Awareness

So today I came across a post on another blog that I think bears re-posting.  Since I am living with endometriosis and I didn't even know that a lot of awareness events existed, I can only guess that most of you didn't know either.  I have learned that March is Endometriosis Awareness Month (along with my birthday!), yellow ribbons symbolize support for Endometriosis sufferers and now this.  In fact, here is the main article on the EndoMarch website.  I am pretty excited that someone else thought to describe endometriosis like I did!  (I did NOT write the following two articles.  If you want to read more from them, please see the cited sources).

"Endometriosis: the cancer-like disease you should know about

Want to make a difference in approximately 200,000,000 lives?
Then please join us for the first ever Worldwide Endo March (Million Women March For Endometriosis), scheduled to occur in dozens of capitals around the world on March 13, 2014.

Though you don’t hear much about it in the news, endometriosis is surprisingly common, with at least 1 in 10 women and girls, usually of reproductive age, affected and suffering with crippling pain in the prime of their lives. Yet, often they receive woefully inadequate medical care, including 6-10 years delay in diagnosis, mainly because endometriosis pain has been accepted as normal for centuries. Pre-teens and teenagers are especially susceptible to misdiagnoses.

You may have heard that endometriosis can destroy the uterus, ovaries, and fallopian tubes. But did you know that it also:

• Shares many features with non-fatal cancers?
• Can metastasize much like cancers essentially anywhere in the body?
• Can potentially cause irreversible damage to essentially any organ or structure, such as: the lungs, liver, heart, eyes, kidneys, brain, bladder, bowel, diaphragm, nerves, and muscles?
  
  Your sister, mother, daughter, or even you may have it, yet be given the wrong diagnosis and therefore the wrong treatment, all of which can potentially lead to irreparable damage, infertility, and a life of unspeakable pain.
  And so, that’s why we’re marching – to turn back the tides of centuries of misinformation – and let the world know that endometriosis is a serious disease with severe medical consequences if left untreated."

(Courtesy of http://www.millionwomenmarch2014.org/)