OZAUKEE COUNTY, Wis. — Golf is a longtime hobby for Cari Reck.
She’s limited to chipping golf balls in her backyard because of her arthritis combined with endometriosis.
“I’m not going to let endometriosis pull me under,” said Reck.
At a young age, Reck noticed she had an irregular menstrual cycle and extreme pelvic pain. She said at the time, she didn’t know what endometriosis was. She said she had a difficult time getting diagnosed with the disease.
The World Health Organization said 10% of women are diagnosed with endometriosis, a disease where tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside of the uterus. This can cause pelvic pain, infertility and irregular menstrual cycles.
“When you feel like you’re insane because you have these symptoms and people are telling you oh, well all women have pain when they have their period or all women go through this,” said Reck. “It’s in your head. It plays on you.”
Reck was eventually diagnosed with endometriosis. The treatment resulted in a hysterectomy and multiple surgeries to remove the extra tissue.
“They go in and they remove all of the adhesions,” said Reck. “Think of an angry rope with thorns. It grabs onto your organs. It grabbed onto my colon.”
Dr. Emily Lombard is an OB-GYN for Ascension Medical Group Wisconsin. She said treatment options for endometriosis have come a long way.
She said when patients first present with symptoms, they start off by taking oral anti-inflammatories like Motrin and Ibuprofen.
“After that, it’s looking at more hormonal options, whether it’s oral estrogen and progesterones,” said Lombard. “We’re also using implantable progesterones and other medications like Lupron that put you in a state of menopause to help symptoms. From there, if we’re not seeing great results, then oftentimes it’s more of our surgical options where we’re going in resecting implants of the endometriosis and sometimes removing the ovaries and uterus themselves.”
Lombard said it’s important to talk about and raise awareness of endometriosis to make sure more research is done and treatments are available.
It is something Reck continues to do with passion, making sure women know to get the proper treatments and care when symptoms arise. She said she doesn’t want other women to deal with the challenges she faced.
“I want women to know they’re not crazy,” said Reck. “That if this is happening that they need to find a [gynecologist] who knows about endo. The more they know, the better.”