ENDOMETRIOSIS: What patients will do for relief if the opportunity present itself.

#womenshealth In 1986 I attended a Women’s Health Conference in San Francisco, where Sally Rynne was a speaker. Her own foray into the field of women’s heath was just exploding. She had either written an article or was interviewed for one regarding the emerging concerns about women’s health. One of her tenets was that women’s health was more than Mauve color in the women’s waiting room. In that conference Sally Rynne asked a rhetorical question: How far will patients travel for better care, for respect, for those who will listen, perhaps have a handle on the research in a given field? I know the answer, Sally, thousands and thousands of miles to be heard, to be treated with respect, to have leading edge care. The sad part is that in the field of endometriosis many cannot afford leading edge care despite repeated failures of care in everything else. But Sally, the paradigm for us is shifting despite the disrespect still given women, research in the field and a whole industry driven by myth. Thanks Sally for your mentorship, leadership and tough questions.

I later had an opportunity to serve for 6 years on a board of directors in women's health that was spun off from Sally Rynne's work, led by Patty Looker, and later Kim Weiss.