I started my period when I was 10, I remember sitting on the toilet, wiping my butt and finding blood and I thought I was dying. Even after telling my mother, she just assumed that it was a little bit of blood because who would've thought that a 10 year old would start her period? Yep, that's what it was and that day I became introduced to tampons quickly as I had swim team practice that night.
Over the next few cycles, I would experience these HORRIBLE cramps. I mean horrible, to the point when the cramps kicked in I would either be stuck in one position for an hour because of the sharp pain that would go through my stomach and through my vagina. Or it would be this horrible pain down my right leg that would leave me sleeping on the bathroom floor all night, chewing on a towel, dealing with a super heavy period flow that would never stop and finally able to pass the easiest bowel movement of my life. I was in 6th grade by the way spending about 6 hours in the bathroom on the floor going through this.
There was also the time in 7th grade I started in science class and managed to get to the bathroom which left me stuck in this awkward standing up position in this tiny stall biting my lip and screaming for 15 minutes before I realised the school probably thought I played hooky. Calling my mom I explained to her what was happening she came to pick me up and take me straight to the doctor. The doctor basically said I just had bad periods and she could put me on the pill that would help with this. I remember my mom saying, "Well my sister has endometriosis and her periods were like this. Could it be that?" What did that doctor say, "Oh, no no. I see this all the time. It's just bad cramps." So of course, I said yes and she was right it did help a little bit. My pain went from 6 hours to about 2-3 hours up until about my sophomore year of college.
Into high school I was still getting horrible cramps, a lighter flow which was ideal but I had also started getting these migraines that would cause me to throw up and sleep for about 5 hours. Before I got these migraines I would see these things in the corner of my eye that was moving in a quick zig zag form along with missing parts of my vision; now I know this is called an aura. This would happen about 15 minutes before a migraine would hit and I would just prepare myself by turning off all the lights and putting my head under a pill to force myself to sleep. During high school I also had left shoulder surgery, lower back surgery and left hip surgery because of chronic pain I was dealing with. This may seem irrelevant but you will soon see that it ties in to the story!
When I moved to Australia I started dating my now partner which means that it was my first time becoming sexually active which was great. Except for the fact that sometimes I would either feel like I was being jammed in the cervix with a metal bar or intercourse would cause menstrual like cramps and leave me curled up on the bed for 30 minutes in pain.
Yep, welcome to menstrual cycle story.
Now, I am 23 years old and if you've read the first post, Moonli, you know that I was obsessed with period poverty and slowly became more interested in women's health; I also finally got off of birth control and began using Natural Cycles which is what I still use today as my birth control and I love it. This led to me reading Taking Charge of Your Fertility and figuring out that my symptoms lined up with endometriosis. During this time, I also began running to deal with anxiety within my body that I couldn't suppress unless I got my heart rate up. But every time I went on a run I would begin getting that dull aching pain down my right leg and horrible back pain. By time I got home I was crippled on the floor or toilet in period like pain and it took me 15 minutes to pass a bowel movement for the pain to release. I was fed up and knew I wanted to do something about it as I was figuring out, our bodies are truly not meant to attack themselves.
I went to see 2 doctors in the states where my insurance was really good. I saw one amazing doctor and one old male doctor who basically said that it was all in my head and my research was worthless (obviously he said this a bit nicer). The amazing doctor back in the states, finally listened to me and didn't interrupt me once during the entire 30 minutes I was in there. When I stopped talking and she put down her pen she understood exactly what I was going through. I had a pelvic ultrasound done which let us figure out that I had fibroids and cysts on my ovaries and in my cervix however, she still believed that I had endometriosis. I ended up having the laproscopic surgery required to diagnose and remove endometriosis. I had the surgery and low and behold, she found stage 2 endometriosis on my bowel, all over my rectum, right ovary and my pelvis. She even took photos to show me and to tell you, I am in love with my uterus.
I am now a little over a month out of recovery and during my follicular phase (first part of my cycle before ovulation) I have absolutely no pain including no back or hip pain. My chronic pain that I originally had back and hip surgery for, didn't go away until my OBGYN removed my endometriosis. As you can see, back and hip surgery may have been entirely unnecessary. My constant bloating has also gone away during my follicular phase. I am currently in my luteal phase where I am getting my hip, back, ovary and vagina pain once again but I understand that for right now, this is what it is and I'm not going to let this get me down.
In terms of food, I have finally cut out dairy because I was diagnosed as lactose intolerant when I was little but knew it was time. I've cut out gluten, added sugar, most meat but especially red meat, if I have alcohol it's only one or two glasses per week, and I've begun treating my body gently. I do this by doing yoga with Yoga With Adriene and going on long walks in the mountains. And I hope to soon get back into swimming to do low impact exercise that won't inflame my already overly inflamed body.
My point of sharing my brief menstrual cycle story is to advocate for yourself. In this modern day world, there is still a major issue addressing women's health and getting doctors to take women seriously. This story, isn't even every single doctor that I went to for other issues like constant yeast infections, being considered obese by the age of 6, etc. Girls and women, you have to advocate for yourselves and the others around you. I hope that Moonli is providing you with information from books, podcasts, accredited videos that I will talk about that empower you to investigate more into your health whether that be mental health or physical health, it is your health and you matter! Keep reading, keep talking, keep investing and always advocate and stand up for yourself because you are so much stronger than you give yourself credit for.
Be Bold. Be Brave. Be Beastly.
Xoxo,
Moonli
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