Endometriosis was baptized a “working” womyn’s disease stifling scientific inquiry or curiosity. Endo-myths are rooted in ideas that womyn suffer for delaying pregnancy. Bias plagues many, including doctors. Admitted or not.
Endometriosis is not your punishment. You did nothing wrong. Believe it or not, your body is trying to protect you.
Womyn are consistently held responsible for illnesses that impact reproductive parts. On a biblical scale, womyn’s parts are blamed for humanity’s downfall. Bucketlist chuckle. It’s little wonder womyn’s health is underfunded.
The pain of something growing and bleeding without exit is excruciating resulting in temporary and long-term disability. Endometriosis increases risk of certain cancers. Research suggests rare mutation of cancer-driver genes, like KRAS codon 12, in 10–20% of endometriosis lesions. Endo hacks physiological health. Depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts.
Finger-pointing relieves everyone. Lawmakers avoid meaningful action. Pharmaceutical doctors cut uterus, ovaries or fallopian tubes as a “catch-all” without prioritizing curative treatment. Bucketlist calls fuckery on “that’s how it’s been done.”
The endometriosis journey is painful, lonely, and confusing. How do you share that your best days are when it feels like a knife is stuck inside of you and not being jabbed over and over again? The physical agony matches the terror-gripped-countdown to what’s coming again. Every month. Welcome to endometriosis.
Bucketlist knows: It’s hard to explain. When you tell people you have cancer, there’s an echo. When you tell people you’ve had a miscarriage, an aww. When you tell people your period hurts, if you dare, “It’s normal.” Bucketlist Lifehack™: Menstrual pain is not normal. Discomfort is not pain.
Endometriosis is medically managed with repeat surgeries, hormones, and pain drugs. These management options are not curative.
Bucketlist confession: I felt blamed for endo. Of the many I endured, my Parents came to the hospital for one surgery.
One of my first doctors said, “It happens when you delay pregnancy.” I was a teenager. At my first ER studying in Montreal, the fourth doctor to poke inside my vagina asked how I felt. “Uncomfortable.” She replied, “I don’t do this to pleasure you.” My first surgeon recommended “get pregnant immediately.” At my first surgery in New York, a senior resident insisted I have an ovary removed. When I refused, he demanded an explanation. I didn’t know what was happening. I only understood removing an ovary was useless. He angrily said, “You don’t need both and you’re not making sense!” and walked away. It’s not easy to self advocate. Not everyone can say no to a doctor. I’d also refused the drug lupron, but the doctors spoke to my Parents, who’d arrived the day after my hospitalization and agreed to Lupron and left twenty minutes later. Bucketlist sigh. It sucks to list a bunch of first medical shizzle.
Bucketlist true story: I had a gut feeling endometriosis was connected to a microbiome imbalance. It was like something horrible had been turned “on” inside of me. My periods for years were easy and asymptomatic until I was attacked.
For over a decade I requested consideration of a link between endometriosis, amniotic fluid, abrupt hormonal disruption, uterine trauma, immunity and microbes.
One surgeon, a great one, explained there could be no link because (1) amniotic fluid is sterile, (2) endometriosis is preexisting and lifelong, and (3) retrograde mensuration likely causes endometriosis. Others ignored or found my independent queries cute.
Microorganisms are everywhere and talk to each other. Inside our bodies microbes determine energy absorption, immunity, protection, inflammation, vitamin production, and more. Bucketlist suspicion: It’s worth considering if microbial imbalances could trigger endometriosis in fetal development, puberty, or other hormonal phases or trauma. There are cases of men with endometriosis. “Backwards flowing menses” is insufficient.
In 2018 researchers in Japan took the bacterial link serious. In 2023 Japanese researchers connected bacterial infection and endometriosis. They found Fusobacterium, mostly Fusobacterium nucleatum, triggers growths and is higher in most womyn with endometriosis.
What if Fusobacterium, or another pathogen is a source of endometrial corruption? What if endometriosis is somehow turned “on”? There is no acknowledgement of post-event onset endometriosis in allopathic medicine.
A possible bacterial link in cause or treatment hasn’t been incorporated in practice yet. Dangerous ignorance and misinformation persists, like a June 2023 Washington Post article stating, “The only ‘cure’ for endometriosis is removing a person’s reproductive organs.” Removal of reproductive organs doesn’t cure endometriosis.
Bucketlist Healthhack™: Treatment for endometriosis can’t stagnate at surgery or antibiotics. Antibiotic usage should include the Bucketlist Microbiome Restoration Protocol. What Bucketlist calls, Trans-vu-sion (donor vaginal microbiota transfer) and Trans-poop-sion (donor fecal microbiota transfer) are worthy considerations.
Endometriosis is a disability – not officially recognized. Bucketlist true story: I worked in an office where the secretary hid a hot water bottle under her shirt. Unable to stand she walked hunched dosed on pain killers. I told her to go home. She couldn’t afford the pay cut casually sharing, “Don’t worry, I just have to get through a couple of days, the rest of the month isn’t as bad.”
Bucketlist knows a life where less pain is what you look forward to. You deserve zero pain. Millions of endometriosis sufferers don’t get necessary sick days. Access to healthcare is illusory. Existing endometriosis medical management harms fertility. Endometriosis is one clear example of the damage caused by the needless feud between pharmaceutical and alternative medicine when all hands on deck are needed.
A consequence of endometriosis is adhesions (body parts sticking together). It’s worsened or triggered by surgery, which creates its own glue. Physical therapy, pelvic floor physical therapy, manual scar tissue/adhesion therapy, herbal medicines, and acupuncture are mandatory for endometriosis sufferers. Expensive, unrecognized treatments.
Imagine yearly testing of a full cycle from first menstruation. More often for womyn with concerns. Tracking men’s monthly hormones.
Bucketlist asks: How many womyn with endometriosis have vaginal, cervical, uterine or any microbes tested? Menstrual blood? “We don’t know what causes endo but let’s yank that out, burn that, and add a drug” was never a solution. Womyn’s hormones become play things without reasonable efforts to understand processes or the true impact of hormone manipulation.
We’re trained to accept periods are painful. We mock PMS. No universal legislation requires pads like toilet paper. There are womyn and men-who-know-womyn-bleed every month in leadership. There are no plans to give womyn 7-days off monthly. Womyn in government and corporate leadership take the “live with it, I did” approach. “Live with it” is the current approach to endometriosis. Bucketlist calls fuckery. We can do better.
Bucketlist shares solutions discovered through research and painstaking personal experiments. Bucketlist wishes the endo experience on no one and their loved ones. With the right information, treatment opportunities, and policies, all is possible. Endometriosis is not your punishment. You did nothing wrong. Believe it or not, your body is trying to protect you. Don’t give up. In time there’s always a cure.
Bonne vie, Friends.