Episodes

Amy and Brittany talk about: —the difficulties of adjusting to a new, unwanted reality as illness impacts every aspect of our lives. —finding ourselves again, finding joy again, finding a life worth living again. —celebrating the small wins and being able to see how far we’ve come. ☀️CONNECT WITH AMY☀️ Instagram @in16yearsofendo Website: www.insixteenyears.com Like my show? Please rate it or leave a review! Support me by buying me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/insixteenyears ⚠️DISCLAIMER⚠️ The inf...

Today I’m speaking with Dr. John Dulemba about: —How surgeons need to understand the limitations of their skills if they don't have a lot of experience yet. —How colostomy rates for bowel endo are extremely low in hands of an expert. —Risks and other considerations when thinking about excision surgery. 🎤WHO IS DR. JOHN DULEMBA?🎤 A now retired excision surgeon who was in private practice in Denton, Texas, from 1986-2023. He performed over 7300 endometriosis surgeries, both robotically and via sta...

Today I’m speaking with Kimether Redmon about: —Trauma-informed medical care. —Some biases a person may face in the medical setting. —Personal biases that Kimether has faced. 🎤WHO IS KIMETHER REDMON?🎤 She is an endometriosis patient as well as a Family Nurse Practitioner serving low-income uninsured patients in her area. Before her nursing career, she was a research consultant with a background in brain injury research, and employment. Being diagnosed with stage 4 endometriosis in 2021 after ove...

Today I’m speaking with Kimether Redmon about tips to improve our medical appointments —How to maximize the short amount of time we have with the practitioner. —How to be more specific when describing our symptoms —Our personal experiences with uncomfortable medical settings. 🎤Who is Kimether Redmon?🎤 She is an endometriosis patient as well as a Family Nurse Practitioner serving low-income uninsured patients in her area. Before her nursing career, she was a research consultant with a background ...

Today Amy speaks with Dr. Shilpa Rao about: —her personal experiences with cultural and social barriers to care —her hopes for endometriosis care in the future in India. 🎤WHO IS DR. SHILPA RAO?🎤 Shilpa is a dentist by profession and an endo crusader by passion. She has a YouTube channel called The Endometriosis Crusader in which she interviews patients and professionals about various topics related to endometriosis and reproductive health. ☀️CONNECT WITH SHILPA☀️ Instagram @endostrongg YouTube: ...

We continue to talk about work accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act: —medical documentation —examples of what are reasonable vs unreasonable accommodations —telework. **DISCLAIMER: We are not employment lawyers or disability civil rights attorneys. This is a general discussion of what we've been learning for our own individual work situations and is not legal advice. We encourage you to double check all information we give in this episode and/or consult a qualified profession...

We talk about work accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act. —what accommodations are vs accessibility in general —who qualifies for accommodations under the ADA —some ideas on how and when to request accommodation. ***DISCLAIMER: We are not employment lawyers or disability civil rights attorneys. This is a general discussion of what we've been learning for our own individual work situations and is not legal advice. We encourage you to double check all information we give in this...

Amy speaks with Dr. David Redwine about: —“Sins of the endometriosis literature.” —The recent research that came out with Horvath's pan-tissue clock and the origin of endometriosis. —Claims on the Lupron website is that it’s “used for the reduction of endometriotic lesions.” —Microscopic endometriosis. —The ESHRE updated endometriosis guidelines around diagnosis of endo. 🎤WHO IS DR. DAVID REDWINE?🎤 Until his retirement in 2012, Dr. David Redwine headed the world-renowned and award-winning Oregon...

Amy speaks with Kate Boyce (she/her) on: —common red flags to look out for in wellness culture. —how many people regret having spent thousands of dollars on naturopathy, coaches, and functional medicine that didn’t help them, that they could have instead spent on excision surgery, a registered dietitian, pelvic floor therapy, SIBO treatment with a gastroenterologist, or other types of doctors/treatment. 🎤WHO IS KATE BOYCE?🎤 Kate is a board certified patient advocate and endometriosis patient her...

Amy speaks with Dr. John Dulemba about: —how for the past 20 years, he’s been testing the hormone receptors of endometriosis lesions. —his findings and thoughts on endometriosis and hormones. 🎤WHO IS DR. DULEMBA?🎤 Dr Dulemba is an excision surgeon who has been in private practice in Denton, Texas, since 1986. 🔗RESOURCES🔗 For clickable links to the resources below, go to www.insixteenyears.com/episode113 🔗Information on HRT 🔗Marquardt RM, Kim TH, Shin JH, Jeong JW. Progesterone and Estrogen Signa...

Amy speaks with Julia Mandeville about: —her research —how a lack of representation affects Black endometriosis patients —her hopes for the future of endometriosis care in the Caribbean. 🎤WHO IS JULIA MANDEVILLE?🎤 Julia is the co-founder of the Barbados Association of Endometriosis & P.C.O.S. She is currently a doctoral student and as part of her role as a graduate researcher, she is the project coordinator of several research studies investigating barriers to diagnosis for Black people with end...

Amy and Brittany talk about the grief that can accompany having a chronic illness. —some reasons why we might grieve due to chronic illness —what we personally grieve —how our grief has impacted our lives. 🔗RESOURCES🔗 For clickable links to the resources below, go to www.insixteenyears.com/episode111 🔗Grieving Chronic Illness and Injury — Infinite Losses ☀️CONNECT WITH AMY☀️ Instagram @in16yearsofendo Website: www.insixteenyears.com Like my show? Please rate it or leave a review! Support me by b...

Amy speaks with Arti Shah about: —her personal experiences with cultural and social barriers to care —exciting initiatives that are improving body literacy and access to excision. 🎤WHO IS ARTI SHAH?🎤 Arti Shah (she/her) a content creator and a dedicated endometriosis advocate actively engaged in the endometriosis space in Kenya and beyond. Her conviction and commitment is to positively impact the narrative of living with endometriosis through self-advocacy, play therapy and personal engagement. ...

Amy speaks with Dr. John Dulemba about: —all things adhesions, such as what they are, how they form, and who gets them —his rationale behind the second look surgery for adhesions that he does just a few days after his original excision surgery. 🎤WHO IS DR. DULEMBA?🎤 Dr. Dulemba is an excision surgeon who has been in private practice in Denton, Texas, since 1986. He’s performed over 7300 endometriosis surgeries, so he has a lot of insight on endometriosis. 🔗RESOURCES🔗 For clickable links to the r...

Amy and Brittany have had this podcast for over 4 years! Recently, Amy listened to our episodes 1-50 to update them where necessary. Based on that, we talk about: —how much our advocacy has changed and how much we’ve grown over these years. —some of our mistakes we've made in our advocacy —what we wish we’d known when we began advocating. 🔗RESOURCES🔗 For clickable links to the resources below, go to www.insixteenyears.com/episode108 🔗Ellis K, Munro D, Clarke J. Endometriosis Is Undervalued: A Ca...

Amy speaks with Kate Boyce about: —how excision surgery is operator dependent, meaning that it depends on the surgeon’s skills. —how there are very few excision surgeons in the world with the top level skill, and many regular OBGYNs with no extra surgical training, and then surgeons at different skill levels in between those. —what to look for in a surgeon, so that we can know what questions to ask and how to determine if our surgeon has the necessary skills to excise our endo. 🎤WHO IS KATE BOYC...

Amy speaks with Dr. John Dulemba about robotic surgey: —its safety —its advantages —its disadvantages. 🎤WHO IS DR. DULEMBA?🎤 Dr. Dulemba is an excision surgeon who has been in private practice in Denton, Texas, since 1986. He’s performed over 5000 standard laparoscopic endometriosis cases and over 2300 robotic endometriosis cases! He's been performing robotic surgery since 2007, and now all his surgeries are done via robotics. Dr. Dulemba has published papers addressing pelvic pain, laparoscopy,...

Amy and Brittany talk about ableism: —how it's prevalent in society, and is systemic, just as racism and other forms of oppression and discrimination are. —a brief recap of the medical vs the social model of disability before diving into some ableist comments we’ve heard as people with chronic illnesses and dynamic disabilities. —the ableism of wellness culture and the lack of disability accommodations throughout society. **Note: we are only speaking for ourselves and not for the disability comm...

Amy and Brittany talk about ableism: —how it's prevalent in society and is systemic, just as racism and other forms of oppression and discrimination are —the medical vs the social model of disability —some ableist comments we’ve heard as people with chronic illnesses and dynamic disabilities. ***Note: we are only speaking for ourselves and not for the disability community at large. If our limited discussion of ableism interests you, we encourage you to follow disabled people online and on social...

Amy speaks with Alexandra (Alex) Mitchell about: —the standard of endometriosis care —the Australian movement to Change the Guidelines —problems with multiple guidelines worldwide 🎤WHO IS ALEXANDRA MITCHELL?🎤 Alex is an outspoken advocate in our endometriosis community. Across multiple social media platforms and organizations, she pushes for systemic changes to endometriosis care so that patients can access the gold standard treatment that they need. She also is the creator and host of the Invis...

Amy talks with Dr. Jeff Arrington about: —what informed consent is and why it’s so vital —what it would like look with endometriosis care —changes we’d like to see in the ACOG endometriosis guidelines —what we hope for the future of endometriosis treatment. 🎤WHO IS DR. JEFF ARRINGTON?🎤 Dr. Jeff Arrington is an outspoken endometriosis advocate, expert endometriosis excision surgeon, and advanced Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery specialist. The evolution of his practice to focus on advanced ...

Amy and Brittany talk about: —how dealing with this disease and all the repercussions of it on our physical and mental health often contributes to feeling broken —how although we might feel this way, we are not inherently broken as a human being —how we are not unworthy, inadequate, unlovable, or undeserving in any way ☀️CONNECT WITH AMY☀️ Instagram @in16yearsofendo 📖Amy's book Finding Peace with a Devastating Disease, by Amy Corfeli Website: www.insixteenyears.com Like my show? Please rate it o...

Amy speaks with Dr. Abhishek Mangeshikar about: —excision surgery for endometriosis —bowel endometriosis —adhesions —imaging —endometriosis guidelines 🎤WHO IS DR. ABHISHEK MANGESHIKAR?🎤 Dr. Abhishek Mangeshikar (he/him) is an expert excision surgeon who also advocates and spreads awareness of correct information of endometriosis. He’s performed almost 2000 surgeries, and has been running his multidisciplinary endometriosis practice for over 7 years. He is the founder and director of the Indian C...

Amy speaks with Olivia Nwankudu about: —the standard of care she’s come across in Nigeria —the work that EndoSurvivors is doing 🎤WHO IS OLIVIA NWANKUDU?🎤 Olivia Nwankudu (she/her) is an endometriosis advocate and Founder of EndoSurvivors International Foundation (ESIF); a non-profit organization focused on raising awareness about endometriosis, educating the public about endometriosis, and supporting endometriosis patients in Nigeria. ESIF is also committed to reducing period poverty and improvi...