VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — At first glance, you often don’t understand what someone is going through.
That’s the case for Danielle Langlois as she stays busy at her salon, The Pier House Salon.
Prepping products and seeing clients has been a welcome distraction.
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“I wanted to not only have other women see [my story] and feel connected, but also let my clients know that I don't want to hide from this anymore. I want to be very honest and truthful about what was going on,” she says.
Last year, Langlois was hospitalized, fighting back, once again, from the endometriosis that overwhelmed her body. It’s a disease she's been dealing with since she was a teenager.
“It sucked. It was definitely like painful, heavy periods. There's a lot of pain with bowel movements,” she says.
Endometriosis is an inflammatory condition caused by uterine tissue growing outside of the uterus.
In addition to the physical pain, Langlois says there can also be emotional pain. She tells me, “it also can be very hard on your mental image because you get -- they call it "endo belly," and it's just like a fluid inflammation throughout your uterus or wherever it may be in your body, so it's definitely not easy having that kind of pressure.”
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Langlois says the endometriosis in her body spread throughout her bowels, her intestines, and her diaphragm.
“Unfortunately, it has taken me away from my job [and] my life,” she says.
Doctors report that the disease impacts one in 10 women.
"Endometriosis is a horrible disease,” says Dr. Steven Powers, an OBGYN with TotalCare for Women.
He says patients with "endo" have abdominal bloating, pelvic pain, and nausea, among other symptoms.
“It's an intense inflammatory response because the body is reacting to the tissue in an abnormal location,” Dr. Powers says.
Speaking from experience, he says he has seen scar tissue in a woman’s brain, lung, and fingertips.
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He adds that, “it can really be disruptive to a woman's life; her ability to work, ability to take care of her family, her ability to have sex, and it can cause scar tissue that can affect your ability to achieve a pregnancy.”
Infertility can be devastating to women.
Langlois, who has her own struggles to conceive a child, says endometriosis isn’t discussed enough.
“With women, they think that talking about infertility and pregnancy loss – it's just you feel like something's wrong with me. That's the problem. And you don't want to admit that as being very, very vulnerable,” she says.
Dr. Powers says treatments include lowering estrogen levels either by birth control or another steroid -- or laparoscopic surgery to remove the tissue. In severe cases, women may resort to a hysterectomy, which is a surgical procedure to remove the uterus and cervix.
“What women need to know and their partners, their family members all need to know -- that endometriosis, we think, is caused by retrograde menstruation. And that's where menstrual blood goes backwards to the fallopian tubes into the abdominal cavity,” Dr. Powers says.
Dr. Powers says diagnosis is often delayed, which means women are living in discomfort without proper treatment or pain management.
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“[Women] don't know what's wrong [so] they'll go to an emergency room [or] urgent care center and they'll get labeled as being malingering or pain seeking. They need to find gynecologists like myself, and my colleagues, who are very good at diagnosing disease,” he says. “You have to advocate for yourself, your family members and your friends.”
Advocacy is the main reason Langlois is speaking out and sharing her story on her social media pages.
“I got into business so that I can help women be better and as I was laying there in bed, and just kind of thinking, like, why not share other parts of my life that I could help women feel supported,” she says.
While one in 10 women have endometriosis, the National Institutes of Health says there is not enough being done to diagnose women early.
In 2022, the organization reports that there was less than one percent of funding for the health budget set aside for research for endometriosis.
The big takeaway with this report is to take your loved ones pain seriously, especially for parents/guardians when their daughters start their menstrual cycle.
