She was in agony since age 13. Then a hospital diagnosed her with endometriosis

(Julie Landry/ CBC News) — Kim will never forget the moment the specialist touched her arm and believed her.

She had been living with excruciating pain for more than half her life, yet, she says, a long list of doctors had either misdiagnosed or dismissed her condition.

It was only when she was treated at a special unit of B.C. Women’s Hospital in 2017 that she felt understood.

“For the first time someone from the medical community was telling me: ‘Not only do I believe you but I also have successfully treated other patients. Let’s give it a try and if it doesn’t work, I will not abandon you,'” she said.

Kim, 34, has endometriosis, a condition that is still widely unknown even though it affects one in 10 women around the world and more than a million in Canada, according to advocacy group EndoAct Canada. 

[button href=”https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/endometriosis-lacking-research-1.5910342″ arrow=”true” new_tab=”true”]read full story[/button]: