This is a new segment on Endobitch. It’s kind of a filler segment to keep us all connected in between our longer blog posts.

Every week, we’ll offer up a short little ditty (Endobitch: Meaning, a question or thought…) on an important or controversial topic for your consideration. We’d love to have you – our followers – weigh in on these “mini-posts.”

 Be well!

 Rant #1

Okay. So we all know that endo often starts when we’re teenagers, right after our first period begins. But somehow, this fact is lost on the rest of the world. We’re posting a short blurb from an article on Connect for Kids that deals with this very topic.

We’d love it if you would read this short excerpt, check out the video of a teenager with endo that went misdiagnosed – and then rant away with your thoughts and comments.

Endometriosis in Teens Often Misdiagnosed

Wednesday, January 31st, 2007                 Emily Halevy/CWK Producer

So often, a young women’s severe cramps are written off as something she has to get used to.” – Robert B. Albee, Jr., M.D., gynecologist

Over five million U.S. women suffer from a disease that very often goes undiagnosed. And for two-thirds of those women, the condition begins during their teenage years.

19-year-old Bethany Monroe is one of them. She woke up one morning in severe pain.

“It was awful – it was just – I, I didn’t want to be awake,” she remembers. “I just wanted to go to sleep, ‘cause it was so bad. It was just a constant throbbing and really sharp pain.”

The diagnosis: endometriosis – an abnormal growth of tissue in the pelvic area. It can cause inflammation, severe pain and sometimes infertility. And doctors say they’re seeing it more often today, in teens.

“The question would be are we starting to open our eyes more and making the diagnosis earlier, or are we truly seeing more of it,” says gynecologist Dr. Robert B. Albee, Jr. He thinks many doctors are just more aware of endometriosis now.

Either way, it’s often misdiagnosed. Bethany was told she had kidney stones; another doctor said appendicitis.

Dr. Albee says there are two reasons why it often takes time for a correct diagnosis. One, he says, “I think that a lot of people start with symptoms that are not necessarily specific.”

Another, he says, is “ignorance. Not considering the diagnosis – there are doctors that don’t believe teenagers can have ‘endo’. What a shame.”