The main symptoms of endometriosis can cause severe irregularity in something a lot of people take for granted: your physical body. On the physically worst kind of day in an endometriosis patient’s life one experiences:

1. irregular/unexpected/heavy bleeding
2. extreme/severe stomach and pelvic pain
3. irregular bowel movements
4. urinary tract pain and irregularity
5. difficulty digesting food
6. mood swings/mental health struggles (many endometriosis patients experience anxiety, depression, and PMDD)

The days in which an endometriosis patient will experience all five of the above are not actually so rare. In a good month, maybe we’ll have five of those days. In a bad month, that will be every single day. And you know what is the worst part? Life just keeps going. Tests don’t wait for the bad days to pass, neither do auditions or performances. Class and work are everyday, and we have to find ways to cope with our pain enough to do our very best. No one wants to be held back by chronic pain, especially by a chronic pain that is commonly misunderstood and often referred to as “the silent disease.” I think the most difficult part about the physical and emotional struggle of living with endometriosis is that sometimes the pain makes it hard to hold up our cheer– to smile, to laugh, to be positive, to uplift, to be a light in the lives of those we love. Some days we are going to have a much harder time being cheerful, positive and fun– we may not even seem like the same person. We may be quieter, we may have a shorter temper, we may be more easily disappointed. We might be stressed, we might get panicked, we might cry. We feel betrayed by our bodies, and sometimes that might make us feel betrayed by our lives. As someone that deeply values her relationships with the people in her life, I can promise you that endometriosis patients don’t want to be mean, we don’t want to be annoyed, we don’t want to complain about minuscule things, we don’t want to be who we are on our worst days. But sometimes as hard as we try, we can’t be the perfect warrior that holds every bit of pain inside. Sometimes the battle makes it from the internal to the external and it impacts our relationships. I will promise you though with all of my heart that endometriosis patients (along with other patients of chronic illnesses and chronic pains) will never forget the days you made us laugh when we wanted to cry. We will never forget the days you were willing to stay in instead of go out. We will never forget when you reminded us to take our pain meds when we were getting annoyed with everything, instead of calling us out on the fact that we were being a bit irrational. We will never forget when you held our hands and our faces because the pain was so much more than it had ever been. In short, we will never forget you being there on the bad days. Endometriosis patients may not be the easiest people to love, but if you love us on our bad days, we will love you forever and always.