Endometriosis impacts approximately 1 in 10 (or 176 million women) during their lifetime. This number is most likely much higher, as it does not accurately account for transgender people, or those who struggle to get an accurate endometriosis diagnosis in the first place.

In the medical sphere, medical gaslighting can be defined as the ways in which medical professionals deny the patients' claim of symptoms, which results in the patient questioning their own bodily experiences.

It has taken me weeks to start writing this piece. To sit down and write openly about my experiences in the healthcare system as a Black woman with chronic pelvic pain is to pick at wounds that have yet to heal.

A recent study called endometriosis and IBS “twins in disguise” because of the interrelatedness of these two conditions; the relationship between endometriosis and IBS is a complex and fascinating one that deserves attention.