Please consider donating to this under-acknowledged and worthwhile cause:

Individuals with endometriosis need your help now to adapt endometriosis education to online learning, fund cutting-edge research on endometriosis treatment and diagnosis, advocate for endometriosis education on the state and national level, and promote disease recognition in our broader communities.

For anyone who is interested, here is part of my story: 

"Periods are painful." "Some people just have it worse." "Maybe you have a low pain tolerance."

These are all things that were said to me by health professionals in response to my complaints about my period symptoms from the time I was 15 years old. Thats the age that I started getting external and internal ultrasounds to check for irregularities in my reproductive system. Nothing was ever found during these exams, and I felt like a whiny hypochondriac for YEARS. I tried different forms of hormonal birth control throughout my teenage years; none of which alleviated the extreme pain I would experience every month. When I was 22 years old, I happened upon a Buzzfeed (yes, of course) article titled "26 Pictures People With Endometriosis Want You To See". After reading the descriptions women wrote with their photos, I felt immediately that this is what I have been dealing with.

After doing a little more research, I reached out to my doctor, and was scheduled for surgery later in the year. I could not receive a formal diagnosis without the surgery, and I needed to know. I had spent too long thinking that everything was in my head, and I needed proof that I wasn't experiencing something "normal". After my laparoscopic procedure I found out that I did indeed have endometriosis scarring and adhesions which were removed to the best of my physicians ability. My liver, bladder, and bowels were affected in addition to my reproductive organs. 

While the surgery provided a small amount of relief from the pain for a year or so, it was nothing compared to the mental and emotional relief of having "evidence" for my pain. Even now, I have trouble discussing this and not down playing my pain because I know that nobody can see it, and that visual representation is a lot of how pain is validated by society. I, along with many others, have spent years being frustrated and embarrassed by my period. There is no reason that women should have to spend so much time and energy validating their pain and concerns. There's also no reason that I should have gone 22 years without being taught about endometriosis. Here is a link to the Buzzfeed article that initially informed me: https://www.buzzfeed.com/laraparker/pictures-that-show-what-living-with-endometriosis-is