sup 🅱️amers

Hello my loves! I know I haven't posted consistently in quite a few years (oops) but today I want to talk about something near and dear to my heart - endometriosis. I was officially diagnosed back in 2023 and am coming up on my second surgery in the next couple months. 1 in 10 AFAB individuals have endo, and on average, it takes roughly 7 years to be diagnosed from when symptoms start presenting. Yes, you read that right. Seven. Years. It took me roughly 6 years, and I feel lucky that this was my timeline. Should I feel lucky? No, absolutely not, because going to the doctor at the age of 18 and telling them something is wrong and not being properly treat for SIX WHOLE YEARS is NOT okay. While I am based in the United States, this is not just a problem in the United States. It's slight better in some places, but that average stays pretty much the same. This is the result of deeply rooted sexism in the medical field and in research. We're finding out every day that AFAB individuals present different symptoms for illnesses, have different health needs like the number of hours of sleep per night, and yet people don't seem to be talking about the underlying issue with how long it has taken for this to be researched and how far we still have to go. If you also have endo or suspect you do, please accept my words of support: you are loved, you matter, you do not deserve to be dismissed, it is not just in your head, you deserve proper diagnosis and treatment based on the way that YOU want to live your life