About Me

I remember the day I officially became a woman and that overwhelming feeling by this rite of passage at the young age of 11. I had so many questions about what it will be like to have a period, how will my body change etc.

But while walking to school wearing a pad and two layers of underwear, I knew something didn’t feel quite right with my body. My period flow was so heavy, I had a lot of discomfort and kept thinking this shouldn’t be the case for my very first period.

During my adolescence, I continued to observe how my period would come and go every few months with significant pain and flow. I was so jealous when talking to my girlfriends who would share how “regular” their cycles were while mine made an appearance every so often.

As I entered college, the pain increased and nausea spells suddenly became more frequent. With the introduction of the Internet in the mid-90’s, I began searching for an explanation for my constant sickness before, during and after my period. ENDOMETRIOSIS… I’ll never forget the day this word appeared on my computer screen. As I read through the description, I kept thinking to myself...this is me…this is me.

The overwhelming desire to find a doctor with experience in diagnosing this disease became my number one priority. Thankfully living in Boston with the best hospitals in the country, I was able to find a gynecologist at Massachusetts General Hospital who agreed to perform a laparoscopy.  The outcome of the surgery was exactly what I was praying for...an official diagnosis of stage one endometriosis. The 11 year old girl inside me was finally at peace… having an answer to what was wrong with my body for all those years.

But truly understanding what it meant to have endometriosis was just the beginning of my journey. Navigating how to treat the disease was the next obstacle. For the last twenty years, I tried various birth control pills (taken continuously), medicines so powerful they trick your body into going through menopause, and numerous laparoscopic surgeries to remove the endometriosis. But at the end of the day, my reality was there was no cure… no magic wand to stop the endometriosis from growing on my rectal area, bowels, bladder, ovaries, pelvic wall.

At age 40, I made a conscious decision to stop continuous birth control pill treatment as the side effects outweighed the benefits of taking the pill, not to mention the health risks. But by making this decision, my endometriosis  continued to grow and grow and grow. On July 30, 2019, I had my ninth laparoscopic surgery and the outcome of the surgery was like a knife in my heart. My endometriosis was now at stage 4 - the most severe stage - attaching itself from my uterine wall to a number of organs along with an ovarian chocolate cyst. This was the worst news any woman should ever try to comprehend.

Whether I accept it or not, it is the end of the road for me and the disease. I have no choice but to have a hysterectomy as my endometriosis has invaded the very part of me that makes me a woman.  

This website is a way for me to share my story in the hopes that it can help other women who suffer from this disease.