Brandi Runnels Instagram – After becoming pregnant with Libby I began to have internal pain. I was told by doctors at the time that this would go away. It did not. No suggestions were made for me, it was kind of like, best of luck with all of that 🫤 I found a new OB when we moved and it was more of the same. Not sure why I’m having pain and extreme bloating. Not sure why my cycle was crazy and unpredictable. The suggestion was made to see a pelvic floor therapist. Over the course of the last 3 years I’ve seen 3. All were lovely, knowledgeable and helpful, but none of it seemed to help with the pain. I saw another specialist and they said it was probably IBS, even though none of my symptoms aligned with IBS. When perimenopause was mentioned I gave up. I’m young (ish) and healthy and that wasn’t the right answer. I saw @marysemizanin post about her situation and I thought wow, that sounds like me…doing everything to find an answer but getting no answers and getting worse. I was thrilled to see she finally found an advocate and was able to get her situation under control. So because of her very open post, I decided to press on. I finally saw a doctor who performed a simple exam and said, this feels like endometriosis. You can have a surgical procedure to remove it. I was floored. Why no one else had mentioned or detected this in 3 years was beyond me but I finally had an answer and some validation. I researched with my doctor and found the best endo surgeon in the Atlanta area and we got scheduled for surgery. I was in the OR for about 2 and a half hours. It was stage 4 endometriosis which is the highest level so it took a lot of time to extract it all. I am SO GLAD I was finally heard after all of this time. The point of this post is this: if Maryse didn’t share her story, I would still be trying to manage all of this pain on my own. Someone reading this needed to see that I kept going until I found an answer and now hopefully they know that there’s an answer out there for them too. Women…we have to advocate for ourselves and our bodies. It is far too common in the medical world to be dismissed when it comes to Women’s health issues. Don’t be dismissed. ❤️