Good morning and thank you. I would like to welcome everyone to Lennox Hill Hospital. As part of the North Shore LIJ Health Care System most of our facilities are inpatient acute care facilities, but we are very concerned, and have a number of outpatient facilities because our mission from the system, as well as from Lennox Hill Hospital, is for community wellness. And that is why this conference today is so important, and we are so grateful that this is the setting for this conference.
As was previously said, 176 million women and girls suffer from endometriosis. It is extremely disheartening to hear that it still takes ten years to diagnose someone with endometriosis. On a personal level as a young nurse, 35 years ago, I had a young cousin who every time had her period had to be in bed. The pain, the nausea, the discomfort and the anxiety, I did not know what endometriosis was. It was something we did not cover, even in nursing school. And I would say, “She doesn’t want to school. It’s all an act. She’s just trying to get out of doing something”. Never did we realize that what she actually had, and was later diagnosed with, was endometriosis, having problems with pregnancy, ectopic pregnancy, and was not able to lead a full and productive life. I am getting the chills as I am thinking that it still takes ten years in 2011 to diagnose endometriosis. With the technology and the advances that we have it is time this came to the forefront. I have to thank you for bringing this to our attention.
And, with that, I would like to introduce Padma. Padma is an Emmy nominated international food expert, an award winning author and television host, a model, an actor and an entrepreneur. She has formed two companies; a fine jewellery collection called “The Padma Collection” and “Easy Exotic Culinary Products”, which includes exotic teas and tea pots. These are just mere complements to the real Padma. I had the privilege of getting to know Padma when she was starting her most exciting and prominent role, and that was as being a mother. Padma is a real person. She is genuine, dynamic, caring, loving, family focused, supportive and extremely generous. It is through this generosity that she is the co-founder of the Endometriosis Foundation alongside Dr. Seckin.
We need to raise the public awareness, the education, to both the community and the health care providers so that we can allow these women and girls to lead normal and productive lives.
