We just had a huge win by the updating of insurance coding for endometriosis. Given that it takes an average of 8 doctors and 10 years to diagnose endometriosis, what can we do to help change that?ĮndoFound has been doing incredible work to help change these barriers to diagnosis and treatment. There’s also great advice and information in credible groups that can help point you in the right direction, in terms of treatment options. There’s an incredibly supportive endo community online that’s brought me comfort during the hard days. What advice do you have for someone who’s suffering from endo-or any chronic type of chronic condition-and having trouble getting the right help?įor someone suffering from endo or any chronic condition, I would say lean on your community. I noticed that my endo flares are worse when I’m not feeling my best mentally. A big part of my endometriosis management is stress management. After going from doctor to doctor for years, that can be a really traumatizing experience. Chronic pain is associated with anxiety, depression, and even PTSD. I love this question! I’ve been working with NAMI and EndoFound to create a campaign that addresses chronic pain and mental health. As an ambassador for the National Alliance on Mental Illness and the Endometriosis Foundation of America, can you talk a little about the important-but-often-overlooked connection between chronic pain and mental health? When I’m on set or when I’m producing, there’s a lot of times you have to stand up for what you believe in-even up against big studios and executives. I think that’s bled into how I approach work as well. It took a lot of strength to tell a doctor they were wrong. Even though I had doctors telling me that I was “normal”, I knew that something was wrong. You know when something is wrong and when something is right. I learned to trust my gut through this experience. How did you learn to become a better advocate for yourself, and how has that impacted other parts of your life, especially your career? It helped alleviate the muscular pain I was experiencing from years of chronic pain. However, I found that pelvic physical therapy was something that really prepared my body for surgery. Surgery is really the gold standard for endometriosis. I could do something about it.īeyond the benefits of surgery, have you discovered any holistic treatments you’d recommend? I remember being in the hospital bed before surgery and just hoping that I had it, because if I had endometriosis then at least I had an answer. The reason I didn’t tell my dad for so long is because I wasn’t even 100% sure that I had endometriosis. This is something I hope will change in the future. The difficult part about endometriosis is that you cannot be sure you have endo unless you have surgery. Even though you’re close with your dad Jamie Foxx, you decided not to tell him you had endo until you scheduled your laparoscopic surgery. Therefore, I took it upon myself to be my biggest advocate and to not stop searching until I knew what was causing my pain. I felt like nobody understood how much pain I was in but me. Since endometriosis is an “invisible disease,” it can be challenging to fully articulate the intensity of your pain-not only to doctors, but even to your family, friends, and significant other. I felt very isolated in my experience of finding a diagnosis. And what was it like being in that much pain and not being seen and heard? There is no reason that a gynecological doctor should see a patient like me and not think of endometriosis immediately. The craziest part is that if you look up the symptoms of endometriosis, I am a textbook case. After months of switching doctors and advocating for myself, I finally got a diagnosis that made sense: endometriosis. Another doctor thought my pain was caused by a hormonal imbalance, which led me to take unnecessary hormones for a while. One doctor suggested I had bladder cancer, which was a terrifying experience. I went from doctor to doctor and most of the time, I ended up with more questions than answers. I was diagnosed with endometriosis in 2018, after almost nine months of trying to figure out what was wrong with me. So when were you diagnosed with endometriosis? You went to, what, four or five doctors before someone even mentioned endo?
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