Yellow For Endo

The Bite My Music team was recently approached by 19 year old Fareen Khan, who requested us to help share her Facebook effort to bring about awareness of Endometriosis to the public. We decided to take it one step further and bring her efforts to the world. This is what she has to share :

Yellow for Endo group on Facebook

What’s Endometriosis?

If you were to Google it, the net would tell you that Endometriosis is a gynecological medical condition in which cells from the lining of the uterus (endometrium) appear and flourish outside the uterine cavity, most commonly on the ovaries. Also, it includes complications like internal scarring of the uterus(lesions), adhesions, pelvic and chocolate cysts and many more. Endometriosis has no known cause or cure, and that’s why it is such a complicated condition to fight. Women with Endo go through an ordeal in terms of their symptoms or throughout the condition. A patient of acute endometriosis may go through extreme menstrual cramps and common occurences of pelvic pains. Women with a more advanced, chronic level of endometriosis can have symptoms like chronic back pain, pelvic pain, painful sex, extreme fatigue and so forth. Endometriosis is one of the main causes of infertility in women and only has a few methods of MANAGEMENT but no actual cure.

What’s this got to do with me? 

“I’m like a cocktail of women’s problems. Ever since menarche, I discovered that I was going through a lot of pain and changes that a lot of other girls did not show. At age 13, I was diagnosed with the mother of all problems, hirsutism. Hirsutism is  is the excessive hairiness on women in those parts of the body where terminal hair does not normally occur or is minimal. A few months down the road, I was then diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) which is pretty common among women these days. Doctors started me on oral contraceptives at such a young age in order to treat my PCOS as well as slow down or manage the hair growth. For a 13 year old, oral contraceptives were too heavy and if I wasn’t throwing up all day, I was sleeping all day. I couldn’t handle the power of the medication. My parents asked me to stop and to fight this with a special diet instead. Now as a teenager, growing up and going to high school different from all the other girls out there wasn’t the easiest thing to do. I had to keep myself groomed because of the hair growth with waxing, plucking and all that jazz, and I was constantly teased and made fun of if anyone realised the abnormal hair growth. Especially since I went to Catholic High School, a mostly, Chinese school. But it was something I learnt to deal with and eventually got over. However around the age 16, I started to realise that there was A LOT of pain in my body, a lot of sudden jabbing stabbing and wrenching pain in my pelvis. So I visited the gynae once again, and not only did I have more cysts in my ovaries, but I also was diagnosed with Endometriosis. I decided to start back on the oral contraceptives, because it was the only option to get better and to ever have hope of having children.

These pills were little monsters that made me throw up and made me so tired, but I fought through it and eventually got used to it, throwing up was a daily affair and I just got used to it. But it wasn’t until 2 months ago that things started to take a turn for the worse, I was losing weight fast, losing hair, abnormal vaginal bleeding which was not menstruation and I sunk into depression for no reason. And then the PAIN started. Like never before. I had wrenching, jabbing, stabbing, and scratching pain in my bowels and tummy constantly. It was the kind of pain that brought me to my knees screaming or at times, I would just collapse because it was too much. Finally got to consulting a gynaecologist, and she explained that, my body was at a very bad stage of endometriosis. The tissues have been spreading to various parts and my ovaries have shut down for more than a year, completely not functioning. I was taken off my pills as they were of no use anymore and the only option given to me for TEMPORARY RELIEF is surgery (something which I am not too fond of). As I’ve mentioned before, endometriosis, has no cure. I refuse to tax my parents financially, and so I’ve chosen that for as long as I can, I’ll fight Endometriosis alone, without medication or surgery, as much as I can handle it. New diets, new lifestyle, new exercises, and a lot of goddamn determination. Because this pain, drains the best of me.”

What I’d want to tell people?
“It’s so hard to summarize this because there is SO much to say. But in short, I’d want to tell women AND MEN out there, that even though they don’t hear about Endometriosis that often, and it is almost alien to a lot of people, it’s more serious than they think it is. It’s as good as cancer. It’s lethal on a very low percentage but it definitely KILLS a woman inside. From knowing that she will never be able to bear kids to the fact that the pain brings her to her knees. It really really needs some attention. 1 in 10 women are affected by Endometriosis and they don’t know about it till their late 30′s because there is no awareness being spread about it. It’s not like Breast Cancer or AIDS, where people constantly talk about it. I know many women are SCARED to come out and talk about these problems because it can be embarassing or for that matter, make them feel incomplete, when compared to other women. It’s really really time to step up. To go out there and talk about this and to push for research! Endometriosis warriors want a cure too, they want to be free from pain. It’s only when people know about it , that’s when they’ll dig deeper. Apart from all that, I think the MOST important thing is to let women out there know that they are NOT ALONE. There are so many “Endo Sisters” out there fighting this and all they need to do is get together and support each other with all the strength they have. This is painful yes, but it has the ability to define a lot of women and they MUST know that. Endometriosis is about rising above, rising above the pain, the embarassment and the fear of rejection. I personally think that sometimes you have to fall really hard before you rise really high.”

Bite My Music shares:

“I believe that Endometriosis is a condition that one doesnt have to face alone and with this amazing effort by Fareen, more women out there will now be able to understand it better. Any woman who experiences abnormal or extreme pain and bleeding should seek advise from a professional gynae and not rely on visit to clinics or self medication. If untreated or given the wrong consultation, it may lead to a more serious condition or complication which may result in the growth of cancer, tumours, miscarriages and complicationis in pregnancies later.Yellow for Endo is a huge step that will also provide the right information and research for more women encountering a similar scenario and will also educate men out there of how they may be able to  support their loved ones or friends. In the coming weeks, we are also going to engage and interview medical experts in this area to provide the right advise and the latest research into this condition through our website and social media  platforms ” said Meera Thuraivel, COO of Saintz & Sinnerz and Bite Media.

Some useful links  :

www.thefightlikeagirlclub.com

www.endometriosis.org

www.livingwithendometriosis.org

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