You really need to know this about endometriosis

You may have realized by now just how important education is when it comes to creating positive change. Putting good information out into the world is important for clearing up harmful myths and getting everyone, endometriosis suffers and everyone else, on the same page.

But among the most important things we need to teach is a simple fact that must start before nearly everything else. It’s a fact that will unify our cause through and through. It’s a tip that, if understood, will cause all endo sufferers and all supporters, to be united and joined in a way that will have maximum impact on the cause of endometriosis advocacy and on the way we all care for one another.

The fact we must broadcast is this: Endometriosis. Is. Experienced. Differently. By. Everyone.

If you expect that your symptoms should be the same as your daughter’s or niece’s, you’re incorrect. If you are a healthcare provider and you’ve seen deep infiltrating cases where the patient barely felt a twinge so you assume the stage I case must “not be so bad”, you are wrong. If you assume that someone’s “ability to carry on” or “ability to look polished” is indicative of a lack of suffering, you are wrong. Basically, if you catch yourself making any assumptions on someone’s symptom severity or mental well-being or treatment choices or any other detail, you’re crossing a very dangerous line.

When you compare yourself to others or compare one patient to another, you are doing everyone a disservice. Your story, your tears, your decisions are just as valuable as the next person’s because each person gets one life and one body with which to experience life. There is no possible way in this existence to fairly compare one life to another, because the details of our lives are so complex and varied.

Endometriosis does not seem to discriminate on how it tortures. No matter what the scope and what the stage, no matter how it has or has not affected fertility, no matter if a person passes out or stays awake with the pain, no matter if guts or bladder are affected, no matter if a person can “push through” much of the time or cannot… they are not markers on display for your judgement.

The bottom line is this: how you have your periods or how you experienced pain or how you think someone comes across is completely inconsequential of another human’s reality.

If we want to make massive strides for endometriosis awareness and advocacy, every single human needs to throw their assumptions and comparisons away for good.

Be open, be unified, be love.