When Jessica Kruger started menstruating in fifth grade, her periods weren’t regular, and she experienced heavy cramping, often missing school when she was on her period because of pain and bleeding through her clothes. Her primary care doctor told her it was normal and put her on birth control, which masked the problem.
“I didn’t even know what was normal, so I wasn’t able to advocate for myself, because I was like, maybe this is normal,” Jessica says. “You start doubting yourself.”
At age 17, a doctor diagnosed Jessica with Crohn’s disease, an inflammatory bowel disease that causes chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, according to the Mayo Clinic, a diagnosis that took three to five years for her to receive. After trying different medications including steroids and biologics, she had a surgery for it in 2015. While in remission for Crohn’s disease, her issues with menstruating persisted; she knew something else was wrong.
But finding out what, exactly, was not easy: Jessica went back and forth between gynecologists referring her to gastrointestinal doctors and gastrointestinal doctors telling her that her Crohn’s disease was in remission, referring her back to gynecologists. In the meantime, her pelvic symptoms got worse: She would be in bed for days while on her period due to pain from menstrual cramps.
She began doing her own research and joined Facebook support groups, which led her to Dr. Patrick Yeung, Jr., MD, in St. Louis who specializes in excision of endometriosis. After six months of waiting to get in to his practice, his office did bloodwork and a transvaginal ultrasound, but nothing showed up because Jessica didn’t have large cysts. Because all of her test results didn’t show anything, it was difficult to get the insurance to approve a surgery, but after doing an exam, this doctor found her organs were very tight and felt confident she had endometriosis. With his expertise in excision of endometriosis, he knew how to explain the necessity of the surgery she needed based on different criteria and scheduled the excision laparoscopic surgery for the soonest he could get Jessica in: one year from then.
During this time, Jessica’s symptoms continued getting worse: She missed a lot of work, threw up “all the time,” spent most of her time on a heating pad and was in extreme pain. However, because of the medical gaslighting and dismissal she had experienced from doctors, she says she began to feel like she was “crazy” and wondered if her symptoms were only in her head.
In July 2017, she found out, however, her condition was very real and very serious: After performing the surgery, the doctor told her out of the five stages of endometriosis where stage five is the most advanced, she had stage four endometriosis. Twelve years and approximately 20 doctors after first experiencing symptoms, she finally had a diagnosis.
For approximately a year, Jessica’s pain got better, although it never completely went away; her periods were also more manageable, and she didn’t throw up everyday. Since her endometriosis went untreated for so long, however, it affected her fertility — a symptom of endometriosis — and because of her surgeries, she struggles with scar tissue and severe adhesions.
Although she experienced a time of relief, last year in March, Jessica woke up vomiting and in extreme pain, and doctors found a large hemorrhagic cyst on her left ovary through an ultrasound. In June 2023, she had another surgery to remove it, and the doctor found that her organs were sticking together again; knowing their desire to start a family, her husband advocated for her and convinced the doctor to save her ovary.
After several rounds of in vitro fertilization (IVF) and one failed transfer, Jessica found out one of her fallopian tubes was blocked and had become engorged, leaking fluid into her uterus; she will have to have it removed before she and her husband can move forward with (IVF).
Last year, she found a counselor she trusted and has been working through trauma surrounding her reproductive health.
“Any time I go into a doctor’s office, my blood pressure gets high, I can feel the anxiety in my body; but really, I didn’t realize how bad it was until I started processing all those emotions and those feelings … with [my counselor],” Jessica says. “It’s really been an amazing thing for me — I wish I would’ve done it sooner. But you know, we only know what we know when we know it.”
Jessica says throughout her medical journey, there were times when she felt like giving up; her stubbornness and support system, as well as do- ing research, helped her through it.
“Don’t give up,” Jessica says. “Keep advocating for yourself, keep looking for answers. Talk to other people, join support groups. Get into counsel- ing. Just really surround yourself with people that are going to believe in you, support you. And then just learn to advocate for yourself and just don’t take ‘no’ for an answer. Trust your body.”
Endometriosis
A disease in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside of the uterus. It often affects the ovaries, fallopian tubes and tissue lining the pelvis; sometimes, it can grow beyond the organs in the pelvic cavity to affect other parts of the body. Endometriosis tissue thickens, breaks down and bleeds with each menstrual cycle as normal uterine tissue does, except it doesn’t leave the body. Because of this, surrounding organs can become irritated and form scar tissue, and bands of fibrous tissue called adhesions may form, causing pelvic tissues and organs to stick together.
Symptoms
Pelvic pain, cramping before and during periods, lower back and stomach pain, pain during or after sex, pain with bowel movements or urination, heavy menstrual periods, infertility, fatigue, diarrhea, constipation, bloating or nausea
Frequency
Endometriosis affects approximately 10% (190 million) of reproductive-age women and girls globally and up to 50% of women who are infertile; between 50% to 80% of women who experience pelvic pain have endometriosis. On average, there is a four- to 11-year delay between the onset of symptoms and diagnosis; early diagnosis is key to the management of endometriosis, for which there currently is no cure.
Resources from Jessica
- Centerforendo.com/resources
- Dr. Jose Eugenio-Colon Facebook Page
- Nancy’s Nook Endometriosis Education Facebook Page
- Patrick Yeung, Jr., MD Facebook Page
Sources: Mayo Clinic, World Health Organization (WHO), Yale Medicine
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