Emma Gonzales and her husband met with an IVF specialist a year ago to try to conceive their first child. This past February, that dream ended. With endometriosis ravaging her body, Gonzales had to have a complete hysterectomy.
“It’s still hard to think about. I really don’t talk about it much,” Gonzales said. “We were starting the process of having a baby only to have that ripped away in a matter of weeks. It’s been a difficult process for us.”
Just nine months after the surgery that changed her life, Gonzales has been courageously and proactively searching for ways to advocate for other women suffering from the disease. That led her to EndoFound.
“I want to share my story to hopefully save other women from going through what I’ve been through,” Gonzales said. “I don’t want them to have something taken away so abruptly.”
Gonzales is a radiologic technologist at an outpatient clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She began having heavy and painful periods with her first menstrual cycle about 15 years ago.
“My mom noticed I was going through feminine products quickly and asked what was going on,” Gonzales said. “I was just 12 and didn’t know what was normal and what wasn’t. We went to a gynecologist who put me on birth control, and I’d stay on it for about the next 13 years.”
Gonzales said the birth control did little to alleviate the symptoms. She still experienced spotting and bleeding between cycles throughout her teen years. As she got older, the pain was more constant. She had days where she couldn’t move and wanted to throw up. By her mid-20s, Gonzales was bleeding and in pain all but a few days each month. She saw about a half-dozen gynecologists over more than a decade, and none offered any solutions other than birth control.
“I’d bring up my symptoms to them and they’d say, ‘Oh, it’s normal. There’s nothing to worry about. You’re fine. It’s what every woman goes through. And you want to believe your doctors.”
In November 2023, with her pelvic and bowel pain at an unprecedented and unbearable level, Gonzales pushed her newest gynecologist for an ultrasound, which revealed a large endometrioma on her left ovary and several cysts on her right one. Still given no solutions, Gonzales took matters into her own hands. A radiologist where she works suggested he do an MRI on her for further evaluation.
“The MRI showed that my uterus was stuck to my bowel, which explained the pain during bowel movements,” Gonzales said. “The endometrioma on my left ovary was about the size of a baseball, as was one of the many cysts on my right ovary. The radiologist referred me to a new gynecologist, who told me I had stage IV endometriosis and would have to have laparoscopic surgery.”
This revelation came in January, just two months after Gonzales and her husband, who felt they wouldn’t be able to have a baby naturally, had first met with the IVF specialist. The specialist agreed with the gynecologist that Gonzales needed to take care of the endometriosis before beginning IVF treatments. Her surgery was scheduled for February—but it came with a warning.
“My gynecologist said, ‘I want you to be aware that we may not be able to save anything,’” Gonzales said. Anything referred to her uterus and other reproductive organs. “She said she’d been looking at my imaging and that I had to be prepared for the worst outcome.”
Given her pain, Gonzales felt she had no choice but to accept the risk and hope for the best. But about 90 minutes into the surgery, the doctor came out to the waiting room to tell her husband they’d have to remove everything.
“When I woke up, I had no uterus, no cervix, no ovaries, nothing. Everything was gone,” Gonzales said. In the process, the doctor found Gonzales had adenomyosis, and her appendix had been pulled into her pelvis and was about to burst. “She said if the appendix had burst and if I’d have been at home when it happened, I likely wouldn’t have survived the ER because the doctors wouldn’t have been able to find it,” Gonzales said.
Gonzales called the past year “an emotional rollercoaster.”
“I physically feel great. The pain is completely gone, and I’m very relieved about that, but I’m disappointed in what had to be done to make that happen,” she said. “I went in hoping it would be a quick surgery and that I’d be going home the same day. Instead, I woke up to find out I’d be there for a couple of days and had lost everything.”
Despite the heartbreak she’s been through, Gonzales is gradually finding purpose in her pain.
“My husband and I are starting to look into fostering children and potentially adopting one day. There is such a need for foster parents here, and I know we could definitely do it,” she said. “I also want to help women catch this disease sooner and to know they need to advocate for themselves. If you know that what you’re feeling isn’t right, don’t stop until someone listens to you.”
*Patient stories submitted to EndoFound.org are the patient's views, not necessarily those of the foundation. All testimonials are from real patients, may not reflect the typical patient’s experience, and are not intended to represent or guarantee that anyone will achieve the same or similar results.
