BLEED: Destroying Myths and Misogyny in Endometriosis Care

by Tracey Lindeman

We must accept the things we cannot change, lest our anger consume us. But why not be consumed? There is a certain utility in consumption. When focused, anger can be a catalyst and an engine for change. The systems that oppress us benefit from our silence and compliance, and they make us complicit in our own abuse by forcing us to engage on their terms.

To have to ask for permission to do something to your own adult body, and risk being denied, attacks the very heart of inalienable constitutional rights—yet so many of the world’s societies wholeheartedly endorse this prejudice when it comes to people with uteruses.

It’s all so cyclical. Abuse and abandonment breed fear and uncertainty, which breed anxiety. A lifetime of anxiety becomes a personality, becomes a traumatized person, becomes a lightning rod for future abuse.