Endometriosis has a scary HISTORY, by which I mean it was scary how doctors dealt with it back in the old days. Endometriosis treatment was of course nonexistent back then…
The disease was was first discovered under a microscope in 1860… In case you don’t know what it is, it’s uterine tissue growing OUTSIDE the uterus, which is painful and often can cause other complications too. Before THEN, nobody knew what it was (so of course they knew nothing about endometriosis treatment, either).
Back in the ancient Greek days, a doctor named Hippocrates thought that basically all physical and mental illnesses in women were caused by the uterus randomly floating around the body.
Yep, he thought the uterus traveled around like are UFO in the body, getting up to all kinds of shenanigans!! 🤔🤔 Well, it was 2,500 years ago…
But it gets worse.
Back in the sexist Middle Ages, people thought women were just making up their pelvic pain and were “crazy.” And instead of “endometriosis TREATMENT”…they were often put in mental institutions or even killed.
Even in the U.S. until around the 1950s, the diagnosis of “hysteria” (coming from the Greek “hystera,” uterus) was considered legitimate, and women could still be put in a mental hospital if their complaints and symptoms were considered serious enough!
One good thing that came out of all this INSANITY, though:
Dr. Freud used to have a patient named Anna O., who did talk therapy for endometriosis treatment. Bad news? Freud thought it was “all in her head.” Good news? Anna was one of the first ever people to receive talk therapy, and while it of course didn’t cure the very real physical pain of her endo, she is now credited as the first person to bring “talk therapy” into the mainstream like it is today, helping MILLIONS of people!!
But as you can see, there’s this historical trend of extremely sexist doctors thinking that all women’s problems are made up, or that they’re crazy. And unfortunately, even today, this trend STILL persists in some ways.
Take what happened to Serena Williams, for example…
When she was in labor giving birth to her daughter, she started experiencing shortness of breath. And she had a history of life-threatening blood clots in her lungs, so Serena told the nurse to do a CT scan. The nurse basically reassured her and ignored her, and Serena could have DIED if she hadn’t insisted to a doc that she needed the CT scan.
Because, of course it turned out, she really did have blood clots in her lungs!
The same is very true for women who are trying to get endometriosis treatment.
Halsey said that when the pain caused her to collapse on tour and she went to the hospital, none of the doctors or nurses knew what to do for her. And they diagnosed her with depression and anxiety…but didn’t address the PAIN. It wasn’t until a few years later that Halsey found out she had endometriosis.
She actually had surgery for endometriosis right before she was at the Grammy’s! “I walked the red carpet at the Grammy’s with stitches in my stomach,” she said.
Julianne Hough and other celebs are also trying to raise awareness about endo, and how that horrible pain isn’t just in your head.
I know that nowadays, medical care and general attitudes toward women’s health is WAYYY better than it was back in the Middle Ages. 😉 But I think we still sometimes disregard women’s pain, because we think of them as being “overly sensitive.” So people think of the pain as just something they’re “exaggerating,” or not a big deal.
My advice for you, if you’re a woman who suspects you have endometriosis…and you feel like your doctor isn’t really listening to your concerns:
Find a new doctor.
Seriously! Keep insisting. Keep getting a second opinion. Because your quality of life is important and you deserve to find treatment that works!!
Sometimes, especially as women, we have to be our own advocate and stand up for ourselves.
Want to read about how I did this for myself a few years ago and COMPLETELY turned my life around? Click here to read that blog post!!
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