Anna's Journey to Answers: Endometriosis Care at New York Gynecology Endometriosis

Hi, my name is Anna G., and I’m 22 years old. I was just diagnosed with stage 3 deep infiltrating endometriosis.

It took almost 10 years for me to get diagnosed, which is ridiculous, but unfortunately, that’s how it is, and it should not be that way.

When I first got my period at 13, it was the worst pain I had ever experienced. I didn’t realize that it wasn’t normal. I thought, wow, so many other girls go through this every month, and it’s horrible.

Between the horrible cramps where I couldn’t get up, couldn’t get out of bed, had to miss school, had to miss work, had to cancel a lot of plans, throwing up from the pain, being very close to fainting, and actually fainting a few times, which was pretty scary.

I’ve had pain with intercourse and many other symptoms, and I knew something wasn’t right, but I wasn’t sure what exactly because I was only 13. What does a 13-year-old girl know, you know?

So I eventually went to my primary care doctor way back then, and I brought it up. I ended up going to my mother’s gynecologist, who became mine.

Nothing really came of it at that point. You know, I’d just see him, and then in 2017, I had surgery for an ovarian cystectomy, and that’s when I was finally put on birth control because they wanted to control the ovarian cysts. The birth control helped, but it also didn’t help, which is unfortunate.

I then had to go to a GI specialist because I was suffering from a bunch of GI issues, including painful bowel movements. I would go back and forth between diarrhea and constipation, which is not fun.

Bleeding from my rectum, having blood in my stool—all not fun stuff. So, I had a colonoscopy and endoscopy done in June of 2022, and they found nothing. They said it came back clean and didn’t want to do anything further.

So, I went back to my primary doctor. I got a bunch of blood work done. Everything looked normal. He said, you know, maybe this is kind of a mental thing. So, we changed my psych medications.

We changed them and increased the dosage, but nothing changed because clearly, that had nothing to do with it. I went to the ER multiple times for horrible pain, even when I was off my cycle, which was another symptom where I figured something’s not right because I wasn’t on my period.

It was weird to be having all those cramps and everything. I’ve gone to the ER so many times, thinking that my appendix was bursting, only for them to say, nope, your appendix looks great.

I found out very recently that my appendix was adherent to my pelvic floor, which caused a lot of pain.

I did a lot of research online and finally found Dr. Singhal. I looked through the reviews and thought, you know what? I’m just going to go for it. So, I filled out one of the forms on their website, and I heard back pretty quickly, which surprised me.

We ended up scheduling an appointment, the consult, and I came in. That same day, we scheduled surgery. I didn’t think I was going to be taken seriously. I thought I would be brushed off again. I was utterly shocked by how amazing the care is here. How amazing the entire staff is. This entire office is amazing. So, I got surgery scheduled, and I was finally happy to have somewhat of a plan.

The day of my surgery came, and when I woke up, Dr. Singhal informed me that they had found it.

They finally discovered what was wrong with me after almost 10 years of pushing for answers, going from doctor to doctor, specialist to specialist, and receiving no answers multiple times.

Honestly, I’m very, very happy that I had the privilege of being under Dr. Singhal’s care. I’m very impressed with the results and truly couldn’t be happier.

He really is a great surgeon—very skilled, he knows what he’s doing, and he’s very experienced. I must say, the entire team knows what they’re doing. They all care.

They care about your health, your well-being. You know, because this is not normal. Endometriosis is not normal, and many other doctors don’t know what it looks like, so they’re unable to help you or really point you in the right direction because they’re not as experienced. I would say that if you’re someone who has horrible menstrual pain, long periods, heavy blood clots, bloating, feeling full very fast after a meal, nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea, you should seek help.

Many people don’t know that endometriosis can affect every organ in the body. It’s even been found on the brain, which is crazy to think about. I didn’t know that until afterward, and I just thought that was pretty interesting. For me personally, it was found in multiple areas.

It was on my sigmoid colon and rectum, which I knew was the cause of all my GI issues. I knew right then and there—that’s why. I just want to let you guys know that there is hope out there.

There is a way to find answers, and there are amazing doctors out there—amazing endometriosis specialists who will be able to help you and finally figure out what’s going on. I know it’s a very hard and difficult journey, but you just have to keep advocating for yourself because you are your own biggest advocate.

I cannot recommend Dr. Singhal enough. I honestly can’t. He really cares so much about his patients. He really is an amazing person. If you’re someone who is suffering and hasn’t been able to find answers, has been brushed off, told it’s all in your head, or told that there’s nothing wrong, don’t give up. Don’t stop fighting for yourself and come see Dr. Singhal, because I can guarantee you: If nobody else can find what’s going on with you, he will.