illness — to be taken seriously and treated with compassion.

If you are sick, you are a bother. And that gets deeply internalized.

And then people wonder why women go decades without help, why they develop such complex chronic illness, why they just wither away — how on Earth they showed up on death's door in such a mess.

We hear: "The *other women* didn't do that. Therefore, you must be defective."

We talk about reproductive rights and choices only in the context of children, but our systems can do us a lot of harm. Where is our freedom to choose our reproductive system care when it doesn't involve fertility?

I had to fight for 24 years. No one should have to fight the medical system for 24 years for anything.

That's the actual end of this thread.