This is Part 2 of a special two-part episode of 100 Latina Birthdays. If you haven’t listened to Part 1, we suggest you do that first. Mariela "Ella" Vazquez had a hysterectomy at age 11, after being diagnosed with endometriosis. As an adult, like many Latinas with this condition, Ella had to learn not just how to manage her chronic pain, but how to speak about it openly with loved ones. Reporter Julia Binswanger documents Ella's personal journey and speaks with medical experts about why the pain of many Latinas endo patients is not taken seriously and the significant implications this can have on their health and wellbeing.
100 Latina Birthdays is an original production of LWC Studios. It is made possible by grants from Healthy Communities Foundation, Kellogg Foundation, Woods Fund Chicago, the Field Foundation of Illinois, Pritzker Foundation, and the Chicago Foundation for Women. Mujeres Latinas En Acción is a series fiscal sponsor.
Virginia Lora: This is Part 2 of a special two-part episode of 100 Latina Birthdays. If you haven’t listened to Part 1, we suggest you do that first.
Vasquez: Feeling that oxygen hit you is a whole different type of feeling. Not fun. “Where am I? Who am I? What's happening?”
Binswanger: Ella was out so long, her leg muscles severely atrophied.
Vasquez: And once I actually, like, tried to get back up, I collapsed because I could not walk. I was like, oh, that’s fun.
Binswanger: After she woke up from the coma, a doctor explained what her surgery entailed. And the reality hits her of what she’s consented to, to keep living.
At age 11, she’s had a hysterectomy.
Vasquez: And I immediately start bawling my eyes out.
Binswanger: Hysterectomies are not typically as dangerous as Ella’s was. In fact, hysterectomies are the second most common surgery for women in the United States—the most common is a cesarean section.
The CDC notes that only about 3% of hysterectomies are in adult patients younger than 44. Ella’s procedure was so risky due to just how sick she became and previous procedures that hadn’t gone quite right.
Ella says that surgeons removed her uterus, her cervix and one of her fallopian tubes but kept her ovaries—solely because she was so young. She hadn’t completed puberty.
Vasquez: And they're, like, “We can't push her through menopause already. She's about to be 12.”
Binswanger: Looking at Ella and talking to her today, you’d never suspect she’s had a serious chronic illness most of her life. She comes across as bubbly and upbeat. She smiles easily as her thick, dark curls frame her face—which is nicely made up with bright sparkly eyeshadow. She’s very easy to talk to.
Nancy: I love her personality.
Binswanger: That’s Nancy. Ella’s sister. Nancy is about ten years older than Ella. She is an administrative assistant to an elementary school in Kansas City, Missouri. And although she doesn’t live nearby, she and Ella are close. Nancy had just finished college and was beginning a new job when her sister’s health problems started intensifying.
When speaking about some of the hardest topics of her life, Ella often sprinkles in dark humor.
Vasquez: Those ladies that asked me what I wanted were from Make-A-Wish. And I was like, I should have asked for a trip to Paris. I should have held off. But I didn't. I was like, “no, books, reading”.
Binswanger: Her sister, Nancy, admires Ella for many reasons.
Nancy: She's a very warm and loving person. She just pours out love, you know, to everyone she sees no matter the person no matter the situation, or whatever the person is going through at the moment.
Binswanger: Even though Ella’s surgery saved her life, for the past twenty years she’s still had to deal with endo pain and the aftermath of that surgery. In some ways, Ella’s ability to appear like she doesn’t have a chronic illness, or like there’s anything wrong, makes having one harder.
Vasquez: I've spoken with friends here and there throughout the years, a little bit more about it. And I've had people tell me, like, “I'm sorry, like, I didn't know.” And I was like, “Yeah, you couldn't.’ I’m like, ‘I deserve an Oscar for that performance.’ I cope with jokes, but in all honesty I felt like I couldn't do anything.”
Binswanger: Though endo affects 10% of adult women, and teens of reproductive age, not many people understand what endo patients really go through.
Vasquez: I've lived with this condition for 20 years. And like, I can say it to you openly now and put it on the internet and everything. It's still hard at times. Sure, for sure. Especially when explaining it to family in Spanish. It gets more emotional, because I'm like, “Oh, I have to explain to you my body.”
Binswanger: Endo is such an insidious disease, not only because of the physical pain it causes, but because it can affect someone’s mental health, relationships, and work.
Nancy, who was away when Ella’s endo intensified, says her sister’s illness has been tough on the whole family.
Nancy: Ella has been in and out of hospital multiple times, since then. She has had several surgeries, since then, there's been some emotional aspects of her life, you know, that were very dark. And honestly, it was a very hard time for our family.
Binswanger: Ella has continued to need medical attention. And Dr. Roger still treats her. She’s had over ten surgeries related to endometriosis. Nancy says that Ella’s parents dealt with her health in different ways.
Nancy: For Mom, it's been very difficult. Mom had to, like, okay, “Ella's gonna be like, my number one priority. I have to kind of forget about me.” And in regards to Dad, it hit him in a different way. My dad has been very reserved. I don't know if it's because of his pride or because a lot of Hispanic men are very prideful. It's very difficult for them to express, like, emotion.
Binswanger: Ella says until recently she tended to mask her symptoms around friends and family, because it felt too hard to explain and dump everything she’s been through onto people.
Vasquez: I see Mom and Dad breaking down crying when the doctor is telling them, “Hey, she might die in the surgery.” I see Mom and Dad, and listening to your conversation of “I don't know how we're gonna pay these bills, because the assistance ran out.” I grew up believing I was a burden, which is hard to admit. But it's another symptom of it, if you will. And I was like, “I will not be a burden. I will not show them I'm in pain every day, I will not show them that all those sleepless nights were for nothing.”
Binswanger: Nancy actually thinks the instinct to play down illness is cultural.
Nancy: I know that a lot of times, especially within our Hispanic community, it's like, “Well, how am I going to pay for this?” I might be hurting, but I'm not gonna go spend my money to go to a doctor. I'm just gonna do these cleansings or these… home health stuff here at home and I know I’ll get better. But truly, especially within our Hispanic population, not until we're truly on our deathbed, do we go to the hospital.
Binswanger: And even though Nancy wasn’t the ill one, in some ways she’s also felt the need to mask the impact of her sister’s sickness.
Nancy: But when she was diagnosed with endometriosis as well, I already knew how to be her emotional support. But you could say it’s been a journey. A learning journey. When Ella started going through this process, it was just me processing things to be quite honest. I really didn't have much support. I do have a support system of friends, but obviously we all have our own personal lives. And it was like, well, why do I want to add on something else to somebody else, you know?
Binswanger: Nancy, like her sister, didn’t want to burden others with what she was going through. Ella says for a long time, her parents misunderstood her condition—they thought the hysterectomy and other procedures “fixed” the endometriosis.
Vasquez: So they went maybe 15 years without really, fully grasping it, they just knew I was sick. And that it was something to do with my reproductive system. The concept of a chronic illness is not something to them that is really understood, apart from diabetes, heart health and cancer. So understanding that endometriosis is a lifelong, full body illness to them, it's like, but you were treated, you had the surgeries. And I'm like, yes, and it helped with the worst of it. But it does not remove the condition.
Binswanger: Ella says her family doesn’t like to make each other worry. In fact, they didn’t tell Nancy that she was so sick and needed surgery when she had the hysterectomy, because Nancy was at college, about to take final exams.
Vasquez: Unless I die, she doesn't know. And like, she has so many things going for her. She got out of here. She got out of this neighborhood. She went to college. She's getting a career. She has a future ahead of her. And they’re like, “No but she’s your sister. She has to know.” And I was like, “If I die, and you tell her and I find out that you told her before I died, I will come back and haunt both of you.”
Binswanger: But when Ella was hospitalized again, her parents called Nancy to come home.
Nancy: And my parents were like, “Well, your sister has been hospitalized previously. She underwent surgery.”
Binswanger: The sisters say both their parents also tend to avoid doctors and talking to their children about any illness. And when Nancy was in the hospital with her own health issues and had a procedure to remove two polyps from her uterus, she didn’t tell her family—even though both sisters say they want to be informed when the other is sick.
Nancy: I was like, “Oh, man. Okay. Should I tell my family? Should I not tell my family?” You know, they already lived through something with my sister.
Vasquez: She, like, ended up in the hospital a few years ago for something, and I call her and I was like, “Why did my niece just tell me that you got hospitalized?” And she's like, “Sucks, don’t it?”
Binswanger: Ella also has stories about her parents avoiding the doctor.
Vasquez: My mom recently, we had to take her to the hospital because of her eye. And she was like, “Nope. Yeah, I lost vision for like five minutes, but it's fine. I'm fine. I'm no longer dizzy and have a headache.” And I'm like, “That's not normal. Why didn't you tell us? When did it happen?” “Sunday.” I’m like, “Ma'am, what are you doing?” My dad... He was in an accident a few years ago, and same. They saw him cognizant, they were like, “sir, we gotta take you” and he's like, “Nope, I gotta get to work.” He went to work.
Binswanger: For a long time, Ella says hiding that something is wrong became common practice.
Vasquez: Two weeks out of every month is hard. I’m like, and it's hard to keep friendships up. And it's hard to keep relationships going that way. I'm like, it's one thing to say, “Hey, I'm busy because of whatever other reason,” versus “Hey, I'm sick.” Because after a point of saying “I'm sick” so much, it kind of loses its wow factor. People can get desensitized to it, unfortunately.
Binswanger: Even friends who knew she had endometriosis didn’t always understand what that really meant.
Vasquez: I didn't vocalize it. I would say, like, “Oh no, I have endometriosis. Oh, I have this health condition.” But I never was like, “Oh, hey, this is what happens because of my health condition, and I need to take these proper precautions.”
Binswanger: In addition to taking birth control, pain medications and anti inflammatories, there are actions that endo patients can take to help manage symptoms. Physical therapy exercises can help manage endo pain.
: Ella received a vaginoplasty after her hysterectomy, which is a reconstruction of the vaginal cavity. Muscle exercises and massages are a necessity for her to keep her vaginal muscles from constricting and becoming too tight. These exercises are also helpful when it comes to sex. Intercourse can be painful for endo patients and routinely engaging muscles can help alleviate that pain.
While there’s no specific endometriosis diet, eating certain foods like fruits and veggies, high fiber foods and whole grains may help alleviate certain symptoms. Some patients feel that avoiding dairy, alcohol, caffeine, processed foods, and gluten can help.
Because no two endo patients are alike, different things work for different patients. But again, there is no cure for endometriosis. Even if a patient is eating well and exercising, they still may face debilitating pain.
Binswanger: Three years ago Ella shared her endometriosis story with a friend.
Vasquez: And one of my best friends, she sent me a picture of an endometriosis-based book. And she's like, I read it, and she’s like “I’m so sorry. I didn't know you were in this much pain all the time.” And I'm like crying and I'm like, “It's okay. Don't worry about it. Teehee LOL,” and she's like, “Bro, no, seriously.” And I was like, “It's hard for me to even say “‘Hey, guys, so I know this is fun. And I would love to go do this, but I can't because I'm sick.’” If I said that, every time I'm in pain, I wouldn't never go out. I would never experience life. So I chose to experience life while in pain.
Binswanger: Ella has also felt the impulse to mask in romantic relationships. In her mid-twenties, she dated someone on and off for three years who did not fully know what was going on.
Vasquez: It was a lot of unhealthy coping mechanisms that got in the way of not just my relationships, but also my health.
Binswanger: In high school, Ella would turn to drinking and other substances to help her cope and relieve the stress and pain. She also partied a lot later on in college.
Vasquez: Anxiety started kicking in worse, mind you, throughout high school, I had incidents of high depression and anxiety, where I attempted against my own life even because of just all of it. I was like, I'm never going to be normal. I'm never going to be able to hold real relationships because of this. Like, It's all my fault
Binswanger: And in college, her addictions were getting out of control.
Vasquez: I'm pretty sure I'm like, if I were to do the math on all of the amount of alcohol I drank, I was probably drinking a handle a day. And for me, it was not just numbing out my emotions and like the trauma, but also I was like, I don't feel, so I don't have to pay attention to what I'm feeling. Because I was still having symptoms. I was still having the nausea and the cramping and the pain.
Binswanger: But as with her endo, Ella was great about masking her addiction symptoms.
Vasquez: There's so many articles that get published saying people with chronic illnesses falling into like, very toxic habitual patterns, including drug use, and alcoholism and all these things. It's very real. And it happens. And when people are like, “Oh, you can tell…” No, you can't. It's usually the friend that looks like the life of the party.
Binswanger: It all caught up with her. When she was 26, Ella was working as a client services associate at a bank.
Vasquez: If you're not taking care of your health, as you should, it does impact your life on a larger scale. For me, it impacted work so big because it was very, one day I was fine, the next day, I was sick.
Binswanger: And then one day she was really not fine.
Vasquez: Then I collapsed at work. And because I am the brave little bee that I am, I don't let myself pass out. I just grab onto the desk. And I’m like, “No, we will not faint today in this building.” I refuse.
Binswanger: The bank’s office building had a medical floor. She went, and they called Dr. Roger, her lifelong doctor, who later ran some tests.
Vasquez: He's like, honestly, had you waited three more days, we would be having a very different conversation because you were about this close to prolapse.
Binswanger: Prolapse happens when all of the pelvic organs–the uterus or the upper portion of the vagina–slide down into the lower portion of the vagina or outside of the vagina. Again, Ella gets slapped in the face with the seriousness of her endo. Her dark humor comes out.
Vasquez: Your organs were like, “Hey, we want to see the world” and I'm like, “oh, that's atrocious.”
Binswanger: Roger also tells Ella she’s going to need to leave her job and focus on her health.
Vasquez: But I have this big girl, big corporate job. He's like, “Yeah, and you're gonna have to put those big girl benefits to use, you cannot go back.” And I was like, “But my job!” And he's like, “But your body. You physically cannot deal with that stress that you were dealing with to that point that you're putting off your health for it. That's not taking care of you.” He’s like, “Sure, you're covering your bills, but you're not taking care of your health.”
Binswanger: Legally, endometriosis is not a medical disability.
Vasquez: They always ask in job applications or like new positions, do you have a disability? And I'd be like, “No. No, I don't.”
Binswanger: Endo patients can file for disability, but they have to do so on the basis of their symptoms, not the disease itself, to make a case that they are persistent enough to disrupt their ability to work.
Binswanger: Here’s OB-GYN Laura Douglass:
Laura: I am torn on this, because in my heart of hearts is advocating for patients with this disease,It's a horrible disease. And it can really for some patients absolutely wreak havoc on their ability to do work. So of course, I'm like, yes, they should be eligible, of course, for accommodations and things like that.
Binswanger: One law firm that specializes in disability cases says that, “Because most cases of endometriosis are successfully managed with medications or surgery, and pain and other symptoms are intermittent, it is very difficult to qualify for Social Security Disability Income.”
Binswanger: As a doctor, Laura understands this argument.
Laura: The physician side of it, though, is well no, we should be able to get this under control. There's got to be a better treatment pathway. Are they adequately treated? Were they treated early enough? What else is going on? Because I do see with patients with endometriosis, there's a higher chance of those secondary pain issues we talked about. I see a lot of, kind of comorbidities with, you know, fibromyalgia, chronic pain syndromes, where it's really not directly the endometriosis because there's kind of this development of other issues.
So then at that point, your endo's controlled, but it's actually other issues are not directly endo related. It's complicated. I think everybody should be eligible for accommodations. The ability to have access to bathrooms, work from home, absolutely, these are very simple things.
Binswanger: She’s emphatic on one particular point.
Laura: If this was a male disease, these things would be in place. I can tell you that so, you know, I'm always supportive of patients if they need work accommodations or things like that.
Binswanger: Why is it so hard to take women’s pain seriously? Or to give women the space to fully express and feel pain—especially Latinas and women of color?
Laura: There’s a deep, deep history of women right at the time of their period being hysterical. Think about the name of the uterus, right? Taking the uterus out is a hysterectomy. Obviously, people don't quite use those words today. But I think that very kind of sexist view of the menstrual cycle of, like, “well it’s, like, a women’s thing.” And there's kind of this very sexist view of, “well, that's just, just your uterus, you're just, you're a woman, you're emotional.”
Binswanger: Obstetrics and gynecology student Sydney Cush believes when it comes to young women’s health, talking about illnesses like endometriosis that cause irregular period pain is paramount.
Kush: Reproductive education is something that the everyday person isn't necessarily exposed to, I feel like most people have probably learned about what a menstrual cycle is, or what their period is maybe in, like their high school health class. But what it means to have pain and the relative level of pain that you should be having, and the relative level of blood you might be experiencing, all of those things are not something that most everyday people are familiar with, they are just basing their experience off of the subjective experience of those around them.
Binswanger: Sydney believes teaching more people about endo helps everyone.
Kush: If you're in bed for days at a time, unable to get up, unable to function, for one of four weeks in a month, which is insane. Or you're taking heavy doses of Advil, Tylenol—other over the counter drugs. I feel like there's so much stigma that goes around having this pain, saying, “Oh, it's fine,” or “Oh, you're being a wuss. It's not that painful.” The main reason why we need to spread awareness about endometriosis is because it is painful. And if you need to go in to talk to a doctor, or a P.A. or a nurse or any medical professional about what's going on, then you should feel empowered to do so. There is no way that 10% of women in the current world we live in should be living with pain because no one wants to believe that their pain is that bad.
Binswanger: Ella still lives with her parents in the same one-bedroom apartment in Rogers Park. Leaving the bank job was hard but it was also a turning point.
Vasquez: I can't keep denying this. I can't keep denying what I have. I can't keep denying that I'm sick. Something's wrong.
Binswanger: She sees a trauma specific therapist. She’s finally letting her parents in on what she has been going through even if they still don’t fully understand.
Vasquez: My parents, to this day, do not know the full extent of this condition. It's been me in the past year or so explaining it to them, what it actually is, and what it's like and how it functions.
Binswanger: Three years after she almost collapsed at work, Ella can’t believe she let her health go so unchecked.
Vasquez: The biggest issue that, like, got me there was the masking, and it really opened my eyes to realizing just how much I'd done it over the years. And that's honestly one of the biggest difficulties when it comes to, I feel, like, not just endo, but any chronic illness. It's that we live in a society that is not really built for someone that is sick forever.
It really was this thing of like, well, if I don't tell anyone that anything is wrong then nothing is wrong. If I'm okay, then I will be likable. If I'm okay, then I will be desirable to people in relationships. If I'm okay, then I will be a good daughter. If I'm okay, I will be a good aunt. I will be a good sister. It was very, this whole, you can't get sick, because then that's a problem and that makes you seem weak or lacking.
Binswanger: When we last spoke, she’d just gotten a new job. She was really looking forward to starting.
Vasquez: So, I'm going to be working at Sephora. It's super, super cool because not only am I going to be, you know, part of management, but also handling a bunch of other factors that help the store run. And I get to wear makeup every day, any way that I want, which is amazing. I couldn't do that in corporate.
Binswanger: Ella loves to wear makeup and to cosplay, so this new role is a good fit.
Vasquez: I like the concept behind it of, not a mask, never a mask, but more so bringing out whatever I'm feeling inward, outward. Or if I need, like, a little boost, like everyone when we look good, we feel good. So if I'm like, I'm not feeling so hot, let's do a really pretty sparkly bubbly makeup look.
Binswanger: And this time she promised herself to be more open about her illness with her colleagues.
Vasquez: I've been doing a lot of practicing. I’ve been doing a lot of practicing over the past few months of just being not only honest with myself, but like the people that are immediately around me. I don't think I'll mask. I am still a slight overachiever, though. So it's gonna be a work in progress for sure.
Binswanger: She disclosed her endo to her new boss.
Vasquez: So, it actually came up in the interview. The head person of the store, she's such a sweetheart. And we were talking about it. And she mentioned like, she's aware of what endo is because of personal matters with it, and people she knows.
Binswanger: She’s also actively working to keep her endo pain under control.
Vasquez: Even though I am going to be 30, and I've had this for 20 plus years, it still is a constant, like, checking in with yourself everyday. It is work. It's effort. And I think one of the harshest aspects of having a chronic medical condition, a chronic illness, having chronic pain, is knowing your body, knowing how to gauge it and really holding yourself accountable of like, “okay, I have some things I need to do I have some responsibilities, am I going to do this one detrimental thing that's going to put me down for two weeks and not have me at the best that I can be? Or am I going to take care of myself?”
Binswanger: Ella says that her pain isn’t nearly as bad as it used to be, but there are still days when it’s unbearable.
Vasquez: I had a couple flare ups recently where I was like, oh, I might have to go to the hospital. And then like it went away, and I was like, okay, false alarm we’re good. It was just a high pain day. But it is better.
Binswanger: She’s focusing more on her mental health.
Vasquez: Now I'm a lot better, not only as far as my physical health for endo, but as well as my mental health. Because I am a firm believer that the mental health was the first sign of endo, but we didn't know that. We just knew I just all of a sudden became very emotional. And I have better management on that as well, which is also very, very helpful because if I'm stressed and not mentally well, my body immediately reflects it.
Binswanger: And taking care of her body takes effort.
Vasquez: As far as pain management, I have a physical therapy that I do for it, Diaphragmatic breathing, we have lower trunk rotation with a Swiss ball. Hip and knee flexion with a Swiss ball, supine lorry trunk rotation, double leg hamstring stretch at the wall. Butterflying groin stretch, stretching abductors and then supine double knee to chest. Honestly, it takes about an hour and a half everyday to do them.
Binswanger: In July, Ella celebrated her 30th birthday. Her family bought her a chocolate cake with yellow frosting and flowers. They sat around a cozy kitchen table and sang Happy Birthday.
Clip: Three, go! Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you….
Binswanger: At the end of the song, her little niece and nephew playfully smashed Ella’s fully made-up face into a piece of cake. A ritual that she agreed to.
Clip: I’m bracing myself. Qué lo muerda, qué lo muerda….I don’t think you got any in her mouth!
Binswanger: And her 30th birthday has her thinking about what lies ahead.
Vasquez: My ideal future. So besides being a billionaire, and making 1,000 organizations that help women around the world through endo, I also want to travel the world. And I want to have my passport stamped 30 times over, and try different foods, and talk to different people and have conferences where, I help bring awareness to it. I also want to publish my book series.
Binswanger: Ella says that since she was little, she knew wanted to be a mom, specifically she wanted to be her mom.
Vasquez: They asked us in school what we wanted to be when we grew up in the fifth grade. They were like, “What do you guys want to be?” And I'm like, “I want to be my mom.” And the teacher is like, “Not a real job.” And I'm like, “You could tell her that.” I’m like, “cause it is.”
Binswanger: This dream is still possible for Ella, albeit highly unlikely. Her ovaries were not removed. She could have a child via gestational surrogacy, although that can be challenging, both medically and financially.
The other insidious thing about endo is it can cause her stomach to distend—so much so that it makes her look like she’s pregnant.
Vasquez: One of the symptoms is endo belly. And you literally can look pregnant. And because not only do you get severe bloating, but you can also get distension which is like the extension of your organs outward in the abdomen. So, like, you look, your belly looks bloated here and then down just like a pregnant lady. And I'm like, it is such a haha of the universe God, that you put that symptom there. Cruel.
Binswanger: What’s more, endo symptoms can mimic those of pregnancy. She says that as she turns 30 she feels pressure to reach those 30-year-old benchmarks: to have a stable job, a nice place to live. She feels pressure from her family, her parents, her nephews and nieces, her aunts and uncles, to settle down, get married, and start a family.
Vasquez: Going into 30 it feels like I'm in this weird limbo, because, and this is a conversation that I had with one of my therapists at a point. I feel so old, but so young at the same time. And yes, I've introspected enough to understand that I had reached the point of stagnancy from the lack of childhood that I never really fully got to enjoy and have because of my health issues. I know where it stems from. But, it's a weird place to be in, because while I know I'm going to 30 and as far as society is concerned, like, I'm a full grown woman, and I need to have it together and be married and have babies, especially the babies part.
Binswanger: Even the idea of finding a partner feels daunting.
Vasquez: I’m a romantic. I love it. I watch Bridgerton and then read romance novels. Of course, I'm a sap for love. But realistically, I know everything that comes with me. I’m like, sometimes I'm too much to handle for me. I get annoyed with me, and having to live the life that I live. Having someone that can not only handle that roller coaster, but be willing to weather it for as long as we're on this endo roller coaster is not easy.
Binswanger: Ella wants to have a partner and she wants kids, even if she questions if those wants are realistic.
Vasquez: I would love to think I'd be a great mom. But at the same time I also know how complicated it is for me to, like, say “I want to biologically have a kid right and we do surrogacy.” That process to get one of my eggs is going to be months of pain and we don’t even know if the eggs are good and there’s so many factors to it.
Binswanger: Even though it wouldn’t fix her pain, if it were normal to talk about endo and endo was better understood by the public, Ella believes it would relieve the pressure to mask.
Vasquez: It would alleviate so much stress. I remember in college our R.A. I was like, “I'm so sorry, I'm dying right now, Jen.” And she's like, “Why are you dying? What's wrong?’ And I was like, “Oh, I have endo.” And she's like, “Oh, well one of my besties has PCOS,” which is polycystic ovarian syndrome. So that’s where you get constant cysts on your ovaries. And she looked at me and she's like, “I'm so sorry.” And I, like, bawled, and I was like, “Oh my God, thank you for the acknowledgement.” And she's like, “Why?” I was like, “Because I grew up thinking I was crazy.”
Binswanger: In addition to her role at Sephora, Ella also works as a content creator, spreading awareness about endometriosis and telling her story. She runs POPculture, her own media and entertainment platform. Often, she puts on colorful makeup or cosplays to keep tough subjects feeling a little lighter.
Vasquez: My handles on social media are all @EllaMonroeVasquez. My company is LVPP LLC, more commonly known as POPculture. And it is a podcast where I host a myriad of series pertaining to not only news, media, entertainment, and everything going on in popular culture, but also an emphasis of education around spirituality, mental health and physical health, particularly when it comes to endometriosis and chronic pain.
Binswanger: Though she’s unsure about the prospect of a life partner and kids, she has big plans beyond that—she is determined to pay off medical debt, move out of her parents’ apartment, and be financially independent. Despite all the hurdles thrown at her, her dreams are still big… really big.
Vasquez: Ideally, I will have 15 condos all around the world. My siblings don't think like that. Like that is not their mindset. They don't dream of having Bugattis and you know, fancy cars and all this stuff than I do. I'm trying to be a billionaire.
Binswanger: She also encourages anyone who can relate to her story or could use support to reach out.
Vasquez: I do have an email also that I made. It's WelcomeToTheBouquet@gmail.com. If anyone needs endometriosis resources, help with finding assistance for it, I have all the sources. Email me, and I can send you some stuff out and point you in the right direction, because part of the worst parts of having endo is feeling alone and not really knowing where the heck to start.
Binswanger: She’s documenting her endo story and what it means to live with the chronic condition, she’s also coming out of hiding. There’s less of an opportunity to mask what’s going on when her story is available on the internet. If friends don’t understand her chronic illness, she has a podcast, a youtube channel and a TikTok channel she can refer them to.
Vasquez: There's such a lack of awareness around it all. And it’s such a vast thing, and one of the things that I always tell people, when I either share my own endo story or talk to them about potential symptoms they have or, how I deal with pain now and things like that. I'm like, “Please do your research. Please advocate for yourselves. Please talk to your medical team.” And like, because yes while I'm here sharing my resources and everything that I know, your biggest advocate, your strongest person that needs to fight for you, is you.
Lora: 100 Latina Birthdays is an original production of LWC Studios. It is made possible by grants from Healthy Communities Foundation, Kellogg Foundation, Woods Fund Chicago, the Field Foundation of Illinois, Pritzker Foundation, and the Chicago Foundation for Women. Mujeres Latinas En Acción is a series fiscal sponsor.
This episode was reported by Julia Binswanger. Juleyka Lantigua is the show's creator, executive producer and editor. Virginia Lora is a senior producer. Fact-checking by Fendall Fulton, mixing by Anne Lim and mixing and sound design by Tren Lightburn. Michelle Baker is our photo editor. Kori Doran is our marketing associate. Cover art by Reyna Noriega. For more information, resources, photos, annotated transcripts of all episodes and Spanish translations, visit 100latinabirthdays.com.
Follow us at Instagram, X, and Facebook at 100 Latina Birthdays. And remember, 100 Latina Birthdays is an open-source podcast.
We encourage you to use our episodes and supporting materials in your classrooms, organizations, and anywhere they can complement your work and make an impact. You may rebroadcast parts of or entire episodes without permission. Just please drop us a line so we can keep track. Thanks for listening.
CITATION:
Binswanger, Julia, reporter. “Learning to Live With Endo Pain, Part 2.” 100 Latina Birthdays. LWC Studios, September 30, 2024. 100latinabirthdays.com.
Produced by LWC Studios