It's not just the lack of sympathy that shocks me, but the lack of competent medical care. Pain is not normal. Brushing is off is entirely irresponsible in my opinion because pain can be caused by benign conditions, but also malignant ones.

I read Fran Drescher's book Cancer Schmancher and it took her like eight or nine doctors to get a correct cancer diagnosis. And it wasn't even a gyn that diagnosed her originally, but a GI doctor. I mean WTF? Shouldn't a gynecologist be more observant with diagnosing gynecological cancers than a GI doctor? Not to mention she was going to top of the line gyns.

I'm with you on being your own advocate and to not giving up. There are good doctors out there, you just have to weed through the bad ones first.

AMEN! AMEN! and AMEN!

I understand that medical professionals are TRAINED professionals, but what happened to understanding that WE KNOW our bodies. Many of us who suffer know when something is "just not quite right". I saw doctor, after doctor, after doctor. Before I found the right one I refused prescriptions for pain medications so I wouldn't be accused of "doctor shopping" for pills.

PAINFUL PERIODS ARE NOT NORMAL and if someone else says that to me I think I'm just going to scream in their face. Cramps may be normal... feeling like my insides are turning inside out, painful sex, doubling over in pain, barely being able to walk, becoming nauseous from pain, and having to rearrange my entire day because I'm having a period IS NOT!

I was sitting at my desk the other day with a heating pad and my co-worker says "Oh God, it can't be that bad. I used to have bad cramps too". My response - "Really? Have you been on 10 different birth control pills, naturopathic remedies, or had 5 different surgeries because of them"? Needless to say, she just walked away.

All doctors should LISTEN. It's a shame we have to deal with endo, it's even worse that we have to search for people to hear us and understand. Both of you ladies make such great points!!!

Thanks for getting this soapbox started SayYesToCarbs (and I do by the way)... I'll step off now and let someone else have a turn.

*drops mic*

I agree... but am I surprised? NO! I am not surprised because if we look through history as far back as I am sure man kind goes, women's problems have always been minimized and made to look like a fool.
Look at the term "female hysteria" once recognized as a medical disorder. Women were forced into asylum and even would undergo surgical hysterectomies. And what type of symptoms would merit such treatment? Faintness, nervousness, sexual desire, insomnia, fluid retention, heaviness in the abdomen, muscle spasm, shortness of breath, irritability, loss of appetite for food or sex, and "a tendency to cause trouble.
Name one female you know that has not once in her life experienced one of these symptoms. You probably can't.
I realize our medical profession is not only men any more but I feel they are still male minded when it comes to women's health.

Like Wildorchid said, even other women dismiss us. My boyfriends mom is a good example. And even a woman at work apologized to me because she did not realize I was in as much pain as i said i was until several months later when someone else in her family had it.

Preach!

PoisonedApple, i had no idea Fran Drescher went through such trouble to diagnose her cancer. that's AWFUL! if she had difficulty, what hope do us regular ol run o the mill people have? and i guess that's what concerns me so much, pain can be caused by benign and malignant conditions. The hesitancy i keep reading of doctors not wanting to do anything but Rx meds is baffling.

Wildorchid81,my doc said the same thing. Painful periods are not normal! and debilitating pain associated with your period is absolutely not normal! and that is such a good point about even other women dismissing the pain/problems. A friend of mine had an ablation for heavy periods and i know was just trying to be sympathetic to my plight and said something about how happy i would be not to have a heavy period any more. (i had an ablation and lap for excision of endo) and i told her that i'd take a heavy period any day, that it was the crippling pain and fatigue i want to be rid of, that i want my LIFE back. she didn't know what to say.... i guess because i just powered through, it "really couldn't have been that bad." no one can understand till they've been there.

jashleyg8, that is a really good point..... history seems barbaric in the treatment of women healthwise.... but the lack of progress in listening to and treating womens problems, especially a "invisible" disease really hasn't made a ton of progress. We are supposed to be the "weaker sex" but we sure do endure a hell of a lot more than men. Endometriosis is not well known at all despite the number of women suffering.... yet look at the attention and drugs offered to men with Erectile Dysfunction. Does that really make sense?

i am really considering writing a few national news stations on the plight of women with this disease, the lack of knowledge by medical professionals, the difficulty many women have in getting the proper treatment. Has anyone here tried doing this before? I mean, my case is really straightforward, i was diagnosed with surgery within a year and a half of suspecting endo... some of you have such AMAZING (and might i say horrifying) stories of poor care, lack of care by doctors, being told your pain is normal.... i think about all the women out there that don't know about a support system like we have here and just take their doctors word for it and continue to SUFFER!

OMG when I was 15 I went into the gyno to get birth control to control my periods which lasted for 2 weeks every 2 weeks to the point I couldn't go to school because they were so painful. The dumb bitch said that she "knew why I was there and to make sure I was using condoms and not to LIE about my pain". Like what? My mom knew I would bleed thru an overnight pad in an hour. She always had to go to school to bring my new bottoms because I would bleed thru. Than I switched doctors and complained about my cramps and the fact I couldn't use tampons. She said to me that it's not that bad and that she (the doctor) only used pads so its ok. Like what? I went to this dumbass for years because I was too stupid to know better. While I was on birth control I felt OK for the first few years because at least I knew when my periods were coming and it wasn't AS heavy. Than I complained to her nurse practitioner that I wanted to switch bcps to something that would give me a lesser period. She claimed that all birth controls were the same, but switched me anyway than wouldn't switch me again when I had a constant period.

The breatking point with this particular doctor was when I said I couldn't have sex (later to find out I had vulvodynia) she said some women weren't meant to have sex. WHAT. THE. FUCK! So I switched to another doctor who treated me fine but when any problem arose she'd flip out she told me I had vulvodynia (truth) and she thought endo but that she refused to do surgery on someone so young not looking to get pregnant. I asked her what I was supposed to do for pain and she said take Advil....

OH MY GOD no compassion ugh!

My shock value over this has declined rapidly over the years I hate to say. It mostly started when I was dx'd with my breast cancer. I was dx'd when I was 26 and thankfully mine was caught in time. My doctors were on top of things when my lump didn't go away. I hear so many heart breaking stories of women to this day who are now stage 4 (for those of you who don't know its the worst kind) and they are that way because their docs didn't take them seriously or felt that they were just too young to have cancer and their are still so many others that have passed from bc for this same reason.

I'm with you on the angry with docs issue. I don't get how hard it is for you to say to someone I'm sorry I don't know whats bothering you. Let me call a specialist for you. Let me do some research. etc. For some reason people these days are so (pardon my french) fucking lazy. OMG you have to take 2 more steps to do your job, boohoo, I just paid your ass 150 buck for 15 minutes of your time. I don't have health ins I had to pay out of pocket which makes me a paying customer. Therefore you better give me what I pay for.

However thankfully the only issue I've ever really had with my docs is their freaking lazy and rude office staff. Which is another long story.

I'm sorry but to be any kind of doctor you need to have a good bedside manner and know how to treat others.