Below the Belt

This documentary is a must watch for those with pelvic pain and their loved ones. So much helpful information about endometriosis, self-advocacy, and the importance of funding for medical research and education. I appreciated the combination of personal stories and physician interviews- it all added so much.

I have experienced so much medical bias and mistreatment before finding a *true* endo specialist. General GYN's don't have the knowledge & skill - can do alot of harm in their overconfidence. I just had surgery to excise endo on my diaphragm, liver and bowel and am so relieved I found a doctor who listened and believed me. I'm so thankful that tge endo community has such strong advocates including those who made this film and were featured in it.

This is the best, most accurate, compelling, real version of what living with endo looks like. It's heartbreaking and rage inducing in the best way.

I've never seen anything so aligned with the realities of endo, it's like watching your story play out on screen. The women they feature are relatable and real, and generously share their stories of trying to seek treatment, access proper care, trying to conceive, and trying to live while suffering with endo.

If you have pelvic pain, or menstruate, you need so see this movie. As someone with stage four endo, I cannot recommend this enough. It's so good.

I have endometriosis and this movie just wasn't it. It clearly described the synptomes for these women and many are like them, but yet again women with endo like ne are overlooked again and again. Insure have typical symptoms and bad cramps and pain but my pain are not all the time and I have only 2 times gone to the hospital due to pain. I suffered in silence believing that I was just imagining how bad it was, I was too sensitive - the pain couldn't be so bad, because my sickness doesn't affect me AS MUCH as many with endo. I am able to work and study without affecting me too much. But still of course it affects me. They failed to educate what this really is, they failed to say that women could have this disease without little or any symptoms at all, they didn't mention the stages of endo, they didn't talk much about the surgery or the psychological affect the disease and the surgery could have. Some women could have stage 4 endo (severe) without any pain at all and there is me, diagnosed with stage 1 endo (minimal) and here I am in so much pain, but perhaps 1-3 days per month and sometimes I get pain free months. You never know how many days you will be in pain as the disease can suddenly change its behavior and I have felt that on my own skin. Going from having not so much pain and only a few hrs long extreme pain attack to more severe pain, for longer period of time and more of dull pain that is 3/10 and going on for many days. Sometimes my fiance can't move in the bed as it is so painful. So in conclusion, this movie didn't tackle the subject really well. Still I give it 6 as it maybe raises awareness of this extremely painful disease and women are hopefully more listened to, not just dismissed with something like "this is normal" or "this is only a bad ovulation pain". I can't remember how many times I've heard this from health care providers. And it was somwhere said (don't remember if it was in this movie) that this disease begins around that time when girls have their first period. That is false for me. I never missed school, I was very rately with that bad pain, I didn't throw up due to pain, I never lied in bed due to it... so making people believe that this is the only "face" of this disease is in bast case scenario a "above the iceberg" scratch. There are so many symptoms, so many "faces" of this disease. I also never bled that much during period and it never lasted more than 4-5 days but most commonly I was on my period for 2-3 days. So please educate people that that lying in bed in crushing pain is not what everyone feels even most at some point feels like that. I just felt that I wasn't "sick enough" because I don't fit that typical endo profile. My doctor even sent me to laparoscopic surgery mostly to exclude endo - to confirm I didn't have it because my synptoms don't fit the "normal" endo profile.