A disease affecting tens of millions  of women worldwide

As people, but especially as women, we have to be our own medical advocates. Whether it's my friends making their way through the birth industrial complex or the ones deciding how to handle a chronic illness like Lyme, educating ourselves is power. Plus (and I'm a broken record on this), our pain — especially if it's located between belly button and ass crack — is often not treated with the seriousness we would hope. My particular journey to navigate has been endometriosis, and Tamer Seckin'sThe Doctor Will See You Now: Recognizing and Treating Endometriosis, written with sensitivity and spirit, is an amazing primer if you or someone you love is suffering. In a world where information is everywhere yet answers are hard to come by, Dr. Seckin offers comfort and guidance.

Ranked among America's Top Surgeons & Gynecologists, Tamer Seckin, MD has established himself internationally over the course of more than two decades as a leading specialist in Advanced Laparoendoscopic Surgery for the treatment of endometriosis and associated pelvic pain pathologies.

Dr. Seckin is among a very limited number of accredited gynecologic surgeons in the United States who possess advanced training for the deep excision of endometriosis. Although others perform basic laparoscopic surgery, few have the experience necessary to execute the meticulous techniques required to sharply dissect and remove all disease from superficial to deeply infiltrating and fibrotic. Throughout his career, he has successfully treated thousands of women and girls with endometriosis and associated pelvic pain pathologies. The majority of his patients have experienced long-term relief and no recurrence of the disease.

TO THOSE AFFECTED IN ANY way by endometriosis: I know the pain you’ve been battling. You hurt, a lot, more than anyone else can comprehend. You feel alone and hopeless. You’re physically and mentally drained, nearing your breaking point, if you haven’t reached it already. You’ve tried repeatedly for years to get someone, anyone, to listen to you, to understand what you’re going through—a friend, a family member, a school nurse, even a doctor—but they don’t. They dismiss your issue as a “girl problem” or a “woman thing,” as a disease or condition that it’s not, or as something that will magically fix itself over time. They couldn’t be more wrong; you know it in your gut, and I know it for a fact. I know it, not due to experiencing this pain myself, but because I was taught by listening to my patients.

To the woman who has had multiple surgeries without symptom relief: You deserve better treatment, and there is better treatment.

Your doctor is probably giving you the best care he or she has been trained to give, but there are better options that you haven’t tried, options that can end your suffering.