Saw this posted on Facebook by www.theendometriosissummit.com/
I recently had 3 hours of surgery for this debilitating condition affecting 10% of women. It’s mangled my very female pelvic anatomy and severely compromised my fertility by attacking my very female ovaries and rendering my very female Fallopian tubes useless.
I’m bemused that despite doctors telling me for years that my painful & heavy periods were “just part of being a woman”, my poor uterus is just now a social construct.
Are we seriously not even allowed to own the really shitty bits of being female?
“Opening an email this morning and seeing a webinar on women with endometriosis left us confused.
Endometriosis has no gender.
Some reasons why we say people with endometriosis-
The amazing Heather Reich Edwards taught us that organs don’t actually have a gender. You may think a uterus is female and a scrotum is male but those are applied and assumed constructs. Something like a road or a glass isnt male or female its the construct you apply to it. Just take a moment to let that sink in.
Trans (and yes the word is trans not trans men or trans females as SE Frank taught us at the Endo Summit Workshop) have endometriosis.
Not everyone identifies as male or as female, as their given gender at birth, or even as any gender. Not to mention even people born without a uterus can have endometriosis.
It is time to be inclusive and welcoming to all with endometriosis. Saying people with endometriosis vs women with endometriosis ensures that the entire community is represented.
The Endometriosis Summit supports inclusivity. This is why we have included Gender and Menstruation workshops, panels on LBBTQAI and trans endometriosis at our conferences.
Especially for those with a big voice in the community it is time to welcome everyone with endometriosis.”