After the countless number of appointments and hours I have spent in hospital waiting rooms, I have decided that I want to be on the other end of that experience as a doctor.

Ever since I was a little girl, I always dreamed of being a doctor. However, I didn’t realize that I wanted to go into Adolescent Gynecology Surgery until the summer after my freshman year of high school when I was diagnosed with endometriosis. For those of you who don’t know, endometriosis is a chronic disease. After having surgery, I spent the next several years in a lot of pain just trying to deal with adjusting to my “new normal.” My “new normal” unfortunately consisted of living with some level of pain every day, not being able to stay at school for an entire day, and needing to have a designated rest period every day. Having endo affected my lifestyle in many different ways. I lost many friends and lacked a major social life because I was never feeling well enough to go out. You could always find me at home, laying down with my heating pad. Nevertheless, as life went on, I started to realize that there are a lot of other girls out there that are struggling just like me.

From that idea stemmed my passion to help other teen girls with endo who are dealing with the same thing I deal with every day. Having a chronic disease can be lonely, particularly when the disease is invisible, but I believe that I can be a great resource as a doctor to teen patients with endo. Having been an endo patient for a while now, I know the skills it takes for a doctor to make a patient feel comfortable and supported. For example, taking the time to talk to you and listen to your concerns, as well as listen to all the ways endo impacts your life and how they can be improved. I want to make a change to help other girls, and that change begins with following my dream.

-Gigi