girl you are not alone! people who never suffer both men and women dont understand. talking to my teachers was the worse. if i was in pain on the day of a test no matter what i had to go and take it or i couldnt make it up. friends make it seem like "its just a period move on" attitude. i had a few friends tell me "you will have it for life so learn to deal with it now until you hit menopause" with the fertility issues EVERYONE seems to think adoption will solve the worlds problem but they dont understand is couples strive for their own biological child and not everyone is for adoption. i struggled for years with trying to talk to friends, family, coworkers and bosses about my endometriosis but i realize most people just think its "period pain" take some tylenol and call it a day. its frustrating! the only thing i do is let people believe what they want about it. im the one who suffers so i know my own body. if they dont believe me fine because at the end of the day i know the truth and im still going to continue talking to people about endo.

btw im so sorry your friend is so insensitve. as an endo sufferer herself im shocked she has the lack of knowledge and friendship skills to not support you

Dealing with friends and endo is VERY tricky. I know for me, really none of them understood, though they pretended. I knew they were angry when I couldnt go out or had to cancel because of endo. I had my best friend from 12 years old (she was like my sister), basically drop me after a serious surgery. I was 27 years old, and she was supposed to come to my house to take care of me a few days after the surgery. Not only did she not show, she called a week later! It was very sad to me. It is very difficult also when you're younger, because younger people cant fathom being chronically ill.
I wish I had answers on what to do. My best piece of advice is that your friend and her friend dont validate your pain and problems with endo. Next time you feel judged try to remember that. The truth is, the majority of people, younger and older do not understand.
I hate to say this, but maybe it might be helpful not to talk to your friend about endo if shes not supportive and compares your endo to her friends. I would feel bad too! Im sorry this is happening. Thats why we have this forum! We're all pretty much in the same boat. I would talk and confide in people you can trust not to judge you.
Its hard to find this, but I say in terms of friends-quality over quantity! You deserve support, and definitely not to be judged. Best of luck! XX!

I am very sorry yout friends do not understand what is to live with endo. One of my friends has the same issues with pain, back
Pain, headaches etc so is really nice to be able to talk about without thinking she is tired of the same conversation. My others friends are always calling to see how I am doing and want to know what id going on with my endo. I dont think they fully understand endo buy they support me.

Take care,

I am smiling. I am smiling because I have had the same issue since I was 13 years old. I am now 41 years old and nothing has changed. I have told doctors, friends and specialists that I am out of commission for 2 to 3 days a month. I miss work sometimes because of the pain and I only get out of bed to eat and go to the bathroom (either to throw up or wait for the next flood to go through so I don't have to change a pad in the next 5 minutes). I have so many drugs in my system that my liver is screaming but even that feels better than my mentral pain.
I honestly think that the pain is from the nerve endings and how they react to the endometrium (just an uneducated guess). I have known others that have an immense amount of endo and have no pain and some that only have a little but carry alot of pain (the specialist verified that to be true as well). I am at the point now that I am actually considering hysterectomy to get rid of everything.
I have found in my many years of pain that if I constantly track my cycles (I count days on the calendar) and I can predict about the time my period is going to start that I can prepare a day or two ahead of time by taking anti-inflammatories before and during to help tame the pain. Recently I accidently ran across a new medication that was used for a shoulder injury that seems to work really well Mobic 15mg (aka Meloxicam) it is a non steroidal anti-inflammatory that seems to work well for me. I don't know if it would work for anyone else because I don't know anyone else who has tried it for menstral pain, but it is worth a shot.
Doctors are still baffled by the female system. They have not made much headway in figuring it out. I think most of it is because women are hard to analyze. Our bodies look alot alike but we all have a high degree of reactions to different things and the varying circumstances make it difficult for them to track responses and results. Doctors get frustrated because they do not have a definite answer for these problems.
You unfortunately will never get those who do not have your type of pain understand how painful it actually is for you. I am very sorry to tell you that because I have been trying to explain it for years and have not figured out how to make them understand. They still look at me with those blank stares, blink and move on to the next topic. Just know that you are not a pansy, you are not crazy and other people DO know and can empathize with your pain. Good luck with your struggle and remember that you are not alone.

First of all, I am SO sorry you are going through this, and for everyone else who has this problem. But you are most definitely not alone. I am very fortunate to have my friends support, even though they don't fully understand. Unfortunately, I have this problem with my family. They see the tears behind my smiles and always make comments about me being so "sad" all the time. No matter how many times I try to tell them that I AM happy and just in pain, they don't believe it. They too say that I should be use to it and need to take tylenol and move on; they look at me funny when I say tylenol doesn't help. What I have learned, is to ignore when they treat me this way. Otherwise, my feelings get hurt and I feel like I don't have their support, even though I know they love me. NO ONE knows your pain but you. We all react to this differently, but those who do not suffer similiarly don't understand that. It's tough to deal with these situations and we all learn different ways of coping. I hope you can take something from our stories to learn how is best to handle it for you. In the mean time, I'll be sending prayers your way!!