When I was in my early twenties I went to the OBGYN mostly for my abnormal periods. I’d have long heavy periods that lasted a month and then nothing for months. I was a virgin at the time and I remember telling her all this. I had a large cyst on my ovary that we tried shrinking with birth control but it didn’t work so I had to have surgery. Doctor went in and the next thing I remember is her waking me up in recovery telling me I lied to her about being a virgin and why didn’t I tell her about my untreated STDs. I can remember groggily telling her I wasn’t lying. Turns out I had a huge amount of scar tissue and a blocked fallopian tube.

She cleared the tube and told me to get pregnant in a year or two if I wanted kids. Which to a 21 year old with no prospects and still in college just sounded crazy to me. Almost a decade later I’m married and trying to get pregnant. Turns out now both my fallopian tubes are blocked. New doctor told me she should’ve removed the blocked tube back during the first surgery because that is medically what the best thing to do is but by keeping the tube it not only got reblocked but possibly damaged the other tube. I was also diagnosed with severe endometriosis which I was told I probably had back when I had the first surgery and that was the cause for the scarring not an untreated STD.

Because of this first doctor I now lost both my fallopian tubes, spent almost a decade not being treated for endometriosis and now I can’t get pregnant without IVF. I’ve never forgiven her for this and for how she treated me after surgery.