It is 6:45 on a Sunday morning and I have sat down to tell you about my amazing experience at BlogHer 2014. What does this have to do with pelvic pain? Everything.
Over the past three days my cause - our cause - has been so beautifully embraced by the BlogHer community. When I said that I was starting a blog about pelvic pain, women opened up and shared their stories, gave me resources and recommendations, even offered to mentor me! Every break-out I went to I made sure to ask a question, introducing it by letting people know about the blog. They laughed at the tagline...and then came up to me after to give me their cards.
I am telling you all of this to let you know that you are not alone. Women everywhere have experiences with pelvic pain - uterine pain, vulvar pain, vaginal pain, bladder and bowel pain (and I'm sure there's more that I missed) - and they are hungry for a voice, for recognition, for gynecologists and urologists and gastroentereologists who are respectful and knowledgeable.
Not a single woman who shared her story of pelvic pain with me said that she got good care, that the problem was solved easily, quickly, and respectfully. Even though there was so much diversity in what type of pelvic pain they experienced, there was a sad unity in that their doctors weren't equipped to provide them with adequate care, never mind excellent care.
Attending BlogHer 2014 fired me up even more to start a Pelvic Revolution. We need attention, awareness, funding, research, and improved training so that doctors can be sensitive to their patients' experience.
So I encourage you to SPEAK UP. If you are too shy to do so in real life, then start poking around online. Share your experiences here in the comments, or start your own blog.
Alone we suffer, together we heal!
