Support Shantell's Journey to Health and Healing

Hey, my name is Shantell and I am currently a 28 y/o single mom of a 7 year old daughter. Unfornately, I am here to tell my story that will resignate with many women as of recent years. After years of health issues and being gaslit by my doctors telling me the pain I experienced was normal, consistently having cysts and fibroids is normal and the positioning of my uterus not being in an upright position is normal.

At 12 years old, I was told birth control would be the best option for me since the pain occurred mostly during my periods and my ability to have a baby wouldn't be affected. From 12 years old I have been on and off of birth control dealing with extreme pain and my body rejecting each birth control method. At 27 and a half years old is when I finally received my diagnosis of endometriosis and adenomyosis. I had a robotic surgery in August, but by November I was experiencing the same pain again. The surgeon informed me that people usually told him how much better they felt after surgery so he was surprised this was my outcome and once again my options were another surgery, birth control to stop my periods, or more agressive medicine to put me in a menopausal state.

My support system and I were very unhappy with his comments, so I decided to seek a second and third opinion. With the technological advances in the medical field, everyone is performing the same robotic surgery, so I kept looking until I found a doctor on Instagram that was performing his own method to successfully remove endometriosis and adenomyosis with great reviews. This doctor also did a full work up exam that told me my stage (which wasn't given by the previous surgeon) and that the increased levels of estrogen from birth control caused my adenomyosis.

I explain all of this to say that I have started this gofundme to ask for help with his surgeon fee and my travel to the state where he performs the surgery. He doesn't accept insurance for his work, but my insurance will cover my hospital stay and anesthesia which was the least of the costs. If you all will be so generous to find it in your heart to support me in receieving this surgery that will reset my reproductive system back to its normal anatomy and hopefully bring my autoimmune disease into remission-- (which I developed indirectly from my endometriosis).

Sadly, endometriosis is a genetic disorder that I have to watch for my daughter, so if you have it running in your family as well please do the necessary research and start changing your family's diet to lessen the effects.