Guest post by Bridie Apple

This week’s powerful #EndoMonth guest post comes from Bridie Apple, founder of Flow. Grow. Glow. Community Yoga.

‘Poem To My Surgeon’

My name is Bridie, my disease is endometriosis
You’re a gynaecological doctor, you disease is oblivi-osis
You may be qualified, experienced, and able
But that does not make you the right man on my operating table

Five surgeries in, and you tell me you’re tired of seeing me in…
I come round from my surgery and you’re looming over me
Telling me unexpectedly, that my only options are pregnancy, or face a hysterectomy…

Just give me a minute while I let this sink in…

OK, so I’m 30… single… and freaking out
No man to shack up with, no healthy womb to rent out
My thoughts obsess on finding true love and it all working out
Me, my baby, my love and no endometriosis
We ride off into the sunset with a positive prognosis

But February has arrived and no baby inside…
That milestone came so fast
Doctor… I think I have failed your task,

The year you gave me to get up the duff
Or face my womb being removed from inside of me
Is looming in my face,
And I am left feeling like a female disgrace…

1 year, 12 months, 365 days you said
But clocks ticked, loves left, and emotions became dead
But hang on…
Whats this?
You, doctor, have misinformed me
My options were not only pregnancy or face a hysterectomy

I feel cheated, abused and bruised by you
The year I spent feeling consumed by pressure to conceive and negativity
…I owe it all to you

I say to you Endo Sisters to read up, clean up, and improve your mood
For you are your own endo specialist
For you are your own body specialist
For you are your own life specialist
And this medical mistreatment has got to stop

For we women who suffer from endo, are not a surgery one-stop-shop
Listen to us, work with us, and help us to live our lives
For this disease is less powerful if we are enabled to thrive
So to you, doctor, I write this poem
I do not blame you, but ask you to realise and reverse your medical wrongdoing
Be part of the change, and medical suture
Join our endo movement and contribute to our future

You can find Bridie online and on Instagram. Subscribe to Flow. Grow. Glow. for weekly live-streamed yoga classes and community membership – including a Self-Love support circle, and support with gynaecological health, pain management, and reducing inflammation.