As a teenager embarking on her freshman year of high school, Amanda Stratton began experiencing severe and mysterious abdominal pain.
“Doctors chalked my symptoms up to irritable bowel syndrome, and that was all they could really offer me as a diagnosis,” she said.
Months turned into years, and despite following prescribed protocols from specialists and making changes to her diet and lifestyle, Amanda’s pain only worsened.
“As I continued to seek treatment, I often felt like my symptoms weren’t taken seriously,” she said, “as if the level of pain I was experiencing was just all in my head.”
A turning point arrived when she and her husband began planning for a family. After a year-and-a-half of trying unsuccessfully to conceive, the couple sought guidance from fertility specialists. A popular medication prescribed for infertility sent Amanda into agony.
“I ended up in the emergency room where doctors told me that I probably had colitis, but when a gastroenterologist tried to perform a colonoscopy, there was so much inflammation that the procedure couldn’t be completed.”
More ER visits and appointments with specialists followed, but a diagnosis remained elusive. Meanwhile, Amanda’s health was in crisis.
“I wasn’t responding to any form of treatment, and I couldn’t eat anything because of the pain. I lost 15 pounds in one week. I was just tanking.”
Through her own research, she discovered one condition her physicians had yet to rule out.
“I began asking my doctors if this could be endometriosis.”
A common gynecological condition affecting more than five million women in the U.S., endometriosis is a chronic and progressive disorder in which the lining of the uterus, or the endometrium, grows outside of the uterus and on to other nearby structures including the ovaries, fallopian tubes and colon. This growth can result in inflammation, scar tissue and infertility.
Despite the high number of women that suffer, endometriosis is widely misunderstood, with physicians often mistaking the condition for severe menstrual pain or gastrointestinal disorders like IBS or Ulcerative Colitis.
Amanda found her way to Hoag, where she met with Gynecologist Marc Winter, MD. A national expert in robotic surgery, Dr. Winter serves as the medical director of the minimally invasive gynecologic surgery program at Hoag.
“Meeting with Dr. Winter was a game changer,” she said. “He knew that the pain I was in was very real, and he assured me that, together, we were going to get to the bottom of it. I was finally being heard.”
Dr. Winter ordered a pelvic MRI with contrast, a highly accurate method of imaging that can identify endometriotic cysts throughout the pelvic cavity, including the bowel. The images provided Amanda with a long-awaited diagnosis: She had stage 4 endometriosis.
“We discovered she had a large cyst in her ovary, which, in her case, was preventing its function and causing her infertility,” Dr. Winter said. “The endometriosis had also impacted her fallopian tubes, intestines and colon.”
To alleviate her symptoms, Amanda would need to undergo a surgical procedure to remove cysts and scar tissue from her reproductive organs as well as a bowel resection. Because she had hopes of becoming pregnant, it was imperative the surgeries be as minimally invasive as possible.
Dr. Winter partnered with Elizabeth R. Raskin, MD, Surgical Director for the Margolis Family Inflammatory Bowel Disease Program within the Digestive Health Institute at Hoag. Together, they performed a robotic-assisted surgery, successfully removing painful scar tissue while safely preserving all of Amanda’s reproductive organs.
“She was able to return home just two days after surgery and with very little pain,” said Dr. Winter. “It was pretty remarkable.”
Since her diagnosis and surgery, Amanda has been able to enjoy food—and her life—without pain and remains grateful to the Hoag physicians who came together on her behalf.
“I have so much praise for Dr. Winter and Dr. Raskin,” she said. “Endometriosis affects so many different aspects of your life and your body, so you need to have doctors that are willing to collaborate with colleagues in other specialties, and that’s what they do at Hoag. That interconnectivity is what got me well.”
Dr. Winter and Dr. Raskin, in collaboration with a team of Hoag gynecologists, will launch the Hoag Endometriosis Advisory Council in 2025 to provide expertise and instrumental care to patients, like Amanda, who have been searching for answers.
For more information about endometriosis, please visit hoag.org/endometriosis. If you are suffering from gynecological pain or have questions about your health, talk to your OB/GYN about your plans to start a family if you have endometriosis.
