09/13/2026
Thirty years of endometriosis advocacy. What would we do differently?
Tomorrow, 5 pm Eastern, free: Heather Guidone, BCPA, opens the books on the endometriosis movement. What worked, what did not, and what changes now.
Heather was 17 with stage IV endometriosis when she was told to have a hysterectomy. Nobody said the word excision. More than 20 surgeries later she runs the Surgical Program at the Center for Endometriosis Care and has spent three decades making sure the patient is in the room when research is written and laws are read.
What you will learn: why awareness alone did not shorten the years to a diagnosis (the median is still about nine years from first symptom in one large primary-care study), what the movement got right, and the levers that actually move care: definitions, research funding, medical curricula, and patients treated as experts on their own disease.
Advocates, this one is for you. If you lead a group, run a page, or speak for patients, come. Heather names her own side’s mistakes first. Bring yours. If we are honest, we have to work together. Endometriosis has plenty of groups and plenty of awareness; what it does not have is one coordinated movement. Every organization, page, and advocate pulling the same direction beats each of us repeating the same mistakes on our own. That is what this call is for.
The Mistakes of the Endometriosis Movement, with Heather Guidone, BCPA. Monday, September 14, 5 pm Eastern. Free and open to everyone. Save your spot at the link in bio and we will send you the call link.
Source for the nine years: Pugsley Z, Ballard K. British Journal of General Practice, 2007. rrmacademy.org/library/management-of-endometriosis-in-general-practice-the-pathway-to-diagnosis-recurprirmkh4mgdr/ Her story: rrmacademy.org/commentary/heather-guidone-endometriosis-advocacy/