6.6 years

The average time to diagnose endometriosis is 6.6 years, and the delay can range anywhere from 1.5 years to 11.3 years, occuring at all stages of the process from symptom onset to diagnosis.

A dull ache starts to take over my body
on a random day.
“No physical explanation,” they say.
So is it all in my head then?
Other girls my age seem to be
spontaneous,
fun,
thriving, and just
making the most of it all.
While I’m wondering - should I use
a heating pad? a painkiller? or just stay home?

For you never know when it strikes.
One moment you’re fine, and the next you’re
on the floor wondering why -
why does a “healthy” body hurt this much?
The blood tests say I’m fine, and so do scans.

But there I go, for 8 years,
wondering if I’m just going crazy
and the pain is just in my head.
All alone, as people say, “Take better care.”
As if my overly careful
and extremely inhibitive lifestyle
is not “careful enough.”

Until one day, I find out —
it’s the BIG E! Endometriomas!
But of course, I’m not trying to “get pregnant”,
so “we’ll see what to do then.”

Just pop the pain meds and wait it out
until I’m ready to serve the purpose
that my body “was made for.”
Why is a woman’s health and well-being
tied to whether or not she is having children?

Do I not deserve to live pain-free nonetheless?
Why are there 15,000,000 versions of viagra
while birth control has a pamphlet
that looks like a textbook?

6.6 years is how long a woman suffers
before her pain gets acknowledged and diagnosed.
What would science do,
if a man had to suffer this long for a diagnosis?
Would it devise better tests?
Formulate better medicine?
SPEND MORE MONEY ON ANSWERS?

6.6 years is almost 1/4th of my life so far,
stolen from me and my CYsters in solidarity.
Women who could have
solved world hunger, or cured cancer,
or simply been happier humans,
but were instead hearing
that their pain is “not big enough.”

Yet still, I HOPE — to speak up
and fight for a future where no one waits
6.6 years to be believed.