Lawton woman shares journey with endometriosis

LAWTON, Okla. (KSWO) -“I started having really bad cramps to the part I couldn’t walk,” Garrett said.

April Garrett said she was diagnosed with endometriosis in 2013 but started experiencing symptoms a year prior to her diagnosis. She said one day the pain was no longer bearable and went to the ER.

“That’s when they decided to check and do an ultrasound on my endometrium to see if I had endometriosis, and that’s when I found out that I had it,” Garrett said.

Endometriosis is an inflammatory condition in which the endometrial tissue, or the inner lining of the uterus or womb, grows outside of it. These growths most commonly occur on the ovaries and Fallopian tubes.

This disease comes with many symptoms, which Duncan regional Hospital OBGYN Dr.Darren Housel said can significantly impact someone’s life.

“It has lots of effects. Mainly in the pelvis pain is the main problem, pelvis pain, it can be pain with period pain with intercourse, just pain. I can really have a tremendous impact on a patient’s life. And there is no cure and we don’t know exactly how it starts out,” Housel said.

Dr. Housel said there are many different treatment options and women should check up regularly with their OBGYN, and not suffer from the pain.

“There is a lot of suffering and downtime or impact on a person’s family or impact on their career or work because they are having this pain on their part of the month or it can be all the time. And it’s just the quality of life for people that are impacted because of endometriosis,” Housel said.

Garrett said bringing awareness to this disease is so important because many women suffer from it without being properly diagnosed or treated.

“If someone isn’t diagnosed but thinks that they have it, definitely read up on it and talk to your doctor there are things you can try to do to try to keep it to a minimum. And don’t give up or think you can’t have children, because you can still have a good life dealing with his diagnoses,” Garrett said.