flâneur

Why does it take years to get a diagnosis of endometriosis?

houstonlanding.org · 6,277 words · saved by 1 readers

I am one of roughly 182,000 Harris County women living with endometriosis. It takes most women four to 11 years to get a diagnosis.

My mom had barely entered the recovery room at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center when I began bombarding her with questions. The nurses wouldn’t tell me, I told her. I needed to know if it was real. “They found it, baby,” she said, smoothing my hair. “Dr. Leon told us it was no wonder you were in so much pain.” I sobbed. The pain was never in my head. It was never normal. And now, after years of dismissive doctors and searching for answers, it had a name — endometriosis. With my diagnosis, I became a part of a club I didn’t ask to join — the nearly 10 percent of women, transgender and gend

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