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Endo-what-o?

Ray Li's avatar image

By Ray Li

2 min read

Back in 2007 when I saw my GYN for the very first time, after she listened to all my symptoms, she said "I am pretty positive you have Endometriosis. I will perform a laparoscopic surgery, which will tell me if you have Endo, if so, I will remove it." I remember she told me a bit about the disease & encouraged me to read up more on it.

Leaving in shock

I was in a state of shock from other news I had received that appointment, it was confirmed that I had a miscarriage only a month ago & that I most likely did have one earlier that year by the sound of things. I had no idea that you could still take a pregnancy test after the miscarriage cause those hormonal changes are still there.

Learning about endo

Later I sat down in front of the computer & typed in "Endometriosis". One of the first things I learned is that "175+ Million women globally suffer from this debilitating disease." Unfortunately, in 2021 that number hasn't really changed much, it says 176+M now. In one of my Endo support groups, a fellow EndoWarrior who used to be a statistician crunched the numbers & calculated that we should be at 200+M globally. This still doesn't account for the untold number of misdiagnosed, still waiting for diagnosis & those who have Endo but are not women (including CIS men).

Continuing education and awareness

I was now a member of the 1-10 woman club in Canada, living with this debilitating disease. (Not literally a club). More importantly, I needed...& still, need to make sure, I don't belong to the other Endo stat that swims around in my head a lot, 1-4 living with this debilitating disease commit suicide. This is alarming & yet there is still not enough awareness about this disease & not enough urgency in the matter. Despite that Endo is seen as one of the largest women's largest health crisis of our time.

It was hard to wrap my head around all of this in the beginning & to be honest, it can still be a bit much as I continue to learn about this horrible disease. I go slow with learning so I don't become overwhelmed.

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