‘Nothing helped.’ 2 Fredericton women endure long, painful wait for endometriosis surgery – CBC

Dr. Craig Morton receives two OR days for endometriosis surgeries a month — if they’re not bumped

Jun 04, 2024

If an animal in pain comes to the veterinary clinic where Jessica Grant and Mackenzie Ashby work — if it’s bleeding or unable to eat — they exhaust all options to provide care, even as pain radiates through their own bodies, as medication makes their bones feel like they’re filled with glass, and they struggle with depression.

Grant, 27, and Ashby, 37, work together as veterinary technicians in Fredericton. To watch animals receive better, faster health care than they do makes them feel less than human, like the butt of a cruel joke.

Both have endometriosis, a disease that occurs when cells similar to the lining of the uterus implant abnormally outside the uterus and form lesions, cysts and other growths, often causing heavy bleeding, severe pelvic pain and numerous other challenges.

Endometriosis has no cure, but excision surgery to remove the lesions is considered the gold standard for improving quality of life.

That sounds simple, but Grant and Ashby describe years of struggling to get access to care, from doctors telling them that period pain is normal and denying them hysterectomies to a long waitlist for surgery.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/endometriosis-surgery-wait-new-brunswick-1.7218405

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