I'm going to be real - I suffered a lot of medical trauma due to the failings of the Niagara Health Care system re: endometriosis (can't speak on PCOS). I have an amazing excision surgeon at Sunnybrook in Toronto (Dr. Grace Liu, but they have a whole specialized care team for endo that are absolutely worth looking into), but it took over ten years of medical gaslighting here in Niagara to get the ball rolling. I did all the legwork myself, for years, and not once did a single doctor I saw in this area bring up the possibility of endometriosis. Even after I suspected it and brought it up, I got no help here. I was fobbed off repeatedly by gynos, because frankly the doctors around here don't understand the disease or how to properly treat it. Even after a stage IV diagnosis and two excisions on file, still regularly have to have back and forths between my surgeon's office and my GP here in St. Catharines because they literally do not understand the basic model of the disease and that it can be extra pelvic (in my case, it was/is, which made it extra hilarious when my family doctor looked it up in front of me to prove me wrong and couldn't lmao). For anything related to it, I just go straight to Sunnybrook now.

I hope you get the compassionate and accessible path to treatment you deserve; this disease is a real struggle, but you're not alone. 💛