“It took years before it was heard”: 4 black women in their struggle to maintain endometriosis diagnosis

Nadine has both pelvic and breast endometriosis. The latter is a rare form of the disease that occurs when endometriosegen talents grow up or around the lungs. She remembered the incident that led to her chest diagnosis and said: “One morning I tried to get out of bed and noticed that I couldn’t move. I tried all sorts of ways, but I just couldn’t move.” A paramedic arrived and she was taken to the hospital, where she was informed that her chest lay liquid. “They had to empty the liquid from my lungs, so they made a cut, and they put it very thick, hard tube – there was no kind of pain relief, nothing. I had so much pain and thought: ‘Please, can someone hold my hand?’ But they only felt very inhuman.