I am running the End Endo 5K to help raise awareness and funding for endometriosis because of my own experience with the disease, and because of the many other strong women I have met who have struggled with it. As I prepare to give birth to a baby girl in August, I am also running so that future generations won't have to wait 7-10 years for a diagnosis (the current average diagnosis time) and will have better treatment options available to them.

My endometriosis symptoms started with "stomach aches" in my teens, and worsened by my twenties to include sharp pains in my pelvis, debilitating cramping, severe bloating, pain down my legs, bladder issues, and every GI symptom imaginable. Countless doctor visits and medical tests left me without a diagnosis, and I began to think that maybe the pain was in my head. In 2016, my GI mentioned "endometriosis" for the first time and sent me to Dr. Tamer Seckin (co-founder of the Endometriosis Foundation of America).

On December 9, 2016, I had a 4.5-hour excision surgery that removed endometriosis and scar tissue from throughout my pelvis. Although there is no cure for endometriosis, excision surgery is considered the gold standard treatment, and for me, it was life-changing. The surgery greatly improved my quality of life. Just as important, it gave me a name for what was causing my pain. It led me to the additional diagnosis a few months later of adenomyosis--a related but distinct disease of the uterus. It also led me to find a group of strong, supportive women with shared experiences. Following my diagnoses, I learned to build a personal toolkit to manage my symptoms: physical therapy, acupuncture, yoga, diet, and exercise, along with continuous birth control pills.

Last year, when Fernando and I decided to have a baby and I had to come off the pill, my symptoms slowly started to worsen again. After trying for a while and learning that endo had fused one of my Fallopian tubes shut, I scheduled a second surgery--but was lucky enough to fall pregnant naturally just a month before I was to go into the operating room. Many women with endo are not so lucky; some estimates suggest that infertility impacts between 30 and 50%.

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.

Thank you for your donations and support!