Hello all you beautiful ladies! This blog post is a little different than most. This blog post is going to touch on one woman’s struggle with endometriosis. It also ties together with the boudoir shoot she booked in order to celebrate and accept her body.
Getting a diagnosis.
The endometriosis diagnosis for this woman like many others was a long time coming. Many women have pelvic pain that gets dismissed from their doctor. It’s not unheard of for women to go years with pelvic pain before getting a diagnosis. Many of these women are told to toughen up, go on birth control, and my personal favorite “that it’s all in their head”. Countless times, women are told to take warm baths, take some ibuprofen or try some CBD.
Getting a diagnosis for endometriosis takes a doctor that is willing to listen to their patient. Most often, it requires the patient advocating for themselves and seeing multiple doctors. This diagnosis requires a lot of tests and often some exploratory surgery. How your doctor deals with this endometriosis diagnosis will vary depending on your life situation, the amount of pain you have and so much more. In my particular case I had a tiny bit of endometriosis that was causing a lot of pain. The doctor went in laparoscopically and removed as much endo as they could. Fortunately, that was enough for me! Many women require many surgeries and often times a hysterectomy.
That brings me to this beautiful woman!
This beauty, lives pretty darn far from me. I’m truly blessed that she loves and values my work and still booked a session. For this particular session, she wanted to be bare. Bare…. as in no fancy hair, no makeup and nude. You see she’s been on a journey to learning to love herself and her body. She went years with undiagnosed pelvic floor pain. It took awhile but she eventually found a doctor that took her seriously and looked a little further. Alas, she finally had an endometriosis diagnosis!
Over the years she’s struggled with pain, swelling in her tummy and weight gain. Her body isn’t the same as it used to be. Two weeks after her bare session she was scheduled to have a hysterectomy due to her endometriosis. For a brief moment she thought about rescheduling her session and doing it when she wasn’t in as much pain. Maybe do it after her hysterectomy?! But, then decided she wanted to do it now. Documenting her journey is important to her. She would show herself that she’s more than just this crappy endometriosis diagnosis. This is what a strong woman looks like.
With her hysterectomy it has had her thinking a lot more about womanhood and fertility. She told me this yesterday and I think there’s a lot of truth to it.
“There are phases of womanhood our culture deems acceptable it seems:
Little girl – you need to be nice and quiet and pretty. Virginal.
Sexy girl – be sexy all the time. Submit. Please men
Mother -take care of others, you are a caregiver nowOld hag- now you need to just disappear. You are useless. go away.I’m changing the last phase. (Too late for the other three) to strong warrior. We grow into this strength we never knew before. Now we are independent. We love hard, our loved ones and ourselves. Disappearing is not an option. As now, we step onto our strength. “
Here’s to healing!
Shortly after her session I received this message from her: “You job does more than you know. It’s not just taking pictures.” Oh girl, I do know….. I know how my work is more than beautiful pictures. I’ve seen how it can be healing for women of abuse, women that have gone through divorce, women that have struggled with health issues and so much more. Every single day, I know how blessed I am to have the job I do. I’m so passionate about boudoir and this is a huge reason why.
Enjoy some images from her session. She’s celebrating her body. She’s celebrating answers, changes and the ability to keep going!
Do you have a reason to celebrate your body? Let’s chat about booking a session. You can reach me HERE.
