I wanted to make a post about my surgery experience to hopefully help some other women that suffer from the same thing that I do, endometriosis. For the past 10+ years, I have been suffering from severe stomach problems and nightmarish periods. I got my period around 13-14 years old and have always had the worst cycles. The cramps were excruciating and because of that, I was put on birth control when I was around 15 years old. At one point, my gynecologist had even prescribed me pain pills to help relieve some of the pain. Fast forward to 2011/2012 I ended getting diagnosed with severe IBS which resulted in many many tests and two surgeries. The past couple of years I just lived with my symptoms. I was over the doctor appointments and all of the tests and scans. At this point, I just chalked everything up as a loss. I would just have to miss work whenever things got bad. I was still on birth control but only getting my period every three months because I would skip the last row. It helped a little bit but once my period would come, it would be hell on earth. That is when I decided to go back to my gynecologist and figure something else out. I wasn’t sure if it was just my IBS getting bad and causing the problems or something more severe. My mom ended up coming with me and said how she had endometriosis and thought I did too. The more people I talked to in my family, a lot of them also had it. Since it can be hereditary we decided to meet with the surgeon and that’s when we scheduled the date  for an exploratory surgery. My surgery was on Mach 28, 2019 at a local hospital. I ended up being in surgery a lot longer then anticipated because my endo was so bad which had my surgeon in complete shock. She thinks that I started having it when I first got my period. In other words, it was essentially growing for over 10 years. The recovery was extremely painful so I am so happy that the surgery was worth it. Something that I found so weird afterwards is that March actually is Endometriosis Awareness Month and my surgery fell right at the end of it, almost like it was meant to be haha! As for future plans, we decided to get me on a birth control pill where I will consistently skip the last row (sugar pills) until I want to start trying to have kids. By doing so, it will stop my cycles all together. Unfortunately with having endometriosis, having children can be difficult to do on my own so I may have to do IVF. As bad as that sucks, I am just trying to stay positive. At the end of the day, it will all work out. If you also suffer from endo feel free to message me or comment below!