My Endometriosis Story: From Constant Pain to Getting My Life Back

The Beginning of My Endometriosis Journey

So it recently dawned on me that I haven’t shared my endometriosis story in detail in a while — and how I went from three weeks of pain every month to just a few flare-ups a year.

My story began when I was 19 years old. In my freshman year of college… when things were supposed to be fun + easy.

I got mononucleosis my first few months of college, and shortly after that, I started having a lot of other health issues that I will be diving more into in a sec.

I do want to preface this by saying that I never really had super painful periods, however, I did have a lot of digestive issues growing up and now looking back, these were my first signs of having endometriosis. My digestive symptoms looked like constipation +/diarrhea, bloat and reflux… ya know, your typical "IBS" symptoms that can very easily get brushed off or dismissed with a prescription.

My First ER Visit + Laparoscopy for Pelvic Pain

As I continued moving forward in my journey in college, I began to experience pelvic pain, pelvic pain that landed me in the ER at 19, feet up in stirrups, getting a transvaginal ultrasound, techs insinuating I was pregnant because I was a young female with abdominal pain, and a super mean and dismissive ER Doctor who straight up told me that my pain that woke me up in the middle of the night and landed me in the ER (NOT WHERE A KID WANTS TO BE) was in my head. I’ll never forget the hostility I was met with.

At this point, I was already on the pill. And I want to note that I didn’t get on it for period reasons.

But with all their testing, they ended up finding a small ovarian cyst and referred me to an OBGYN, but they told me that there was nothing else that they could do for me. After seeing the OBGYN, he told me he wanted to keep an eye on my pain and see if it got better or got worse, and if it didn’t improve, he was going to perform surgery to remove the ovarian cyst. I want to note that there was no mention or talk of endometriosis at this time.

We ended up scheduling the ovarian cystectomy, which did not really provide me much relief, because not long after I got off the table, my pelvic pain had still continued and had actually gotten worse. One of my very good friends in college had endometriosis and she told me a few times that my pain / symptoms sounded JUST like endometriosis, but at this point I hadn’t really explored it.

Conflicting Opinions and Delayed Endometriosis Diagnosis

So throughout the course of a year, I was battling gut symptoms, bladder issues that were a little bit more new, and then this constant pelvic pain… I had seen an OBGYN in the town I lived in for college + he told me I had it + recommended surgery, but I decided to go back to my original OBGYN…

Who was not very believing of the fact that I could have endometriosis because when he cut me open a year before, he didn’t see any. He said “there’s no way that I could have endometriosis grow within one year”, which, looking back, was pretty unfortunate, because if he had actually taken me seriously or looked for the endometriosis prior, we probably would have caught it sooner, because I believe that no endometriosis was looked for within my first surgery.

But sure enough, after having me see a bladder specialist, sending me to a GI doctor (all at my OBGYN’s request) and getting a diagnosis of interstitial cystitis and IBS I was still having pelvic pain. The bladder procedure that I ended up having provided me great relief of my interstitial cystitis symptoms, but the medications I was taking from my IBS were not working, and I was still having so much pelvic pain.

First Endometriosis Surgery: Ablation + Hormone Therapy Struggles

So I was finally able to convince my OBGYN to do surgery and he did. He did a diagnostic laparoscopy for endometriosis with ablation. He ended up finding the endometriosis tissue and ended up removing it via ablation. And this did provide a little bit of relief, but not much. After surgery, I tried many different birth controls, everything from the Depo shot to many different forms of the oral contraceptives. I've also tried Lupron and Orlissa to “stop the growth of my endo”.

By the age of 24, I had done a total of 2 years of medically induced menopause because I was told this is the only way “I’d conceive” if I wanted to have kids one day.

My symptoms improved a bit, but then my mental health severely struggled with all the hormones so I stopped the menopause therapy. A few years later, I had gone in for a routine transvaginal ultrasound, and they found a Dermoid cyst on my left ovary and another cyst on the right. So they went in for surgery again, where they removed both the cyst and also removed endometriosis again via ablation. I have not ever had excision surgery.

So by this point now, I’d had two surgeries for endometriosis ablation, and then one surgery for an ovarian cystectomy. (Cyst removal).

The Power of Functional Medicine for Endometriosis

Unfortunately, after this, I was still having a lot of pain. And I had gotten to a place with my gut issues where I had debilitating food sensitivities that left me with a very small, safe list of foods. I was terrified of food. I had a sh*tty relationship with it, and I wondered if this is how things were always going to be.

But somewhere along the way, deciding to take a more natural approach to balancing my hormones and supporting my cycle through finding doctors like Dr. Jolene Brighten and Dr. Lara Briden. And the things/habits I implemented honestly brought me a tremendous amount of relief.

I had no idea that there was so much within my power to manage my endometriosis symptoms and to improve my period pain. I never thought that I could possibly get my life back without being dependent on these hormone medications for life that were causing a lot of other symptoms, especially mental health ones. But I did. And it’s because I dug deeper and learned how to support MY body from a holistic standpoint.

Working with a few functional practitioners really changed the game for me (and I say a few because it took me a couple before I found one that REALLY understood endo + my body). But my endo symptoms, IBS, my PMDD and so much more improved or disappeared. Because HI HELLO, it’s ALL CONNECTED.

And what made the HUGEST difference for me was diving deeper into my gut health, mineral imbalances + nervous system. Literally going from 3 weeks of pain every month to a few flare ups every couple of months is my WHY.

The WHY behind Radiate with Rita

This is exactly why I started my business, Radiate with Rita, and why I do what I do today. Had I not gone through the actual sh*tty phases of endometriosis and struggled like hell along the way, I would not have ended up where I am today where I get to serve women that have endometriosis, painful periods, PMDD, gut issues, etc, actually get their lives back from these chronic issues.

Because it is possible, even if they don’t want you to believe it is.

The Full-Body Nature of Endometriosis

It was never just the endometriosis, IBS or IC.. It’s so easy for the traditional medical model to focus SO hard on diagnoses alone and NOT what lets to them.. And don't get me wrong, these issues can totally wreck your life (+ def so if you let it).

But at the same time, it's not just about hormones and hormone suppression. Estrogen alone is not the culprit. Endometriosis is a full body disease that affects the ENTIRE body. The immune system. It has genetic and environmental components. It can be found in your eyes, on your skin, in your lungs, on your diaphragm, and in so many places within your body. It is not localized to the reproductive tract, and it is NOT a hormone condition.

Why Birth Control and Lupron Don't Address the Root

And the longer we continue pushing the birth control and Lupron narrative, the longer we are keeping women from being able to support their bodies in the way that their bodies are literally begging for. And I'm not saying that Lupron and birth control can't be helpful methods to improve your endometriosis or period symptoms. I will always be pro-informed consent.

However, these meds are not addressing why your endo got so bad in the first place. They're not addressing the inflammation that's coming from blood sugar imbalances, poor digestive health, poor absorption, poor lifestyle habits, an inflammatory diet, nervous system dysregulation, etc. And when we just slap a band aid like the pill on these issues to “preserve fertility and stop the growth of the disease”, we actually do women a disservice.

Because the same issues that caused your endo to get so bad can affect your fertility, if this is a goal of yours. Waiting until women quit the pill + have issues conceiving to finally take action + address this disease doesn’t serve us. Not the mention all the side effects of the pill that can actually worsen endo + lead to other issues.

Endometriosis and Fertility: A Holistic Perspective

This is, again, why I do what I do, and why I serve women in the way that I do, not only helping them dig deeper into their symptoms, but the why behind them, and also, if their goal is to conceive, to help make sure that they have the most optimal outcome possible— especially for my clients with endometriosis.

Because conceiving with endometriosis is not as simple as just removing the endometriosis tissue via excision surgery, though this is SUPER important. We have to be able to absorb the nutrients from our food. Our bodies need to feel safe. Our blood sugar needs to be balanced, and we need to have a lower state of inflammation within the body.

Why I’m Pursuing Excision Surgery

But I also just want to keep it real because I am ALL about transparency, especially with me being in the wellness/holistic space which can feel a BIT hard to trust right now.. for me included.

While I have done a LOT of work on the functional/ holistic realm of things and have seen tremendous improvements in my symptoms, I have still had some lingering pelvic pain (that will wake me up from sleep) and that occasionally flares up around ovulation and it has led me to pursue excision surgery. My new OBGYN did an ultrasound and found about a ~6cm endometrioma on my right ovary + it makes SO much sense as to WHY I’ve been having the pain I have.

So just wanted to highlight that you can do all the things from a natural and holistic standpoint of things, but traditional medicine, especially excision surgery, is instrumental to see the most relief and to improve outcome (especially with goals of conception) + quality of life with this disease.

We will dive into this a little bit more later, but I just wanted to share my journey, where I'm at now, and what I’ll be doing to help myself prep for this next surgery. Stay tuned.