We are raising funds for our friend Annette. A devoted mom, partner, friend, community leader, advocate and inspiration to us all. Annette has been living with endometriosis resulting in chronic pelvic pain throughout most of her life. She is unable to access essential medical services in Canada due to the backlog of our medical system, and an inability to diagnose her adequately. Much like the many stories we are encountering, our Canadian medical system has failed her.

For the past three years, Annette has lived with severe, progressive pain and heavy, debilitating bleeding. Struggling with pain, Annette is often unable to function at all, confined to a chair with a heating pad, experiencing profound exhaustion and visible signs of blood loss. What began as intermittent pain is now daily, relentless, and worsening.

Despite undergoing extensive testing, repeated referrals, and years of advocacy, she has been denied timely specialist care and definitive treatment. She has been referred to over a handful of Canadian specialists, all of whom were unable to take her on as a patient. She has been told, more than once, that her pain is “in her head,” even while experiencing visible swelling and discoloration on her pelvis.

In Canada, exploratory laparoscopy is no longer routinely offered, and local radiology services are not adequately trained to reliably detect endometriosis. As a result, women are frequently told “nothing is there,” even when disease is present. Meaningful care can take years, often a year or more to see a specialist, followed by another year or longer to access surgery. She does not have that kind of time.

Out of desperation, she paid for a private MRI to obtain answers. When the imaging was reviewed by appropriate expertise, it confirmed that her pain is real, physical, and medically explainable.

Medical evidence clearly shows that the severity of endometriosis or adenomyosis on imaging does not correlate with pain intensity. Women with minimal visible disease can experience extreme, disabling pain, yet are routinely dismissed because scans do not look “severe enough.”

The most significant finding is the presence of bilateral accessory piriformis muscles, which are believed to be compressing the sacral plexus, a major nerve network in the pelvis. This type of nerve compression can cause constant pelvic and perineal pain, neuropathic symptoms, difficulty sitting or standing, impaired mobility, and a profound loss of quality of life. It requires specialized, nerve-aware care that is not accessible to her locally.

This is not a rare story, it is a systemic problem! Women with chronic pelvic pain are routinely:

Told their symptoms are “normal,” “stress-related,” or “hormonal”

Forced to wait years for appropriate imaging and specialist review

Dismissed when disease is described as “mild”

Left without coordinated, multidisciplinary treatment

By the time answers are finally obtained, many patients are already physically exhausted, financially strained, and emotionally worn down from fighting to be heard.

Why we are asking for help now?

Annette can no longer afford to wait for a system that moves too slowly and listens too little.

Many women from Canada in similar situations have been forced to seek out-of-country care, including specialized centres in Europe, where timely, comprehensive treatment is available, but at enormous personal cost. To pursue this option, Annette will need to take on significant debt, to access care that should have been available at home. This is greatly impacting her life, career, & family responsibilities.

We are looking to help cover some of the costs, and every little bit raised will help Annette manage the weight on her shoulders as she stresses over:

-Private, out-of-country specialist consultations

-Nerve-focused pain management and treatment

-Flights and Accommodations for timely medical care

-Medications, therapies, and recovery support

-Lost income caused by chronic pain and prolonged medical delays

This GoFundMe exists because women should not have to crowd-fund to be believed or treated, but that is the reality many are facing in Canada today.

If you are able to donate, you are helping her access care that should have been available long ago. If you cannot donate, sharing this page helps amplify a truth that too often goes unheard.

Thank you for supporting Annette, and for standing up against a system that continues to fail women in pain!