While training for the New York City Marathon—her first full marathon—Madison Rosenfeld sometimes finds herself in bed for an extended time after a workout.
“Some days are good and others are bad,” she said. “On the bad days, it’s pain, nausea, headaches, brain fog. But I try to remember that I have an incredible team of doctors, a great support system, and I’m going to be okay.”
Rosenfeld is a member of EndoFound’s Team EndoStrong for the Nov. 3 race through the city’s five boroughs. EndoFound has been a New York City Marathon charity partner for a decade, and this is the second year it’s been classified as a bronze-level foundation by New York Road Runners. The goal is for the team’s 50 runners to raise a total of $250,000.
Click Here To Support Madison Rosenfeld's Marathon Fundraiser
“I started running half marathons two years ago and thought if I can do a half, I can definitely do a full,” Rosenfeld said. “And I’m going to do it while also raising awareness for endometriosis.”
Rosenfeld, from South Florida, has lived on Long Island for the past year and a half. She loved to run in Florida and said she was “incredibly healthy” until one day just before she turned 17.
“My mom dropped me off at school, and I had the worst stomach pains of my life later that morning,” Rosenfeld said. “My school was an hour away, so I’d never called her to pick me up early, but this was different. I said, ‘Mom, you have to come and get me!’”
Growing up in an ultra-conservative family, her parents wouldn’t let her see an OBGYN, claiming she was having normal period cramps that could be soothed with a heating pad and Advil. When Rosenfeld went to college, with the symptoms still in force, she went on her own to Planned Parenthood for help and received a Depo-Provera shot, a birth control injection. It eased her pain somewhat, but not a lot.
“I just suffered through,” Rosenfeld said. “I took ridiculous amounts of ibuprofen and missed out on a lot of college classes and parties because I couldn’t physically get out of bed. A lot of things I wanted to do had to take a back seat because I couldn’t do them.”
Rosenfeld saw an OBGYN for the first time at 21 in 2012. The doctor did several ultrasounds over a few months but came to no conclusions other than to keep Rosenfeld on Depo-Provera.
“And then, out of nowhere, my mom’s best friend told her, ‘It sounds like what Maddie is going through is endometriosis; that’s what I’ve had.’ Then my aunt told my mom she had it, and then my stepmom told my dad she had it. Everything just came together at once, and my parents realized their daughter really was suffering and in pain.”
Rosenfeld went to a new doctor who told her she likely had endometriosis but wouldn’t know for sure without surgery. Rosenfeld didn’t like that idea.
“I was stubborn and tried to push it off,” she said. “I still had a lot of people in my life who insisted my periods were just uncomfortable and that I was being dramatic, and I wondered if they were right.”
Later in 2012, two instances changed Rosenfeld’s tune. One was when she tried to run. She used to be able to run a six-and-a-half-minute mile. Now, she couldn’t even finish a mile. She also got sick regularly anytime she tried to eat anything. “Except McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets,” she said honestly and with a laugh. “For some reason, that was all I could keep down.” But not wanting to live on an all-McNugget diet, she finally went in for her first endometriosis surgery, an ablation.
“And I would have two more surgeries after that,” Rosenfeld said. “I had another ablation seven years later in May of 2019, but it didn’t fully work. The ablation created a lot of scar tissue, and the endometriosis came back more aggressively, so I had an excision surgery in 2020. That one’s pretty much stuck—we’re hoping.”
That hope has been fading, though. Rosenfeld expects another surgery is in her future, given the symptoms she’s having from the “bad days” she expressed earlier.
“I talked to a doctor a couple of months ago who thinks I may need one soon, but again, I’m stubborn,” she said. “A year from now will have been five years since my last one, so if I can wait until then, I’d be okay with that.”
All Rosenfeld wants to focus on now is the marathon. When asked what her goal is for the race, she laughed like she did when she mentioned the Chicken McNuggets but was also just as serious.
“My goal is to beat Karlie Kloss’ time in honor of Taylor Swift,” she said.
Rosenfeld is a huge Swift fan. Swift was once close friends with Kloss, a well-known fashion model who ran the 2017 New York City Marathon in 4:41:49. But Rosenfeld said the two had a falling-out years ago.
“That was a super-good time she ran, but I think I can do it in under four and a half hours,” Rosenfeld said. “My coach projects me to finish in 4:12. I think she has more faith in me than I do, but it will depend on the weather and some other factors.”
No matter where she finishes, Rosenfeld is happy to be running with Team EndoStrong and hopes she can inspire young women who are struggling like she did and feel they don’t have a voice.
“My advice is not to be afraid to advocate yourself,” Rosenfeld said. “Listen to what your body is telling you and not what other people are telling you. You know your body best.”
To donate to Madison Rosenfeld’s cause, visit https://give.endofound.org/fundraiser/5508713.
