i'm really excited for the endometriosis saliva tests that are coming out because I believe that there are tons and tons of people who were not born with a uterus or ovaries who have been suffering from this horrible disease for years. We know for a fact that cis men can develop it after prostate cancer and other conditions that raise estrogen levels, why would it be any different for trans women who have been taking estrogen for decades? Nobody should have to suffer like this.
Medical misogyny hurts EVERYONE!!!!
Endometriosis is not a gynecological disease at all. The reason it has been classed as gynecological for the last century is because the lesions need estrogen to grow. The strongest concentration of estrogen is around the ovaries, obviously. But the lesions aren't picky at all; it doesn't NEED ovarian or uterine tissue to develop. Just estrogen.
It is a full body disease that causes highly inflammatory lesions that can attack any kind of tissue, anywhere in the body. It has been found in the lungs and the liver. It REGULARLY sets up shop in the digestive system, getting cozy around the bowels and rectum, often requiring extensive surgery (uncluding bowel resections requiring ostomy bags) to restore "normal" digestive function. Mine ate through my entire right ovary, no original ovarian structure left. Just a hemorrhagic cyst, full of rotting clotted period blood.
It just doesn't kill us reliably or quickly enough to be considered cancer. But in my experience and in the experience of other people with stage 3 to 4 endometriosis that I have spoken with, we suffer just as much.
