The goals are listed here, and I have chosen the following: "To improve health screenings for endometriosis among girls and young women in public schools. We will be reaching out to the Department of Education to help us launch nationwide educational campaigns and health screening in public schools so that school nurses, counselors, and administrators can recognize and screen for endometriosis and other chronic pelvic pain conditions that afflict girls."
I remember when I first started getting my period around the age of twelve. It effin hurt. I wasn't allowed to miss school, so I had to endure the pain while trying to pay attention in class and pretend like nothing was wrong. As I got older, the pain got worse. I remember being allowed to miss a field trip in high school because it wasn't really an important one. But it was supposed to be fun, and I hated missing it. That evening my best friend in the whole world called to see where I had been, and I told her. Then she asked me, "What's the big deal? It's only cramps." It was right then that I knew that the pain I felt during my periods wasn't the same as most other girls felt.
As the years went on, the pain got worse with each period and it got to a point where I literally could barely walk during them. Forget crossing campus to get to classes in college. Then when I was working I would try to fight through the pain, but there were numerous days of leaving early or not being able to make it in at all. Luckily I had a boss who was willing to work with me, but the coworkers weren't always so understanding. One day I was walking down a hallway, and the pain took over me. I literally stopped in my tracks and had to kneel down on the floor. People were all around, and it was terribly embarrassing.
Through all of those years, I knew my pain was greater than a lot of others', but I thought it was my normal. So did my mother. Her sister had periods worse than me when she was growing up... vomiting and literally passing out each month. I can't even imagine. But knowing that, I was grateful I wasn't as serious and just assumed it ran in my family and was my lot in life as part of being a woman.
Imagine if endometriosis had been something they told students about in sex ed or health class. With it being as common as one in ten girls and women having it, that seems very reasonable to me. Imagine if my mother or I had known about it back when I was a teenager. I would have actually gone to a doctor to inquire about the possibility of me having it. I could have maybe been diagnosed way the eff back then and been spared over a decade of misery. I could have possibly had a laparoscopy back then. What if my organs are now damaged and I'm unable to have children? What if surgery back then could have avoided that?
What if the millions upon millions of women with endometriosis who never sought help for a disease they didn't know existed actually had back in their early years of menstruation? What if they could have known their pain was not normal and there was an actual reason for it?
All of this in a roundabout way of saying that early detection can be life altering. Education of the students and the faculty in schools could lead to an amazing chance of a better life for so many girls afflicted with the disease. I really hope the EndoMarch us a big step towards that.
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