If you have the means, I would be forever indebted and grateful for any support you’re able to offer toward my recovery. Whether it be help through groceries, books, puzzles to keep me busy, medical items, or simply your well wishes, it means the world and is so appreciated. Here is a little more about my journey: I was in high school when my symptoms first started. Extreme blood loss, fainting, anemia, excruciating pain that radiated throughout my pelvis, back, down my thighs. While I knew I had a family history of endometriosis, I’d always been made to believe that it was rare—doctors told me my symptoms were simply part of having a heavy period, and something I’d just have to live with. Live with it, I have. I was put on birth control pills at the age of 17, and for a handful of years, my symptoms were mostly managed. I’d had friends tell me their experience with hormonal IUDs and that it stopped their menstruation altogether. Not only was insertion some the worst pain I’ve ever experienced, the IUD itself began a snowball effect which led to my body largely rejecting birth control as a whole. I gained 25 lbs of water through swelling, painful cystic acne I’d never had before, deep uterine cramps, and bled for 11 months straight, until I could no longer bear it and had it removed. Every year since then, I’ve had more and more flare ups of increasing severity. It wasn’t until a good friend, a pelvic floor therapist (love you, Allison) listened to my reoccurring symptoms and said to me “that sounds like endometriosis”, that I began to listen to my intuition and body vs the doctors who gaslit me, and researched the condition for myself. I once had a coworker say that every time she saw me and asked how I was doing, I always answered the same way: tired. Turns out, a full body inflammatory disease is pretty exhausting. That’s what endometriosis is. At least 10% of uterus owners suffer with this disease, and it, along with adenomyosis, is among the top 20 most painful conditions in the world. My journey has taken many doctors, many years, and many medical tests to get me here—having finally found a specialist who not once told me “that isn’t possible”. She believed me wholly and validated my suffering. On the first of June, I will be undergoing excision surgery. While not a cure, it is a vital first step toward taking my life back. I cannot adequately describe the special kind of hell it is to be a dancer, an artist who uses their body as their instrument, and be bedridden. To feel as if your body is no longer yours, no longer safe, that it has betrayed you. Please take some time to educate yourself further on endometriosis and adenomyosis. Whether it be for yourself, or to advocate for someone close to you—the more that we all can gain knowledge about these diseases, push for research, against taboo and societal expectation, freely and openly talk about our bodies and the unacceptable level of anguish mentally and physically they’re forced to endure, the closer we get toward a potential cure. I have hope for the future, and getting a piece of “me” back.