Endometriosis—the struggle is real. Killer cramps are NOT normal. Periods that last longer than 7 days are NOT normal. Heavy bleeding that soaks through a tampon every 2 hours is NOT normal; pain during sex is NOT normal. Bouts of diarrhea and vomiting that accompany every menstrual cycle are NOT normal. No, no, and no! For many people, this reality is just endometriosis at work.
Sad truth: Many of us are taught to downplay these symptoms. Our pain is diminished by parents, siblings, friends and even health care professionals who convince us that everyone goes through this.
Maybe that is why, according to the Endometriosis Foundation of America, it takes 10 years on average to receive an accurate endometriosis diagnosis. That’s a decade, people! That’s 130 periods of agony, 912 days of someone asking you to take Advil and suck it up. That…is not okay.
Endometriosis is pervasive. It affects 1 in 20 Americans of reproductive age and an estimated 176 million people worldwide. It occurs when tissue similar to the endometrium (the lining of the uterus) is found outside the uterus on other parts of the body.
There are lots of symptoms that can vary among patients. Pelvic pain is most common, as well as pain that coincides with menstruation. Other symptoms include heavy cramps, long-lasting bleeding, nausea or vomiting, pain during sex and, unfortunately, infertility. Some people may even experience symptoms throughout their entire cycle—a real drag.
In addition to these physical symptoms, endometriosis takes a toll on someone’s personal and professional life. Chronic pain can severely affect quality of life day-to-day; medical care can be extremely costly. Furthermore, absenteeism can alter relationships in the workplace and at home.
Despite the intense discomfort, many people do not realize they have endometriosis until they try to get pregnant. And because the disease tends to get progressively worse over time, approximately 30-40% of people who have endometriosis experience fertility challenges.
There is no simple diagnostic test for endometriosis—no blood, urine, or saliva testing can confirm the condition. The only way to verify endometriosis is to undergo a diagnostic laparoscopy with pathology confirmation of biopsy specimens.
On the bright side, many endometriosis symptoms— including infertility—can be addressed after diagnosis. The gold standard for endometriosis treatment is laparoscopic excision surgery. This involves a careful removal of the entire endometrial lesion from wherever it grows.
The first step to getting there is recognizing that your pain is not normal and seeking timely intervention. The earlier endometriosis is detected and treated, the better the results. Tracking your symptoms will make you better informed for your next doctor’s visit, and set you on a path to better (and less painful!) menstrual health.
Can’t stress enough the early diagnosis part. My mum recently had to have a hysterectomy due to endometriosis and the doctors were like “well, if we’d known about this sooner, a much smaller operation would have been fine and we could have kept the uterus”. Get this shit checked early, guys
beeps, idk who you are on tumblr but if you’re following me, THIS THIS THIS
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#endometriosis #menstruation #PSA #(sometimes I wonder if I should talk about menstruation more) #(because as it stands you only ever hear period talk from people with miserable periods because they’re the ones complaining) #(and so if you don’t have any contradicting personal experience it’s easy to think that all periods are miserable) #(and if you *do* have contradicting personal experience) #(since you have nothing to complain about you don’t speak up and you don’t get included in the cultural osmosis) #(not to mention the…not sure what the term is) #(the thing where if something that’s a big deal for other people isn’t a big deal for you) #(you’re discouraged from talking about your experiences because it’s seen as delegitimising the problems of those for whom it is a big deal) #(my brain’s coming up with ‘respectability politics’ but I’m not sure that’s quite it) #anyway point being #if you have horrible periods you might be able to fix that #maybe you too can know the -joys- absence of negative emotion of not-a-big-deal periods #tag rambles
#IIRC I haven’t been in America during Girl Scout cookie season since 2007 #(Girl Guides have mint cookies but they’re just not the same) #we carefully arranged our latest NY grocery trip to fall on a day with a booth sale in the right location #possibly we should have bought more than five boxes of Thin Mints #the first one is nearly gone #but we did buy a further five boxes of assorted other types of cookie so there’s that #(we exploited NY’s lower cost of living to the tune of probably a good $200) #(and we did not spend *all* of it on egg challah and Girl Scout cookies and Cheez-Its and miracle chicken fingers) #((the chicken fingers were from a brand I thought went out of business a dozen years ago)) #((turns out my tastes are no longer compatible but I’m glad to have had a chance to find out)) #(and anyway if we weren’t eating American delicacies we’d be eating Canadian food instead and paying for that) #(so it’s not like the Cheez-Its and whatnot are a total loss) #home of the brave #food #tag rambles #(P.S. they didn’t have Thin Mint ice cream) #(which was disappointing but we might end up just crumbling some Thin Mints into chocolate ice cream ourselves) #oh look an original post
So @brin-bellway mentioned that being born into liberal feminism is apparently “vanishingly rare, to the point that I’ve seen people who will actually base an argument they’re making on the assumption that everyone comes from somewhere else. (“Nobody’s born spouting feminist doctrine! Give people a chance to learn!” Dude, I *was* born spouting feminist doctrine *that is now two decades out of date*.)”
Thing is, being a convert (so to speak) from hyperconservatism is also vanishingly rare – I know of one other person besides me who switched, and the most common argument I see against tone policing is “Nobody ever changed a hyperconservative’s mind by talking to them.” Which, I mean, tone policing is in fact wrong, but that argument is invalid, because I’m sitting right here not being hyperconservative anymore. ^_^
So what we were wondering is: where the fuck did all the rest of y’all come from? O_O Is there some large pool of mildly apolitical families out there that we just don’t hear about? (And in today’s polarized political climate, how’d you manage that? ;P)
I’m not, though. I mean, I am now, but just as I am a liberal feminist through an accident of birth*, so too am I American through an accident of birth. In fact, I’m Canadian for political reasons: you know how people always say that if a Republican gets the presidency, they’re moving to Canada? Dad saw the “you are with us, or you are with the terrorists” speech, went “fuck this, I’m moving to Canada”, and actually went through with it. (I occasionally refer to our move as “part of a long tradition stretching back to the Loyalists”.)
*Please don’t ask what my sincerely-held political opinions are. (The answer is “I’m not sure I even understand the concept of a sincerely-held political opinion, let alone whether I have any, let alone what they are”.)
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#I have some *vague* suspicions that I might actually have some genuine opinions around here somewhere #I occasionally notice a moral claim that hurts to hear even though #I happen to qualify by the standard in question #(I notice it most with people shaming kinks I don’t have) #even when there is no consensus in my tribe on the morality of it #it isn’t–I think–the pain of ”that was a dangerous thing to say and I’m scared I’ll get caught in the ensuing flamewar’s crossfire” #but more like the pain of encountering someone being factually incorrect #from this I tentatively infer that I genuinely disagree with these claims #but there are few claims that have either little enough or balanced enough baggage that I can sense the feeling of whether it’s Incorrect ov #over the feeling of whether it’s Dangerous #reply via reblog #our home and cherished land #(a tag which does double-duty as both a general Canada tag and an immigration tag) #(the following category tag was added retroactively:) #our roads may be golden or broken or lost
– ‘u dont have (insert food/music/restaurant here) over there??’
– ‘wait what time is it. shouldnt u be asleep’
– alternatively: timezoned/clockblocked again
– ‘do u need a hug. have a virtual hug’
– weird slang terms
– ‘i will fight everyone thats mean to u. i will fight them rn’
– vague embarrassment regarding ur accent
– ‘dont maKE ME COME OVER THERE’
– ‘oh yeah i have a friend who lives in (insert country here) and apparently’
– no real hugs :((
– suffering
– fahrenheit vs celsius
– the measuring of things in feet fucks one of u up, probably
#sometimes #(especially while surfing the Internet) #if I listen carefully to the inside of my head #I can almost hear them #the timezone translation algorithms quietly clicking along #over the course of spring and autumn little switches flick with changing DST statuses #2 PM in California #3 PM in Arizona in winter #10 PM in Britain #11 PM in Austria #(the Australian clocks #–not to be confused with Austria– #are buggy prototypes that still need their DST offsets programmed in) #(also I actually get the ‘wait you don’t have that’ problem *both* ways) #(in that sometimes I’m surprised when someone else doesn’t have a thing) #(and other times I know the thing is Canada-specific) #(and when I’m talking to a Canadian I’m like ‘wait a minute I can actually reference this thing and they’ll understand’)
This was a fun one! The concise history of vibrators; how they started as scary medical devices and shameful secrets, became a feminist statement, and are now a massively profitable industry that employs the same guys who used to design iPhones.
I, for one, welcome our new tech overlords. Thank you, tech overlords, for helping me maintain my long distance relationship!
From a 1908 vibrator ad: “Bebout is ‘gentle, soothing, invigorating and refreshing. Invented by a woman who knows a woman’s needs. All nature pulsates and vibrates with life.’” It does indeed.
My reactions are torn between “ooh, knowledge! neat!” and “*fumes at normativity*”.
So, followers, here is some neat knowledge. Try to look past the bits like “women who used vibrators were actually more likely to take care of their sexual health by going to the gynecologist for regular exams”, as if there were no reasons other than “failure to take care of one’s sexual health” why one might avoid both vibrators and gynecologists.
(Hint: my GP told me that, as someone too young for disorders of age and too virginal for disorders of the sexually active (emphasis added), I should not have gynecological checkups because I wouldn’t get anything out of them.)
(Hint 2: some people just aren’t into genitals, sometimes including their own.)
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#I am not *failing* to take care of my sexual health #I am *recognising* that my sexual health doesn’t look like that #sexuality and lack thereof #the more you know #don’t mind me #it’s pretty much impossible for me to read educational things about sexuality *without* fuming at normativity #one time I was listening to a podcast about How Sexuality Works #and the interviewee denied my existence three times in the first five minutes #I gave up in disgust #(I don’t remember now specifically which denials they used) #(just that I kept a running tally in my head and incremented it #each time they said something the implication of which was that my existence was impossible) #anyway neat knowledge #…it occurs to me that this post has a single-digit number of notes #and the OP is the person who wrote the article #which means she’s almost certainly going to see this #okay look true inclusivity is impossible #and even acknowledgement of one’s inevitable exclusivity is pretty difficult #I have very high standards and I don’t want you to feel too bad about failing to meet them #I just get bitter sometimes about navigating life with an extremely unusual sexuality
There are two things that are incredibly accurate about this comic:
In a century, I’m a space empress.
In a century, I’m still dropping Hamilton references.
…actually, now that you mention it, I could absolutely believe that century-old space empresses would make a habit of ancient pop-culture references, just in general. That particular reference is probably too obscure to communicate “Do not trifle with me, child. I was here long before your parents were born, and I have every intention of being here long after you are dust in the wind. You do not want to get in the way of that goal.”, but it could still serve as staying in practice for when it’s time to deal with other gerontocrats. (And there’s always personal amusement, of course.)
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#Parhelion #reply via reblog #anything that makes me laugh this much deserves a reblog #it was interesting to listen to my brain attempt to synthesise what future!Alison would sound like #when I’m just reading her posts my brain gives up and just makes something up out of the stock voices #(though it’s worth noting that the thought-voice I read Alison’s posts in is both consistent over time and different from the default voice) #(but it has a very definite American accent because I tend to have trouble using thought-voices with accents different from mine) #(I did notice that after talking to her in-person and hearing her pronounce ”can’t” in the British manner) #(my brain started attempting to integrate that particular characteristic into her associated thought-voice) #(with limited success) #(anyway as I was saying:) #my brain actually made a proper attempt this time #and it’s always interesting to feel it scrambling to construct a thought-voice according to relatively precise specifications #even if it’s almost never as successful as I’d like #tag rambles
Voiceover on Doctor Who “next time on” preview: Don’t watch this. You can never un-see it.
Me: Okay. *closes eyes*
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#what kind of fool do you take me for #unlike those poor Zygons I have not had all relevant knowledge erased and I *can* learn from experience #and it has *never* been worthwhile to look at something I had been told to look away from #if you are very lucky looking is neither bad nor good #usually it is some level of psychologically damaging #also next week’s episode’s title is #Sleep No More #I do not like that title #that is a fucking ominous title #fuck you and your horror bullshit #(look) #(I fully believe that ‘Blink’ has a lot of objective merit) #(but I think I’m a worse person for having seen it) #(and I do not want to do that to myself again) #(horror is so utterly not for me) #(causing myself often-permanent psychological damage for fun is not something I can compute) #I *might* read Chakoteya’s transcript when it comes out #but I will try to learn from my past mistakes #and not watch it #Doctor Who #tag rambles #dw spoilers #infohazards #oh look an original post
Imagine you have just been presented with a magic red button. When pressed the button will change you into the female version of yourself. It will also change the memories of all those you know and love so that they will have always known you as a woman, and regard you as such now. Would you press the button? What if you could only press the button once, and never be able to change back. Would you still press it?
If you were presented with two magic pills, one that would turn you into a woman, and one that would take away your trans feelings and make you into a “regular boy,” which one would you take, and why?
If you were to wake up tomorrow with the body of your desired sex as if you had been born that way, how would you feel? In a month? Year? Decade?
If you were to wake up tomorrow 3 years post-transition, any surgeries or changes you desire completed, hormones taken full hold, a full wardrobe, etc., how would you feel? Month? Year? Decade?
Would you rather be a rich, successful, attractive person of your current sex, or an average person of your desired gender?
If you were married with kids which sounds more appealing, being a husband or a wife? A mom or a dad? A gay man, a straight woman, a gay woman, a straight man?
Which gender would you prefer to live as on an island by yourself? Alone with Family? Friends? Strangers?
How would you feel if you saw a therapist and they told you that you were trans? How about if they said they could tell you really weren’t trans and should never transition?
If there was a test you could take that accurately guessed the taker’s gender, and you were to take it, which answer would you be hoping it gave you?
Well, ouch.
Imagine you have just been presented with a magic red button. When pressed the button will change you into the female version of yourself. It will also change the memories of all those you know and love so that they will have always known you as a woman, and regard you as such now. Would you press the button? What if you could only press the button once, and never be able to change back. Would you still press it?
Um, altering other people’s memories without their consent is morally wrong. I’d have to figure out who all the affected people would be and ask for their consent.
But after that’s taken care of? Absolutely; no doubt.
If you were presented with two magic pills, one that would turn you into a woman, and one that would take away your trans feelings and make you into a “regular boy,” which one would you take, and why?
Oh, wow. Hmm. Younger me would probably have opted for “make me normal”, since that was my most salient desire for a long time. But now, I think I value being me more than being acceptable. Especially now that I’ve been mostly accepted. As such, I think I lean more toward making my body fit my brain than the reverse.
If you were to wake up tomorrow with the body of your desired sex as if you had been born that way, how would you feel? In a month? Year? Decade?
Holy shit what’s everyone going to think!? Will my teachers, classmates, friends, or parents even recognise me? Are any of my IDs valid? What would I need to do to convince them I was the same person?
Well, whatever. I can worry about that when I get out of bed. In the meantime: I can sing! I love my voice and everything is perfect; even though the rest of everything is broken.
I think after the first month I’d have sorted out most of the problems, so strictly positive by then.
If you were to wake up tomorrow 3 years post-transition, any surgeries or changes you desire completed, hormones taken full hold, a full wardrobe, etc., how would you feel? Month? Year? Decade?
Same as above, I think?
Would you rather be a rich, successful, attractive person of your current sex, or an average person of your desired gender?
Average how? I really really don’t want to be average intelligence (especially not the global average). I’d rather lose my gender than My People. And how rich is rich? Or average? I’d love love love to be as rich as the average American. I’d have struck gold. If I have to be as wealthy as the average person from my own country, fuck no. I don’t even expect to be that poor if I stay. I’m rich where I’m from, but my Canadian friends are blown away by my poverty. I am not going deeper.
But if I get to be an average member of my in group, then yes. Definitely. No doubt.
If you were married with kids which sounds more appealing, being a husband or a wife? A mom or a dad? A gay man, a straight woman, a gay woman, a straight man?
Wife, mother, and gay woman; of course. I already intend to be all of those things.
Well, that one was easy. Moving on….
Which gender would you prefer to live as on an island by yourself? Alone with Family? Friends? Strangers?
Female, female, female, feeeemale. Next…
How would you feel if you saw a therapist and they told you that you were trans? How about if they said they could tell you really weren’t trans and should never transition?
To the first: No shit? To the second: I’d want to know what they meant by “trans”. I sure as hell experience dysphoria. I’d want to know on what basis they think transition would be bad for me. I’d want to get and third opinions.
(However, if even one therapist said that, my faker feels would be exacerbated for the rest of my life.)
If there was a test you could take that accurately guessed the taker’s gender, and you were to take it, which answer would you be hoping it gave you?
Female. Definitely. The alternative is dysphoria-inducing as all hell.
Am I the only one weirded out that people are actually answering this quiz?
I mean, when I read through it the first time and got to that last bit:
If there was a test you could take that accurately guessed the taker’s gender, and you were to take it, which answer would you be hoping it gave you?
I thought “Oh, I see. That’s this test. All of the other questions were red herrings intended to get you hoping one way or another: this is the only real question on the list.”
Am I in the minority on this interpretation, or are people just answering them anyway for the hell of it?
(I have been having trouble with reading subtext into things that the writers didn’t actually intend, so it is very possible that my interpretation is not what I was supposed to come away with.)
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#gender #reply via reblog #this is not actually the sort of thing I did #when I was performing the semi-mandatory gender screening that all Tumblrites are expected to undergo #I didn’t actually go in with the intention of doing a screening at all #I was reading about the effects of transitioning because Knowledge #and I noticed #’hey’ #’my visceral reactions are consistent with there being a part of me’ #’that’s convinced my body is the Objective Best Body’ #’and is confused and horrified by the idea of people altering their bodies to be less like mine’ #'(and nods along like ”well of *course*” when presented with the idea of people altering their bodies to be *more* like mine)’ #’I bet this probably qualifies for my semi-mandatory gender screening’ #’something to point to when someone asks if I’m’ #'(or rhetorically asks if people in general are)’ #’*really* cis or if I just haven’t thought about it enough’ #’well that’s one thing off the to-do list’ #(I suppose that test doesn’t rule out the existence of a purely social thing) #(but tbh I don’t think I’ve got any of that either) #tag rambles
#I’m going to throw in a complaint while giving them a list of the typoes I’ve noticed in the first two chapters #apparently a bunch of errors snuck in during the ebook conversion process and they didn’t think to have it re-proofread afterward #they haven’t managed to get it proofread *properly* (i.e. by someone getting paid to comb through it carefully) #but they *did* fix the typoes in Appendix A I pointed out to them #so I’m going to keep them updated on the others I stumble across for the good of the class #(I’m not going to call them homophobic or anything) #(I’m going to say that the phrasing was ambiguous about whether to account for the possibility of lesbians and it confused me) #(which is true) #oh look an original post #adventures in University Land
Hmm.. Captain Titus of the Ultramarines, Inquisitor Ravenor and Breq Mianaai… SWEEEEET LOL I’m the most useless member of the team- but I can cook and mend so there’s that….
Commander Shepard (female), Gordon Ramsay, and Jason Bourne… It was a weird Netflix night, okay? But yeah, that’s a pretty good team right there. I imagine we’ll all be romance options for Shepard.
Oh please I have no problems with Kiron the Dragon rider (Mercedes Lackey’s Joust series), Kaiki Deishu (the con man), and Melzar the frost mage as a team and kicking zombie ass.
I’ve got Commander Janet Shepard, Duncan Macleod of the Clan Macleod, and Phil Coulson. I think we’re good. :D The interpersonal snark is gonna be pretty epic, though. (Methos would get on way better with Janet, for sure, but Duncan is the better swordsman. I suspect Coulson would just sit back and enjoy the trainwreck that is Duncan having no sense of humor in Janet’s vicinity… ^_^)
(oh right meant to reblog this sooner)
The Tenth Doctor, the Twelfth Doctor, and the Red Panda.
Doctors are generally good people to have around in an apocalypse, unless of course you’re one of the minor characters who gets killed near the beginning to emphasise how Serious and Dangerous this situation is.
The Red Panda…is a good person to have somewhere else tracking down and stopping the source of the apocalypse, but I‘d rather not have him on my team: dude has way too few moral qualms about using his mind-control powers.
I may not survive with my mind untampered with, I may not survive at all, but the world will be saved.
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#meme #zombie apocalypse #Doctor Who #Red Panda Adventures #one time he brainwashed a man into being generous #it was horrifying #and he routinely wipes people’s memories with insufficient justification #(pro tip: most practical benefits gained by wiping someone’s memory) #(can be obtained just as well and less invasively by instead installing a compulsion to keep the information a secret) #(harm reduction folks) #he thought turnabout was fair play on that one villain who used *his* mind-control powers to trap people in perpetual nightmares #the most recent episode I’ve gotten to he used it to ease the pain of a dying man #which would be totally ethical if he had *taken five seconds to ask permission first* #I mean don’t get me wrong they’re entertaining stories #I am enjoying them and would recommend #but both him and his torture-happy sidekick are *way* more morally ambiguous than they think they are
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