Speaking out

The other day I was asked to speak as well as represent an organization that I stand by 100% and that is Endo What. I was so excited when Casey asked me to speak to school nurses. I am so grateful to her. Last year before my surgery and before I even met Dr. Seckin, I had to go for an MRI. Little did I know it would be a closed MRI and I was freaking out and nervous in general because of everything going on. Thankfully Casey was there for me and I’ve never even met her. What she does for this disease is incredible, especially someone that is battling so many obstacles herself. That’s why I jumped to the chance of stepping out of my comfort zone. I was glad I did.

As I stood in front of a roomful of people that had no idea who I really was, I was thinking to myself that here I am sharing my life with strangers. I had to stop myself halfway through my speech because I never really realized how much I’ve been through and how much I’ve lost and how far I’ve come. When I went off stage, I went back to the table I had set up and a woman came up to me in tears saying that she knows what I went through because she had doctors tell her she couldn’t conceive. It took rounds and rounds of IVF and she finally had her miracle baby. Then years later she the doctor said she won’t be able to have any more kids because the endo was that bad. She didn’t think anything of it and come to find out she was pregnant with her second child. Our stories are different but we share the same pain.

Another woman came up to me because she said her daughter has endometriosis as well as rheumatoid arthritis and she felt bad because she wished she listened to her daughter sooner. I told her that it doesn’t matter because she was listening now and that she’s a great mom for doing whatever she can for her. I wanted to cry because hearing about her daughter, I know what a hard road it will be for her and the pain she’s going through. I am so glad she was able to reach out so her daughter can get the proper care she so desperately needs.

Here I was going there trying to get the word out to school nurses to get kits for their schools and I was listening to all of these woman that has gone through so much.

I am pasting my speech because I already shared it with strangers so why not post it here...

Good Evening, my name is Allison Monteiro and I represent 1 in 10 girls and women that have endometriosis. That is 176 MILLION women worldwide. Each of these women can go 8 to 10 years before actually being diagnosed. I was surgically diagnosed at 22. For me, that was 10 years that I suffered in excruciating pain, trying to get anyone I could in the medical field to listen to me. From numerous ER visits, to even having a doctor refer me to a mental health provider, saying the pain was all in my head. I wished that someone would’ve been there to not only help me but also advocate for me. I swear that if someone would’ve listened to me sooner, I wouldn’t of went through 6 total surgeries, one of them being a partial hysterectomy at 31 years old, leaving me without the ability to have my own children. 

When I was in high school, I missed so many days of school because the pain was just too much for me to sit for 8 hours a day. When I did go to school and tried to leave early, the school nurse would tell me to lay down for a few minutes and take some Midol and go back to class because it was just a bad period. Endometriosis is not JUST a bad period, endometriosis is a debilitating, devastating disease that causes pain, infertility and organ dysfunction. 

This is why I am here today, supporting and representing ENDOWHAT, because educating school nurses about this disease is so important. All of you are on the front lines of care.  If my high school nurse knew about endometriosis and was able to help educate and support me, I can GUARANTEE it would’ve saved me from a lot of physical pain and suffering, and it would’ve been great to have someone that believed me,, listened to me, and was able to refer me to the help that I so desperately needed. Even just hearing the word endometriosis from a medical provider as a teenager would have led to me educating myself, and accessing resources sooner. I would have had so many more social, professional, and reproductive options available to me. Our organization strives to provide school nurses more resources so the next generation of girls that are suffering have more opportunities than we had. 

If you have taken care of students who have had chronic period pain and felt overwhelmed when trying to help them, please stop by our table. Our organization is dedicated to providing more resources for school nurses so that the 1 in 10 girls and women that struggle with endometriosis are diagnosed sooner and can get the support they need to live their best lives. 

Thank You