In Sixteen Years of Endometriosis Amy and Brittany

Gratitude has many benefits and can even change the way we feel about our lives, but it can be hard to practice when we are suffering and exhausted from our endometriosis symptoms and challenges. We talk about how powerful stories are and how books, movies, and connecting with each other in this community can help us find gratitude, inspiration, and strength. CONNECT WITH US! INSTAGRAM: @in16yearsofendo WEBSITE AND RESOURCES: insixteenyears.com

This is the final episode in our 4 part series on medicine’s sex and gender bias, in which we continue to focus on how this bias affects womxn’s care. Today, we wrap up everything we spoke about in the previous 3 episodes, with an emphasis on ‘medically unexplained symptoms,’ mental health referrals, and stereotypes around being distressed about symptoms. We also continue to discuss results from a 2018 theory-guided literature review which looked into how gender bias and gender norms have affected medical treatment, specifically for men and womxn with chronic pain. Finally, we give tips on what we can do to receive better care now that we know the sex and gender bias exists. CONNECT WITH US! INSTAGRAM: @in16yearsofendo WEBSITE AND RESOURCES: insixteenyears.com

Ever had a flare that was so incredibly awful you felt like you were in an actual horror story? Amy tells us about a time when her period unexpectedly came while she was sightseeing on vacation (by herself) and her struggle to make it back to the semi-privacy of the hostel. Afterward, because she felt so mortified by what had happened, she couldn’t stop judging and tearing herself down with her cruel self-talk. She had no self-compassion for herself, and that worsened an already traumatic and unbearable situation. We talk about why self-compassion is important, what it is, and a few ways we can practice it. CONNECT WITH US! INSTAGRAM: @in16yearsofendo WEBSITE AND RESOURCES: insixteenyears.com

In this episode, we explore the “gender” side of the sex and gender bias in medicine. This is part 3 of our series, and we look at assumptions and stereotypes specifically related to womxn and illness as held by the overall medical community. We give a brief overview of the history of hysteria, and highlight some ways illness in womxn was viewed culturally in the past 150 years. Finally, we discuss a 2018 theory-guided literature review which looked into how gender bias and gender norms have affected medical treatment, specifically for men and womxn with chronic pain. CONNECT WITH US! INSTAGRAM: @in16yearsofendo WEBSITE AND RESOURCES: insixteenyears.com

The most commonly used endometriosis staging system is the rASRM, which classifies endometriosis into 4 stages. In spite of its prevalent use, this staging system has many limitations, a major one being that it completely leaves out Extra Pelvic Endometriosis! We discuss some flaws of the rASRM, and chat about two other classification systems called the EFI and the Enzian system. We also share the Amy and Brittany Classification Staging System that we came up with, which involves a screaming toddler and apples. CONNECT WITH US! INSTAGRAM: @in16yearsofendo WEBSITE AND RESOURCES: insixteenyears.com

This is part 2 in our series on medicine’s sex and gender bias. In this episode, we talk about the ‘sex bias’ and why science knows less about the body of people assigned female at birth. This means that less is known about disease presentations and side effects for medications for people with these bodies, as well as illnesses that primarily affect them… like endometriosis! We discuss some of the federal regulations in the US that led to this and some ridiculous examples of studies that failed to include biological females in their research. CONNECT WITH US! INSTAGRAM: @in16yearsofendo WEBSITE AND RESOURCES: insixteenyears.com