What is endometriosis anyways? 
Endometriosis is a fancy word that means the tissue you're meant to shed during your period grows on the outside of the uterus on such places like the ovaries fallopian tubes and cervix. In rare and usually advanced stages of the illness, the bladder and intestine and even your lungs.

So what do we know?
Well not much, you would think we would know all the answers and cures but we don't. Sadly, one reason why is because for years people didn't care about female reproductive  health. Endometriosis is also a highly complex illness, 200,000 people that own uteruses in America alone have been diagnosed this year. And I can tell you that way more than that have gone undiagnosed.

“Treatment”
In some cases surgery is enough and it never comes back. Hallelujah for those people but also there's a lot that that's not the case so there “Treatment” is hormonal therapy (birth control) and more surgery. 

Symptoms 
Really long heavy periods 
Severe migraines,lower back pain during period 
Painful bowel movements 
Bleeding between periods 
Fatigue 
Nause 
Diarrhea or constipation 
And the lesser known outside of people that have endo the dreaded endo belly which is bloating like you've never seen like 25lbs worth at least it looks like it 
Pain down legs 
Irregular cycle 
Chest pain 
Food intolerances 
Killer cramps 
If you have all of most of thee symptoms you should get checked out by a doctor but it doesn't mean that you immediately have endometriosis 

My story 
My story starts when I was 11, when I got my first period. It was horrific. The pain was indescribable. I was always scared I would have endo because my mom had it before she had to have a full hysterectomy (her reproductive organs out), so I sort of knew what it was like. Since I was born in 2004, my mom has had 13 surgeries to get it out. Even after a hysterectomy, she still gets it back she gave up like many others have, i got diagnosed on October 30th 2018 only because the process to finally get a good gynecologist was one day i had to stay home from what i thought was an agonizing day in life of what i already knew was endo,my parents came home and it got so bad i was screaming and crying and so my parents took me to Children’s hospital ER they didn't take it seriously enough that there was a 13 year old girl screaming and crying grabbing her stomach so we were in the waiting room for 2 hours i wouldn't take it anymore so me and my mom drove to another hospital and they got us back fast i describe my pain it took the doctor an hour to come back to my room and order a pee test and so i took it even though i couldn't hardly walk because my hips and back were hurting so bad and i felt faint.

The doctor came back in and said he called in a prescription for a uti, even though he looked at my white blood cell count and said they were normal. I said so i don't have a uti he said no but there's no explanation and i got mad because i can't walk and i'm in excruciating pain he said we'll answer my question are you sexually active i had repeatedly before when they asked me if i was and they even did a pregnancy test that i was not and he asked me another 10 times before i was in tears and my mother asked him to leave and we left, the next morning I was still in worse pain than the night before at this point i had not slept for 48 hours we went back to childrens got back i a room fast and this doctor told me it was just a bad period and got my paperwork and was going to send me home by a miracle this woman doctor heard me crying they don't listen to me they don't care and asked me what was going on and told me it sounded like an ovarian cyst and I felt the relief of i'm not crazy. She referred me to the adolescent gynecology department and they asked me a bunch tested me for cancer and thyroid issues. Thankfully I don't have those things, so they tried a birth control pill, a shot called DEPO and another pill. At this time, I started to feel like a science experiment. I was losing hope I would find out what was wrong so another miracle an older gentleman stepped in the room with glitter loafers and said i think we found a doctor we think fits you and she was! The first day I met her, she listened to everything i had to say but sadly told me I had to have surgery that's the only way to definitely know you have endo so 3 months after that day i had surgery and i recovered and got an IUD and sadly i don't think my surgery helped i've continued to have issues and my pain get worse so i've tried physical therapy, mental therapy, and acupuncture (which I recommend, it's very pleasant) but still suffer with it and the other things that sometimes come with it like IBS and body image issues, but I work on it every day not to let it get me down.