Doctors Said “It’s Just Period Pain” - But It Was Stage 4 Endometriosis w/ Jennifer Sears

[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of healthcare professionals they're not emotionally invested in the lives of their patients. [SPEAKER_00]: I was told as a teenager that my stream period cramps were normal. [SPEAKER_00]: Regardless of what everyone is telling me, this is not normal. [SPEAKER_02]: Jennifer Sears is not only an actress, but an activist using her platform to bring awareness and avoids to those diagnosed with endometriosis. [SPEAKER_02]: Something she's been working through since 2019. [SPEAKER_00]: I had the laparoscopy, the attending physician said this was one of the worst cases of endo he had ever seen. [SPEAKER_00]: At that point it's sort of a spread to other organs and one of my philopians who is now flat. [SPEAKER_02]: One of

the conditions that takes up to 10 years to diagnose is endometriosis. [SPEAKER_02]: severe period pain has been compared to heart attack pain. [SPEAKER_00]: I felt like I was literally on fire on the inside. [SPEAKER_00]: I just swept it all under the rug and tried to live as normal as I possibly could. [SPEAKER_02]: When were you symptomatic with the pain and the cramping? [SPEAKER_00]: I was having pain the duration of my cycle, but different degrees. [SPEAKER_02]: By using your platform, it's personal. [SPEAKER_02]: Tell me how you feel about power of storytelling. [SPEAKER_00]: There have been so many women battling an invisible disease, trying their best to live a normal life. [SPEAKER_00]: So to amplify the voices

of so many women who have felt invisible, it's a beautiful moment. [SPEAKER_02]: All right, let's talk about this. [SPEAKER_02]: We're going to get right into this. [SPEAKER_02]: And one of the things that upsets me the most is one of the conditions in the United States that takes up to 10 years to diagnose is endometriosis. [SPEAKER_02]: And so you started having some strange odd symptoms as a teenager. [SPEAKER_00]: Yes. [SPEAKER_00]: So I was told as a teenager that my stream period cramps were normal. [SPEAKER_00]: And not just by healthcare professionals, but by women and my own family. [SPEAKER_00]: um, I started late. [SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, it was kind of like a rites of passage like,

oh, you're you're becoming a woman and this is just something that women go through and, you know, oh, you're, you're being dramatic. [SPEAKER_00]: It can't possibly be that bad to where you need a heating pad and you've got to lay down on the bed. [SPEAKER_00]: You can't do anything. [SPEAKER_00]: You can't do any of your chores. [SPEAKER_00]: Are you [SPEAKER_00]: within women in my own community. [SPEAKER_00]: So that kind of made me think that, okay, I just need to suck it up and self it out. [SPEAKER_00]: And I didn't think to go to my doctor and tell them that I was experiencing these symptoms and that the pain was excruciating. [SPEAKER_00]: Actually, debilitating, to where

I couldn't get off the bed. [SPEAKER_02]: You know that thing that I thought it was just normal. [SPEAKER_02]: You thought it was normal. [SPEAKER_02]: And so I am a minority woman. [SPEAKER_02]: You are a problem black woman. [SPEAKER_02]: And we do, unfortunately, normalize the abnormal. [SPEAKER_02]: And I talk about this all the time, because a lot of my patients were minority women. [SPEAKER_02]: They were drawn to the fact that I would understand them and understand the culture. [SPEAKER_02]: We, I did see that barrier to care that is unique in some families where we became our own worst enemies because we normalized it generation after generation and I saw this with endometrosis. [SPEAKER_02]: I saw this

with fibroids and it's already hard enough out there to be a woman on our healthcare system and in families when we and I don't think it came from ill will I think it was just right what we were taught right that it is and I I agree I and it's a very interesting point that you brought up considering that you know we are women of color and I think that from our community. [SPEAKER_00]: Not saying any other community can relate to this, but we have an innate ability to adapt your struggle. [SPEAKER_00]: Not just physical health issues, but just life. [SPEAKER_00]: Trying to find your place in the world where you fit in, where your

voice can be heard, where you can be seen. [SPEAKER_00]: And so yeah, I think that I just took that as I've seen struggle, right, I grew up in a rough, a very rough part of New Jersey, Patterson New Jersey to be to the exact, but I, I've seen struggle, I've seen where, you know, we've, [SPEAKER_00]: just had to make the best of certain situations. [SPEAKER_00]: So that's what I thought. [SPEAKER_00]: This was, I just have to make the best of the situation. [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, well, it only happens once a month. [SPEAKER_00]: And you know, but that, once a month is hell. [SPEAKER_02]: So I'm on a, you know, I have goosebumps because my parents were

immigrants too. [SPEAKER_02]: And I've had a job since I was 15. [SPEAKER_02]: And then they told me, you know, no one can take away your education or your hard work away from you. [SPEAKER_02]: So I have to do that. [SPEAKER_02]: I was kind of taught and born and raised with that same grit. [SPEAKER_02]: But you know, period pain has particularly severe period pain. [SPEAKER_02]: has been compared to heart attack pain. [SPEAKER_02]: Or we call myocardial infarction. [SPEAKER_02]: So what we tell, can you imagine telling the world just live with a heart attack once a month? [SPEAKER_02]: It's fine and not a big dramatic. [SPEAKER_02]: Not only suck it up, but like go to work, you

know, take care of your kids, go to school, go to your stuff, sports, like take care of yourself to all of that stuff. [SPEAKER_02]: The one question I do want to ask you though is you commented on something, you said you started late, it looks so later in life. [SPEAKER_02]: So I meant you mean chronologically, age wise, how old were that age? [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, age wise. [SPEAKER_00]: I, I didn't get my first period until freshman year. [SPEAKER_02]: I believe it was freshman year high school. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: And so that is on the later side of what we called Menarky, but we are seeing it younger and younger, particularly in, you know, minority women where

they are starting to get their cycles earlier. [SPEAKER_02]: But that is on the later side, particularly back then. [SPEAKER_02]: That is on the two mid. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you know, I'm 50 years young. [SPEAKER_02]: So I think I'm that far behind you. [SPEAKER_00]: And you look amazing, let's just put that out there. [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, I feel the same way you've popped out of like, she is beautiful, not a lizard, bio, kick ass, but she is beautiful. [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you. [UNKNOWN]: So, [SPEAKER_02]: So you started to have these symptoms. [SPEAKER_02]: You know, they were normalized. [SPEAKER_02]: I love the fact that you were already bold and saying, because people look like kind of tiptoe around the gas

lighting thing and I'm like, no, it's happening. [SPEAKER_02]: How else do you have a condition that is so debilitating that takes 10 years to diagnose? [SPEAKER_02]: So tell me about your diagnostic journey then. [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, so oh, and I also want to go back and revisit why all you mentioned sports and all of the other things, I was a cheerleader imagine wearing these skimpy uniform. [SPEAKER_00]: Everything is constricting skirts or tie you have your bloomers on underneath and it's just it's everything is just causing a lot of inflammation so I knew then. [SPEAKER_00]: regardless of what everyone has to tell me, this is not normal. [SPEAKER_00]: I felt like I was literally on fire on

the inside. [SPEAKER_00]: And so I just kind of like just swept it all under the rug and tried to live as normal as a life, as I possibly could, maintaining four point OGPA [SPEAKER_00]: being in band and color guard and cheerleading and track and all everything else that I was doing. [SPEAKER_00]: It's a wonder that it just didn't go crazy, you know, from the pain and the gas lighting and no one believing me. [SPEAKER_00]: And so go on to college. [SPEAKER_00]: with the stress of college and being a political science pre-law major, you can understand what I was facing, you know, having to create my own sources for my senior thesis and just everything that

goes into being a political science major and the stress causing inflammation. [SPEAKER_00]: So it was just [SPEAKER_02]: an incessant miracle round and what was going on in your body also causing insane inflammation you just didn't have the word for it or the diagnostic term so you've got that in relation you've got the outside stressors you're selling though right you're doing everything that you need to be doing and meanwhile so how long were your cycles lasting [SPEAKER_00]: There were the usual seven days, but it would be an extreme, heavy flow, the first three, four days, and then kind of trickle off and sue a light flow, a lighter flow, spotting. [SPEAKER_02]: I do seven days to

sleep. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm just lying. [SPEAKER_02]: You know, like seven days is long, it's not the average. [SPEAKER_00]: And so like you're like, yeah, seven days. [SPEAKER_00]: But I've heard other women say that they've, [SPEAKER_00]: had cycles last thing nine eleven days. [SPEAKER_02]: And I'm like, that's a whole other week. [SPEAKER_02]: So were you in pain a couple days before? [SPEAKER_02]: Was it just your heaviest days? [SPEAKER_02]: Like when were you symptomatic with the pain and the cramping? [SPEAKER_00]: I would say I was having pain. [SPEAKER_00]: the duration of my cycle. [SPEAKER_00]: But just different degrees. [SPEAKER_00]: So I would have extreme pain the first three days, first three, four days. [SPEAKER_00]: Towards the end, the

last three days, I would say it was just a dull ache. [SPEAKER_00]: where it felt like it was more bowel involved. [SPEAKER_00]: And so, I want to, it's important for me to mention that because I want to circle back to that in a second. [SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, going to college, a political science pre-law major, graduate college at the intersection of, what do I do with my career, which pathway do I take? [SPEAKER_00]: entertainment. [SPEAKER_00]: By way of a friend who invited me to an open casting call, now why did you? [SPEAKER_00]: I did not have any acting background. [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't study, you know, I didn't, I didn't graduate, you know, with in theater arts,

I didn't study mass media, I had no entertainment. [SPEAKER_02]: experience. [SPEAKER_02]: Okay. [SPEAKER_02]: I love where this story is growing. [SPEAKER_00]: All right. [SPEAKER_00]: So I go to this, um, I go to this open cast and call just before I'm making a decision. [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, do I want to go to law school? [SPEAKER_00]: Do I want pursue law as profession for my family, right, because again, coming from, um, [SPEAKER_00]: You know, my humble beginnings, my career was gonna be mostly for my family, for my mom, for my grandfather, who was a sharecropper, who was a literate, never learned how to read or write, but in college, he paid for all my books. [SPEAKER_00]: So the

very books that he himself couldn't read, he was making sure that I had access here. [SPEAKER_00]: So I said, okay, for their sacrifices, [SPEAKER_00]: I can kind of sacrifice my own happiness for the sake of making them proud. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so I understand as the eldest daughter of an immigrant family, I get it. [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: But my passion was always in the arts, even as a child. [SPEAKER_00]: So when I saw that open cast and call opportunity, I took it. [SPEAKER_00]: And that ended up being Tyler Perry's [SPEAKER_00]: Right. [SPEAKER_00]: So we filmed that 2005. [SPEAKER_00]: It was released 2006 and I've now been blessed with a 20 year TV film career. [SPEAKER_00]:

However, [SPEAKER_00]: You know, monkey bars swinging from one stressful period of my life of being college, well, from high school to college to now being in TV and film where you're having to learn your lines, you know, I wrap it speed, um, being on, on, on set and learning your cues and where to stand and blocking and everything, everything that's new. [SPEAKER_00]: So, [SPEAKER_00]: If you can imagine, that's causing more inflammation, more stress. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm just trying my best to manage it all. [SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, to your point, I didn't have the words to put the experience that I was having, but it wasn't until I had gotten married and at that

time, my then husband and I were trying to [SPEAKER_00]: We were married for three years and I thought maybe, you know, people say, if you stop stressing about it, let it go, just let it happen and God's time. [SPEAKER_00]: It'll happen naturally. [SPEAKER_00]: And three years go by. [SPEAKER_02]: in no baby, which by the way, just let me interrupt even doctors who are conservative and you go by the definition after a year we usually step in. [SPEAKER_02]: Even if you're young, healthy, you think okay, supposedly on paper, okay, I know, I hear all the dismissals and I hate it so much and that's why it takes 10 years. [SPEAKER_02]: But [SPEAKER_02]: theoretically, if you're listening

and you've been trying to have a baby and it's been a year, it's time to see a provider who lives in love. [SPEAKER_02]: Yes, red flags. [SPEAKER_02]: It doesn't mean it's impossible, but just time to start investigating. [SPEAKER_02]: I do, and it's [SPEAKER_02]: I'm sorry. [SPEAKER_02]: No, no, no. [SPEAKER_02]: I do want to go back for a second before we go down this baby making and because you said that you're in your college You're brilliant. [SPEAKER_02]: You're setting pre-law and you're you're just trying to you're surviving and you're figuring it out So what were some of the remedies that you because not we didn't have fun tech. [SPEAKER_02]: We didn't have at home You know

period wearables that we have now or trackers so [SPEAKER_02]: what I don't want to say concoctions but what you know treatments or therapeutics did you figure out on your own to survive like how how did you manage? [SPEAKER_00]: I was married to my heating pad we had we had a good thing going [SPEAKER_00]: then that movement would help. [SPEAKER_00]: And that's the last thing you want to do when you're going when you're having those extreme pains. [SPEAKER_00]: So, will you take an ibuprofen or will you take an aspirin? [SPEAKER_00]: I couldn't take aspirin because I'm allergic to aspirin. [SPEAKER_00]: I could take insets, so I would take ibuprofen, [SPEAKER_00]: heating pad, trying to breathe, trying

to relax, because I did realize that having some deep breathing, and I didn't, again, I was, that was what 19, 2021 years old, I didn't, I didn't make, it didn't make sense to me then. [SPEAKER_00]: that there was a correlation between breathing, movement, exercise, light movement was going to help my symptoms. [SPEAKER_00]: I was just doing what felt good in the moment. [SPEAKER_00]: And then now, like fast forward, I'm like, oh, all these things do work together. [SPEAKER_00]: I just didn't know what then. [SPEAKER_02]: So you're three years in, and you've learned about advocacy in pre-law, and being visible as an actress, and now you're married, and there's no baby, [SPEAKER_02]: And so, what are

you doing at this point? [SPEAKER_00]: At that time, I had a doctor who was not believing, and it still don't founding to me because I was a walk-up patient, right? [SPEAKER_00]: I'm a woman of child bearing age into your point, like a year goes by. [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's time for your health care professional to say, okay, well, let's see, let's let's do the math. [SPEAKER_00]: You're a woman of child bearing age. [SPEAKER_00]: You've been trying for X amount of time. [SPEAKER_00]: Let's do a laparoscopy and see if there's what's going on inside. [SPEAKER_00]: I was complaining about five boy pain. [SPEAKER_00]: At that time, I didn't know that it was they were five boys. [SPEAKER_00]:

But I just kept saying I was having some extreme pelvic and uterine pain. [SPEAKER_00]: And [SPEAKER_00]: She discovered I did have some five boys. [SPEAKER_00]: She goes, well, let's leave them in there because if you want to have kids, um, I don't want to go in there and, you know, fuss around with it. [SPEAKER_02]: Now, did five boys run in your family because you and I would do it. [SPEAKER_02]: No, they disproportionately affect my nor any women. [SPEAKER_02]: I also suffer with five boys, my mother has one. [SPEAKER_02]: But they weren't very common in our family. [SPEAKER_02]: I got them later in life, but I had horrific pain. [SPEAKER_02]: cycles like you as a very

young person and I struggled and was dismissed as well. [SPEAKER_02]: So you had fibroids. [SPEAKER_02]: Did they make the diagnosis at that time of end of me? [SPEAKER_00]: No, it's it's hook me being hospitalized. [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, well first let me back up. [SPEAKER_00]: I was hospitalized for [SPEAKER_00]: The entire four years of my marriage. [SPEAKER_00]: I was married for four years. [SPEAKER_00]: Every year I was in the hospital. [SPEAKER_00]: And it happened around the same time of the year. [SPEAKER_00]: And I have no idea why. [SPEAKER_00]: So I thought I'd figure out what that was. [SPEAKER_00]: But every December is seemed like I was in the hospital. [SPEAKER_00]: Why everyone was enjoying Christmas and getting

together with families. [SPEAKER_00]: I was in the hospital. [SPEAKER_02]: Was this because of pain management? [SPEAKER_02]: Or was this because you were becoming so anemic from the heavy bleeding? [SPEAKER_02]: Our combination was from... [SPEAKER_00]: This was mostly the pain. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think I had a history of anemia other than, you know, my teenage years, but as an adult, my diet, I changed my diet to where I was incorporating, I was eating a lot of iron rich foods. [SPEAKER_00]: And to another way to, I want to go back to your question about [SPEAKER_00]: what was I doing to kind of like manage my symptoms as an adult when you're making your own money and you're

buying your own food and everything. [SPEAKER_00]: I started to switch up my diet. [SPEAKER_00]: I started to see, okay, this is causing inflammation and let me make this, lesson four break this. [SPEAKER_00]: So, and I still do that even now to this day. [SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, I would say it was mostly, I was hospitalized with a pain. [SPEAKER_00]: There was one particular year, 2018, my pain was so severe that I was vomiting, I was weak, I was shaking, and my mom said, you sound like you have an infection in your body, you need to go to the ER. [SPEAKER_00]: So I go to the ER, come to find out I had a cyst that had

ruptured, and it was leaking toxins [SPEAKER_00]: My attending physician, who was it my, my gynecologist at the time, who was gaslighting me and saying, oh, it's fine, your period pains are normal. [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, you're having struggles with fertility. [SPEAKER_00]: It'll happen when it's supposed to happen. [SPEAKER_00]: She wasn't my attending physician. [SPEAKER_00]: So the attending physician at the [SPEAKER_00]: a case of endometriosis, but I won't know until people form a leproscopy, and I want to wait and so. [SPEAKER_00]: You're discharged and we go, let's clean this up for us. [SPEAKER_00]: Let's get rid of this, let's get rid of the infection. [SPEAKER_00]: And then once you're healthier, let's call you back in. [SPEAKER_00]: Let's have

a laparoscopy. [SPEAKER_00]: If I see an endometrial, endometrial, endometrial, my lesions that I'll surgically remove them. [SPEAKER_00]: And so that's exactly what happened. [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I want to mention, so I remember I was talking about the pain that I was experiencing as seemed like it was bowel related, well, that gynecologist, the gaslighting one. [SPEAKER_00]: She sent me to gastroenterologist and they diagnosed me with Crohn's. [SPEAKER_00]: So they said, well, your symptom sounds like, you know, there are crones, so they started treating me for crones before they even did the biopsy, the colonoscopy and biopsy. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, the colonoscopy and biopsy came back negative that I didn't have crones, but I had been getting treatment for

almost a year. [SPEAKER_00]: So that's another year that had been wasted, [SPEAKER_00]: Considered, okay, all of the factors fertility issues, the pelvic pain, the painful periods, all of this could have been caught much earlier before I started to spread. [SPEAKER_00]: So fast forward, I had the laparoscopy, the attending physician said, this was one of the worst cases of endohiet ever seen. [SPEAKER_00]: At that point, it was stage four and it started to spread to other organs. [SPEAKER_00]: the scar tissue started to fuse all of my organs into one mass. [SPEAKER_00]: So he had to go out, go in, and clear out a lot of the cobwebs, as he called them, which is the scar tissue,

and one of my philocian tubes is now flat. [SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, all of that happened April 2019, that was my first [SPEAKER_00]: pretty well through diet, exercise, like exercise, making some lifestyle changes. [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, and my doctor put me on oralisa, but I did not like, I didn't like how it was making me feel, what it was doing to my body. [SPEAKER_00]: So I made an executive decision to take myself off oralisa [SPEAKER_00]: I don't like to say permission because we have body also on me. [SPEAKER_02]: I was just about to say bodily autonomy, not my authority. [SPEAKER_00]: There we go. [SPEAKER_00]: That's the truth. [SPEAKER_00]: Yes. [SPEAKER_00]: So I told him I didn't like

what was what was going through my body. [SPEAKER_00]: It was taking me through early menopause. [SPEAKER_00]: It was giving me depression. [SPEAKER_00]: It's extreme. [SPEAKER_00]: depression. [SPEAKER_00]: And at that time, I was going through a divorce. [SPEAKER_00]: So you can imagine the depression of that and what was happening to me mentally and emotionally physically. [SPEAKER_00]: And then you add in the drug that I didn't really see. [SPEAKER_00]: I can't say this for every patient, but I didn't really see a difference. [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't see how it was improving my my symptoms, how it was improving my disease state. [SPEAKER_00]: So I, I wanted to explore other options. [SPEAKER_00]: So I put me on low low

estrin, and then that coupled with, you know, like I said, the lifestyle change that I was making. [SPEAKER_00]: I was managing the disease, I pretty well. [SPEAKER_00]: I can't fair I had reached home, you know, stasis. [SPEAKER_00]: But I was, I was doing pretty well. [SPEAKER_00]: So I would say I was in remission for about three, four years, [SPEAKER_00]: Just last April, I had my second Exition surgery. [SPEAKER_00]: And that was quite an undertaking. [SPEAKER_00]: Where did you have that done? [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I had that before I'm dead, Northside Hospital in Atlanta. [SPEAKER_02]: The reason I asked that is, you know, I have a two-decade long career, and I took care of a lot of

patients with endometriosis, [SPEAKER_02]: But you know the majority of us, including me, even though the gold standard of care is exigent therapy. [SPEAKER_02]: And so what we mean by that is actually removing the endometrosis or the abnormal tissue that can end up on bowel, bladder, outside, you know, the uterus. [SPEAKER_02]: We used to think, doctors, because I want to explain you're so well-versed. [SPEAKER_02]: I'm like, I'm sure you're not a doctor and a lawyer and an actress, that I want to explain the listeners, because you've said so much. [SPEAKER_02]: So we're going to just like break down things. [SPEAKER_02]: So we used to think that I was trained, that end-to-be-trueuses was the inside lining of

the Uris that spills out the Philippian tubes and ends up, you know, taking root for some women. [SPEAKER_02]: We now know that the first part is true. [SPEAKER_02]: Yes, women can have retrograde flow. [SPEAKER_02]: Yes, you can bleed out your flow into it, then you can also bleed out through the uterus through the cervix and on to your tampon or pad or disc or whatever you're using for your [SPEAKER_02]: But now we know that the tissue is actually like the endometrial layer, but it is not the actual endometrium. [SPEAKER_02]: However, the tissue responds to hormonal fluctuations. [SPEAKER_02]: Yes. [SPEAKER_02]: So that's why for a lot of women, sometimes the pain is going to go down.

[SPEAKER_02]: chronic or daily, and then it worsens with cycles, you know, because it responds to those hormonal fluctuations that are going on. [SPEAKER_02]: The reason you brought up Labaroscopy, which is surgery, where we put in a camera to look and then we can do biopsies, is because at that time, and up until this past year, that was the only way to diagnose endometriosis, [SPEAKER_02]: was to put women through surgery, surgery, and which is insane, which is insane. [SPEAKER_02]: So you have the diagnostic barrier. [SPEAKER_02]: You have the gas lighting. [SPEAKER_02]: You have the lack of data, you know, funding research. [SPEAKER_02]: And then on top of it, like I said, I'm a board of certified

OBGYN [SPEAKER_02]: to me that's madness and you know insurance companies, they still will refuse to pay for exiginal surgery and will force women to have either a blade of surgery which is what I did. [SPEAKER_02]: Where you burn the you know the lesions that you see yeah using radio frequency or some type of [SPEAKER_02]: But the thing is, is you're only getting, like, think of it as a mushroom, like you're only getting the top of it, correct. [SPEAKER_02]: So you're not getting that deeper part of that lesion, which is still going to cause a patient pain. [SPEAKER_02]: So you have not cured her, and then the medications that you mentioned, there's a couple now on

the market. [SPEAKER_02]: We used to give people, um, [SPEAKER_02]: oh my god what lupron but then you know along came Orion or Norlissa and my Fembrie some of the newer generation ones and these basically because end of me trocestant fibroids need two things to grow they need a good healthy blood supply which young patients give give them and then they need hormones and so you either remove them or remove the blood supply for fibroids and [SPEAKER_02]: or you shut down the hormones, which puts young women through a very debilitating temporary menopause, periodmenopause, so hot flashes, and somnia, night sweats, brain fog, decrease to be the brain fog, right? [SPEAKER_02]: The word finding, as an actress,

you can't have that, like there's no way. [SPEAKER_02]: and then the endo belly and all of that. [SPEAKER_02]: And then you already have painful sex when you have fibroids and when you have endometriosis and then when you are tanking someone's hormone levels you're going to have even more painful sex. [SPEAKER_02]: So some of the newer generation medications will do a little bit of ad back of hormone so they tend to be better tolerated and [SPEAKER_02]: I used to do combination therapy where I would do surgery and then I would all that I would you know, add the medication quickly afterwards and I would get patients seven to ten years interval free where they would almost

be completely asymptomatic and a lot of my patients you know would go on and have pregnancies and have babies but it wasn't until I watched the [SPEAKER_02]: and a lot of advocacy work in D.C. for endometriosis that I realize that exesional surgery is the gold standard and that I realized what a barrier to care insurance companies were making it and women weren't either taking out loans selling their belongings like homes to be able to pay for the surgery. [SPEAKER_00]: And this is healthcare. [SPEAKER_02]: This is healthcare. [SPEAKER_02]: And this is not just quality of life. [SPEAKER_02]: This is so you can do your activities of daily living. [SPEAKER_02]: Like you can go to work. [SPEAKER_02]:

You can take care of yourself. [SPEAKER_02]: You can take care of your family. [SPEAKER_02]: Like so you can function as a human being. [SPEAKER_02]: And then God forbid you want to be selfish and have you want to be a mom? [SPEAKER_02]: Like, oh my God. [SPEAKER_02]: And you don't want to feel like you're in menopause. [SPEAKER_02]: Uh, it's... [SPEAKER_02]: It's astounding to me, and that movie she did, I think she did too, she did below the belt. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and then, and don't, and don't, and don't, and don't, and don't, and don't, yes, because people are like, what, what do you have? [SPEAKER_02]: And so her advocacy work, you know, reminds me a lot of

what you're doing because, you know, by using your platform, it's a very personal thing to talk about. [SPEAKER_02]: But for me, as a doctor, as a podcaster, as a founder, I found that storytelling combined with data is some of the most powerful things that we can do to smash the status quo. [SPEAKER_02]: So tell me, yeah, so tell me how you feel about that as an actress and as someone who is struggled with enemy trusses and the power of storytelling. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to try my best not to get emotional. [SPEAKER_00]: I like to say it's about fair time because there have been so many women who don't have a public platform, who have felt

invisible, battling an invisible disease, a disease that no one can see, [SPEAKER_00]: trying their best to live a normal life. [SPEAKER_00]: And just being continuously gas lit by not just healthcare professionals, but husbands, family members, people in their inner, in their circle, [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think it's ill meaning they just don't understand and when you don't have a good support system, when you're battling something that's flooring to you and you don't have the words, you don't have the information, you don't have the resources. [SPEAKER_00]: It's scary and you're wondering, am I ever going to live a quote-unquote normal life? [SPEAKER_00]: Am I ever going to be able to get out of this bed? [SPEAKER_00]: I'm

just being able to take a shower without being doubled over in pain. [SPEAKER_00]: I think we're in a beautiful point in time where we're having empowering moments [SPEAKER_00]: our fellow indoor warriors. [SPEAKER_00]: I celebrate Bindi Irwin. [SPEAKER_00]: She talks about, she used her platform to talk about the 50 regions, 50, 50 one lesions that she had surgically removed 2023, I think it was. [SPEAKER_00]: Amy Schumer, Auguste, Tia Mallory, [SPEAKER_00]: Halsey, the singer, amazing. [SPEAKER_00]: She has helped me a lot in my, in my wardrobe, my journey with Endo, with her, her transparency. [SPEAKER_00]: Just to see, she's a tiny woman, but to see her endo belly with all of the exesion markings. [SPEAKER_00]: And she's

saying, this is the body that has supported me. [SPEAKER_00]: And I mean, a longer one to judge it. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I have like this window belly. [SPEAKER_00]: People may not understand it. [SPEAKER_00]: They may think, oh, she really got herself going someone in an industry. [SPEAKER_00]: They look at your body and they make judgments and critiques. [SPEAKER_00]: Not understanding that you're battling this invisible disease and your weight is going to fluctuate. [SPEAKER_00]: You're going to have this this this belly, this flinch and they're going to wonder, oh, did she let herself go or she pregnant and I can't begin to tell you how many times when I was married and trying to get pregnant. [SPEAKER_00]:

People within, you know. [SPEAKER_00]: My husband spent my thin husband's family saying, oh, is it finally time? [SPEAKER_00]: Are you are you pregnant? [SPEAKER_00]: And that's the one thing that you want more than anything and you're hoping you're praying and it's not happening but your body is showing signs that you're carrying that you're with child but it's a disease that's attacking your body. [SPEAKER_00]: And so you're being gaslit and you're being, you know, [SPEAKER_00]: you're being questioned what you're doing with your body, why are you letting a body go? [SPEAKER_00]: So to hear that people are using their platforms, using their voice to amplify the voices of so many women who have felt invisible, unheard.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's a beautiful moment to see. [SPEAKER_00]: this happening and to and it's finally being pushed on the forefront and it's guarding the attention that it's it deserves it's not just a reproductive disorder it's a full body disease and I think that's something that people don't really understand. [SPEAKER_02]: I literally was going to tell you that was my biggest take home message from storytellers like you when you're in there [SPEAKER_02]: That's not what the textbooks tell you. [SPEAKER_02]: That's not what you're learning the surgery and learning about the drugs. [SPEAKER_02]: But so many people think it's a gynecologic disease or disorder. [SPEAKER_02]: But no, being in pain all the time, it is a sexual

health issue. [SPEAKER_02]: It is a GI issue. [SPEAKER_02]: It is, like you said, an inflammatory issue. [SPEAKER_02]: It is, [SPEAKER_02]: a mental health issue. [SPEAKER_02]: I have watched it really. [SPEAKER_00]: It really is. [SPEAKER_00]: It really is. [SPEAKER_02]: It is implode over this because either, you know, the lack of being able to get pregnant or the chronic, you know, sexual pain or the moodiness or like being tired all the time because you're in pain and you're just trying to make it through your day. [SPEAKER_02]: And so for me, I think that was the biggest eye-opening tick-home message from taking care [SPEAKER_02]: and listening to them in the offices. [SPEAKER_02]: And I think what you and

I are doing is myth-busting, giving women a safe space to discuss what's going on. [SPEAKER_02]: But I want people to know it's not all gloom and doom. [SPEAKER_02]: People are now getting trained on excision surgery. [SPEAKER_02]: There are people I learned about them when I went to one of the screenings that are studying and to meet Foxes down at the Vanderbilt. [SPEAKER_02]: There are people that are fighting and winning with insurance companies and making sure that the Exition Surgery is covered instead of putting women through multiple different [SPEAKER_02]: There is now a brand new test called the Endom Test, which is a flood test, now that is available. [SPEAKER_02]: It is not yet, like people

like me, I haven't heard of it. [SPEAKER_02]: It's just coming out to fruition and there are, and it provides a quicker diagnosis. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, absolutely, because you don't have to wait for that surgery or, you know, some women cannot afford the surgery because they haven't met their deductible yet. [SPEAKER_02]: So it removes that barrier. [SPEAKER_02]: But the lock lab at Vanderbilt University is doing EV fingerprinting, basically using the vesicles and the blood to detect some molecular signatures of enemy triosis. [SPEAKER_02]: There is also an NIH rad-x winner called endometrics and they're using menstrual blood as a liquid biopsy for at-home diagnostic kits that could be in the future be used to diagnose endometriosis. [SPEAKER_02]: And

I think that there are some labor laws and employment acts that are trying to be rewritten so that we can actually help women who are losing work time because of pain because of trying to get diagnosed. [SPEAKER_02]: And so I think it's working. [SPEAKER_02]: The storytelling in the community is [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, but really, and I feel as so blessed, you know, when you all use your platforms to tell your stories, I wish you guys could see the ripple effect in the clinics and in the office in the exam rooms, because they'll say, you know, they'll show me videos or they'll show me a story or they'll say, Hey, look at this person. [SPEAKER_02]: I think

I have what they have, and so, [SPEAKER_02]: It's a beautiful thing what you all are doing. [SPEAKER_02]: You're helping us clinically. [SPEAKER_02]: So I want the listeners to know where they can find your next, what you're up to and just thank you for being here with me today and being such a badass disruptor. [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you. [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't know how much, how much I needed this. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm hoping, I'm very hopeful that this episode will help someone, I'm praying that it helps someone. [SPEAKER_00]: But the groundwork that you have already laid, thank you for using your platform, for using your voice, for using your expertise, your heart because a lot of healthcare professionals [SPEAKER_00]:

They're not really emotionally invested in their career and their craft and the lives of their patients. [SPEAKER_00]: Because I understand that they're decision, if they don't want to get invested, involved or invest too much of themselves. [SPEAKER_00]: But these are people's lives and how you have invested so much of yourself in the lives of patients that you may never meet. [SPEAKER_00]: I want to give you your flowers, I'll say thank you. [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, thank you. [SPEAKER_02]: I really appreciate that. [SPEAKER_02]: This little podcast that is now in the second season. [SPEAKER_02]: I say little, but we're growing like mad. [SPEAKER_02]: It's actually been a webbie nomad. [SPEAKER_02]: It's impactful. [SPEAKER_02]: It's impactful. [SPEAKER_02]: And we

got a webbie nod. [SPEAKER_01]: Yes. [SPEAKER_02]: Again, some of the webbie snames out there. [SPEAKER_02]: So women are definitely locking on to the message. [SPEAKER_02]: And they're like, OK, the status quo has done nothing for me. [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much for being here today and we're going to be able to find you Jennifer. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, they can find me on the socials as the kids say. [SPEAKER_00]: On Instagram at I am Jen Sears. [SPEAKER_00]: J-E-N-S-E-A-R-S. [SPEAKER_00]: I used to say, I seeers like the store, and now Jen else was like, what is that? [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, oh gosh, you didn't get on. [SPEAKER_00]: You didn't come up in the days of having to seeers

catalog and circling the things that you wanted, the clothes and the toys and all that stuff. [SPEAKER_00]: But I am Jen Sears on Instagram. [SPEAKER_00]: On Facebook, just Jennifer Sears. [SPEAKER_00]: And they can currently find me. [SPEAKER_00]: on Tyler Perry's divorce system. [SPEAKER_00]: The second half, or currently, they can watch the first half of season one on V-Fee, season one V. So episodes nine to 16 will be premiering on Paramount Plus April 15th, Texas. [SPEAKER_02]: Amazing, congrats on everything. [SPEAKER_02]: And I wish you nothing but the best. [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much, love it. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm here. [SPEAKER_02]: This is more than a conversation. [SPEAKER_02]: It's a call, a call to build something better. [SPEAKER_02]:

Subscribe, share, and bring more disruptors into this room. [SPEAKER_02]: For unfiltered insights and bold ideas, go to DrSomeet.com to sign up for the monthly disruptor newsletter and follow us on social at DrSomeet. [SPEAKER_02]: We're not waiting for a seat at the table. [SPEAKER_02]: We're building our own table.