SPEAKER_00 0:04

That wasn't the plan. That fucking clicking sound again. But I'm gonna ignore it. Not like it was. Not as bad. No, no, not I don't hear it really. Okay, good. I know we're recording, but all right, so I'm gonna do this on my own. This is so strange. Well, hello there to all of our listeners. I am Emily White, one of your hosts for God, now somebody's fucking calling me. Let me start over.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

I can't fucking win. I am one of your hosts on That Wasn't the Plan. Our other host, Courtney Holland, had an emergency.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

She's not joining us today, unfortunately, but that's okay because we have one of the best guests in the world who doesn't need another host to have a discussion today. One of my dear friends, and I have been waiting to have her on the show for a while. Her name is Hillary Pollack. Uh, we go back to the eighth grade. We swam together in high school. We were fast friends, and she was basically the only person that I knew when I moved out to Los Angeles. And she showed me the ropes, and we have been like nearly best friends for since the 23, almost 24 years now, since I moved out to LA, if you can believe that. Um, she's also one of the most talented and heartfelt human beings that I know. She is a professional dancer, an award-winning choreographer. She's worked in TV and film. She is one of the stars of the popular burlesque show, The Hollywood Pinup Girls, and the vaudeville show Mental Head Circus. She is the founder and co-director of Artist Entrance Dance Company in Los Angeles, a pre-professional dance company where she is literally shaping the next generation of serious dancers. She is a mom to two of the most incredible little children, Landon and Aiden, and a wonderful wife. And she is frankly one of those people who kind of just does everything dance, hiking, house construction. You can follow her on Instagram. She's got a couple accounts. Um, she's just wonderful at everything. So, but today we're not going to talk about her beautiful life that she has curated for herself. We are going to talk about the years that she has kind of spent fighting um to get her doctors to believe her. Um, and I think a lot of women have a similar story. So without further ado, Hillary Pollock, Hillary Morris Pollock, welcome to the podcast. Thank you for joining me today. And now I can't hear you. Can you hear me? Yeah. Okay. I can hear you. Okay. Did you lose me again? Hilary. Fuck. Can you hear me? I don't know what's going on. I've never had this problem. Because, like, why would your mic crackling make the sound turn out? I don't know. Okay, I can hear you now. Okay. Yeah, no, it's fine.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

Well, Hilary, welcome to the podcast. Hi. Thanks for having me. Let's do this before we have any more tech issues. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Is Mercury in retrograde? I don't know. My God, this has been a fucking disaster. But yeah. Um It's so good to see your beautiful face. How is the weather in LA? Yeah, we got the May Gray thing going this morning, you know. Happening today. Yeah. It was 52 degrees here when I signed on a little while ago. So it's just cold. I'm ready for I'm ready for some California sun. Not that we're gonna get it again for another month or two. I think it's gonna be hot. Uh starting this afternoon. So oh, that's nice. Quick, fly down. Yeah, I wish I could. Well, I know you've got a like split in about an hour. Um, so this is your story, dear. Um, I know that we brought you on today to discuss your battle with endometriosis. And I think it's been an ongoing battle for gosh, like five-ish years and going undiagnosed for quite some time. Or has it been longer than that, do you think? Well, I was officially diagnosed two years ago. Um looking back, there were signs. Many of signs. The only way someone can be diagnosed with endometriosis at this point is via surgery. So I was officially diagnosed after my surgery two years ago, but then looking back after the storm that happened, there was definitely signs for many years prior. Okay. It was cutting in and out. I I'm so sorry, Hills. I've never had this issue before. Is it better now? Yeah, honestly, I don't know. Is it still cutting out? No, it sounds it sounds better. I think maybe the closer you are to your computer, it's a little bit better. I wonder too if I should take, but it shouldn't be that because I have I wonder if it's my ear. If you try it, I'll take mine out too. Yeah. And trying to is that better? Because sometimes that's better. I bet they're clicking the thing. That was it. The clicking sound was the earrings. It was the earrings. Trying to look cute.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

That's there's your clicking for social media right there. Us figuring out that the sound issue was our hoops.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

I was like, what's all that clicking sound? Oh my god. There we go. Okay. I'm gonna make note of that. I was no hoops with these. The snowball hoops with the earbuds. Wow. Okay. So that explains it. Yeah. Okay. Cool. Yeah. Okay. Okay. All right. So getting back on track. Um, gosh. Okay. So that was you were diagnosed with endo two years ago, but you had been suffering for quite some time. Is that correct? Yeah. So I think maybe the best thing is to explain what endometriosis is because shockingly, when I when I tell people that I have endometriosis or I have this crazy thing happen, a lot of people and a lot of women are like, I don't know what that is. So endometriosis is when you have uterine-like lesions. So it's not exactly um like your uterine lining. It's very similar. And they end up outside of the uterus. So they often end up in the pelvis. They've found them all over the body. They've found them on women's brains, women's lungs collapse because of it. And so what happens is every month when a woman has her period, you're bleeding from those lesions that are all over your body, but the blood has nowhere to go. So the blood gets trapped and causes adhesions and scar tissue. So, like for example, when I went in for my surgery, I had multiple organs stuck together. So they don't know what causes it. There's theories, there's retrograde menstruation, but I think that one at this point is most people don't believe. Um, there could be a bacteria, there could be gut issues. They don't know at this point. So that's what endometriosis is. One in 10 women has it. So I mean, that's significant. So there are plenty of women out there that have it that have no that are like me that had no clue that they were dealing with this. Did you have like pre-symptoms where you were like something hurts or I'm foggy or anything that may have given like in retrospect now that you were like, Yeah, was it feeling well? So I had a really difficult time getting pregnant. Um, I went through all the steps through, you know, your regular OBGYN, and then I went on to a fertility doctor who was amazing. Um, and you know what, you're Googling things, and endometriosis kept coming up as a reason that someone couldn't get pregnant. So I had really painful periods. Did I have to call out from work from them? Maybe once or twice, but I could just take enough Advil and push through. And those started, I think I'd say in my 20s. So it probably was had started in my 20s. Um, I don't know. It's it is was I in less pain than other women that were arriving in pain and show up to the hospital. Maybe pain is, you know, pain has a psychological component. I'm grew up as a gymnast and a dancer, where with both of those sports, you're told to push through pain because the reality is they are just painful. You know, dancing on point is painful, gymnastics is painful. I'm not sure. Um, if you read about it, some people that have stage one endometriosis are in more pain than people that had stage four, which that's what I had with stage four. So it's hard to say. But when I was at the fertility doctor and I would ask, like, hey, could I have endometriosis? I was told a number of times, no, no, you're not in enough pain to have endometriosis, which looking back is like, whoa. What a they're kind of gaslighting you there. Yeah. And I I guess that's why I'm here and telling the story is for women, like, painful periods are not normal. And just because you're not calling out of work, there still could be an issue. And in my case, there was a big issue. Well, um, and also certain people have different pain thresholds where I I I've read, you know, and I have Irish descent and a bit of red hair. I have a very low tolerance for pain. So, but somebody else we may be cut exactly the same way, and they're like, I don't really feel it, and I'm writhing in pain on the floor. Yeah. Yeah. Pain's crazy. Yeah. I just listened to a podcast about pain, a different podcast about pain. And this woman had these crazy stories of this this guy jumps off, uh working at a construction site, jumps off a six-foot thing, and a nail goes through his foot screaming in pain, freaking out, take him to the hospital. They take off his boot. The nail hadn't actually gone through the foot, it had gone through the two toes. But because visually he saw that, his body told him he was in that amount of pain. So pain is holy shit, tricky. Yeah. Yeah. Pain is that's interesting. That's fascinating. Yeah. I I know because sometimes, like, if you hurt yourself, if I don't look at it, right, then I'm like, it's not there. It's not happening. Yeah. Then I'm okay. I was just gonna say, like, when you have a cut and you don't notice it, and then when you see it, it starts hurting.

unknown 10:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:00

I think we've all had that experience where you're like, wait, how was it not hurting before I looked at it? Because this has clearly been bleeding for at least 10 minutes. Um, so pain is pain isn't completely objective, I guess. No, it's not. It's no, not at all. Yeah. So, anyways, there were indicators. I'm sorry. I'm I'm having a tough time like comprehending that your organs can fuse together and that yours had started to do that. Yeah. So with blood. So it's like internal bleeding because of these lesions. Okay. And was it all in kind of the your torso era, your um internal tor, or had it started like? Yeah, well, it was on my diaphragm. Um, to and yeah, I I think I don't know. Do you want me to tell the story and then talk about the symptoms that I now do realize are endometriosis? Oh, that might help when you do. Okay. So I'm still laughing, but our earrings were the sound issue. Um, I know. Okay. So I'm I have a fertility issue. We end up doing IBM. There were some other um problems. I had what was called uh or what is called a uterine septum. My Haley Bieber just recently talked about having the same thing. Um, they cut this out. It's just basically the top of my uterus was fibrous instead of soft. And so if I was able to get pregnant, I wasn't able to stay pregnant because it wasn't, it needs to be soft for the baby to grow. Basically, it's like planting a seed in concrete. Um, so the doctor cuts it out. I'm taking hormones and all these supplementary things, and I get pregnant um with my son. And then two years later, we try with my daughter, and we had the same um eggs or the same blastocysts available. I got pregnant right away. It was pretty easy from there. Then I have my kids, my periods hurt. There's some other stuff going on that I'll get to. And my husband is works in the film industry and was working on a TV show in Thailand. And I had been having some odd symptoms. I had my periods were going on and on and on. Um, I talked to my OBGYN about it, and he diagnosed me with an endometrioma, which is I now know to be advanced endometriosis, which wasn't really said to me um at the time. So, what that is, is an endometriosis cyst. It's sometimes called a chocolate cyst on your ovary, and it's having its own period. Um, it was decided let's watch this for three months. Relatively speaking, it's not that big. Observe symptoms. So I start having extreme pain on the right side of my body. My husband's in Thailand. I'm doing just sort of manic mom mode, like just trying to get everything done. And like, frankly, don't really have time for any of this. So I just keep taking Advil and I think, well, maybe it's just like an ovarian cyst rupture. I've had that happen before. It's pretty painful. But the difference with this was that it wasn't going away. But I could like take Advil, get through. I was feeling pretty bad. I was like, should I cancel teaching? I had to teach a class in the morning, and then I was just no, I'll take Advil. Then I like went and took a yoga class later. I was taking my kids' places and being like, God, is it cold in here? I'm shivering. Um, so this I think Friday was the day that I took the yoga class and taught the class and was just like pushing through the pain. Here's the theme, right? Um, and by Sunday, I was laying on the floor of my daughter's room and I'd taken a bath to try to like heat the pain. And I like was in so much pain, I felt like I couldn't get off the floor. And so I had her bring me my phone and I called two friends and miraculously both picked up right away, one to hang out with the kids and the other to take me to the hospital. So yay for friends, yay for friends, yay for girlfriends. Um, I know. And Colleen and Nikki. Women make it happen. So we go to the hospital, and I'm still not entirely sure. I don't even realize that this is connected to the endometrioma. Um, that seems pretty obvious, but at the time I just, I don't know, I just hadn't put it together. And so they do a CT scan. I I come in, they're like, I have a raging fever. It's like 102. And I think I had had the fever for like days, and that's why I kept being like, it's chilly right now. They do a CT scan. They are like, you have an infection in your pelvis. Uh, they they do a pap smear test me for STDs. They're I'm negative for all of those. And they they're like, okay, well, we don't know what it is, but here's one bag of IV antibiotics and antibiotics to go home. So I go see an OB, and my OB, unfortunately, OBGYN had unfortunately retired in the middle of all of this. And she's like, Oh, you're lucky. Sometimes people get hospitalized with this, but you know, just take this and continue your antibiotics and we'll see. So by about three weeks later, fever is back, pain is way worse than it was before. Um did it any of that go away like after you kind of started? Maybe a little bit. Yeah, but I was like, Okay, they were I told I wasn't well. I remember my neighbor who's um a little bit older and a little bit frank was like, Hillary, you look really tired. And I was like, Yeah, it's the kids. And he goes, No, I'm telling you, you you look tired. Like it was, and I talked to him later and he was like, I was trying to tell you something didn't look right with you. So I cut to the few weeks later. I'm like, okay, my fever's raging. I get to the hospital. My I have my um a tenant whose family friend living in the back, she takes me to the hospital's friend gets my kids to school, and they do an ultrasound and they don't even need to do a CT at this point. The the endometrioma is now the size of a baseball. Um holy shit. And I'm fever, I have sepsis. They're like, we're admitting you into the hospital. My husband's in Thailand, and I'm like, oh my God. So calling my mom, having the mom come out, again, female friends, family friends, everybody, you know, friends are taking the kids after school, um, babysitter, longtime former student, you know, she's basically like family, takes the kids for the night till my mom can get here. And I get set up with an amazing um gyno oncologist. So if you think you have endometriosis, your regular OBGYN is not equipped to handle that surgery. I've I've heard um interesting the podcast Huberman Lab. I can't think of the doctor's name, but there's this female LA-based doctor. She's like an expert on endometriosis and PCOS. She's incredible. And that episode is the best explanation of endometriosis I've ever heard. Um, so she in this podcast was saying that she really feels like there should be a separation and that there should be gynecologists. And and sometimes there is to a certain extent, but like delivering babies is a huge thing. And then taking care of female issues, PCOS, endometriosis, menopause, that's that's a lot for one person to it, it is. Yeah, it shouldn't all fall under that same umbrella because they're completely different. Like delivering a baby and menopause, in my mind, are two separate things completely. It's too much to ask of one doctor, right? So, anyways, I get set up with um Dr. Richard Freeman, he's at the Disney Cancer Center in Burbank. He's an incredible surgeon. Now, there's also endometriosis doctors that are gonna be able to better handle will acupuncture help you, will pelvic physical therapy, pelvic floor physical therapy help you? There's more things, but if you want the guy who's like good with the knife, like this guy's amazing. So basically they were calling all these OBGYNs and everybody's like, no, no, no, no, no, we're not touching this. Like, this is the guy for it. So he well, good. He was incredible. So I am hospitalized for a couple days. The infection calms down enough with IV antibiotics, I no longer have sepsis, that they let me go home for a couple days and then they schedule emergency surgery that I don't remember. I think it was like that next Monday or something. And I go in and they're like, we might have to take everything out. You might have a full hysterectomy when you wake up. We don't know if we'll be able to do this laparoscopically, so we might have to open up your C-section incision. Like, we just don't know till we get in there. Okay. And so I'm like so anxious, obviously, like waiting to go in. Um and then I wake up from surgery and I'm like in so much pain. And I'm like, were they able to do it laparoscopically? What did they take out? You know, it's just high as the kite. And like, um, and they're like, no, they did it laparoscopically. They just took out the fallopian tubes and the one um ovary that had the infected endometrioma. And what they found in there is I had endometriosis lesions all over my torso, basically. So I had it on my diaphragm. My uterus was adhesed to my omentum. So your omentum is your like organ that's like the fatty tissue that lies along the front of your stomach. And so the uterus was adhesed to that, or the omentum was adhesed to the uterus, and then the uterus was adhesed to the like back wall of the cavity. Um, and he was just like, You were a mess. And I don't have many other surgeons. Yeah, well, I was in pain because of the infection, but but um he was like, not you know, not many surgeons could have done what I did laparoscopically. And I guess his the assisting surgeon was like, How do you even know where you are in there? Because it was just such a mess. And the um, and he's like, I don't know, I just know, you know, he's just meant to to do this. So he wants me to go on this drug called Orlease. Which puts you into a medical menopause. This is post-surgery. Um, I did some research and cried on the phone to you because I just was so scared of taking this. And I didn't want to take it. I was afraid of the like mental health repercussions of just like immediately being put into menopause. So he talked me into taking hormonal birth control to taking a vaginal ring. Um or taking inserting a vaginal ring. I was very reluctant. I most definitely was one of those people that was like, hormones are bad. I don't want to put any, you know, I don't want to put myself on something that's not natural. I do think there's like a social media component to that that influences all of us. And um he talked me into it. The I had spoken, I got a second opinion about taking the Orelisa and the doctor that I had the second opinion was like, if you find you're having these symptoms, you have to do something. So those symptoms are peeing a lot on your period is a symptom of having endometriosis around the bladder. Oh, interesting. Having like diarrhoea or pooping a lot on your period, that's also an endometriosis symptom that it's infecting or is impacting the bowels in some way on the outside, pushing in. Um so yeah, so those are two. There's like the weirdest symptoms if you if you go down the rabbit hole. But um I was peeing a lot after the surgery. My periods were still pretty painful, really painful, really, and really heavy. And the peeing a lot part freaked me out. So I was like, you know what? I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna take the hormonal birth control ring. And it is the best decision I've ever made. I cannot believe that I spent a lifetime of having dealing with periods like I was dealing with to what I'm dealing with now. Um it's so easy. I feel so much better. I'm so happy to hear that. And it's mostly like localized estrogen that just like so that my doctor says the same thing to me. Um, he's there's localized estrogen that I can use vaginally to help with some symptoms um of, you know, from chemo-induced menopause and everything else. But it doesn't help with a lot of like the mental problems that I'm having, cognitive issues, things like that. So for me, it's not really worth it because I don't have a lot of that pain. Um but yes, it's it's nice to know that there are localized estrogen options that just pretty much stay in the vaginal uterine area. Yeah. So the way he explained it to me is that when you take a birth control pill, your liver processes it throughout the day, whereas the ring, your liver doesn't process it. So you don't have the like emotional spikes. So the interesting the birth control helping endo is like very strange because endometriosis is having too much estrogen, but by somehow giving you estrogen, it helps level it out. And I'm, you know, a doctor could speak to that. Um so yeah, that's my story. It was the weirdest time. And how are you now? So how am I feeling now? I yeah, like today. And how long? Okay, so from your surgery and everything until now, like have things progressively just gotten better and you feel okay or Yeah, yeah. I started taking birth control uh two months later. Um, and that was a huge game changer. Game changer. And I feel pretty good now. I have this thing, it's called um Fitzhugh Curtis syndrome. So after you have an infection in your pelvis, I don't this is the strangest thing to me. Um, and this after the first time I was in the hospital um when they released me, and probably shouldn't have. Um I think a day or two later, I woke up in the middle of the night in so much pain on my right rib and into my right shoulder. And I you for some reason get these like scar tissue lesions that connect from your liver capsule to the like side of like your inside. And I still have pain from that occasionally. My doctor said to me, quote, the next time I operate on you, let's deal with that. I didn't want to deal with that at the time because it was an emergency because of your infection. So I did the best I could with the endometriosis. So then that the next time I operate on you is like, ugh, because yeah, what does that mean? And what it means is a lot of endometriosis patients get operated on more than once that it comes back and that the birth control helps manage symptoms, but I don't know how much it's managing um other lesions coming back. Are you able to get like yearly checkups to see if it's come back? And how no. No, so the so this is this is like the the bummer of endometriosis, which is why a lot of people don't know about it. So the only confirmation of it is surgery. You can see it on an MRI sometimes, but not always. And then if you have an endometrioma that has grown enough, you can see it on an ultrasound. But it's all really tricky. I'm enrolled in a study out of a university in Long Island where they're trying to find a test through period blood. Um, there's also I've read interesting um they just found that there's, I think it's like a protein marker in a regular blood test can point to endo. So to me, and why I'm talking about this on a podcast is I think the more awareness and you know, the more funding endo research gets, the better chance we have of potentially getting a blood test. So in my eyes, I would love that like our regular annual blood work panel is testing for endometriosis. And then Absolutely. And then the next step is that we now we have a cure or we know how to better treat it other than hormonal birth control. Um so is there a cure other than cutting it out? No. Cut so surgery is like the gold standard, but it's not even a cure because it just is removing it temporarily. Um, the drug that the doctor wanted me to go on, or Lisa, that does stop it, but you can only be on it for six months at a time. So women that are writhing in pain have to call out from work, you know, during their period every month, they want to go on Or Lisa. They'll take the you know, the side emotional side effects over the pain that they're in. I wasn't in that level of pain. So I didn't want to do it. And I guess that kind of brings me to this, okay. So what were the symptoms that I now know actually was endometriosis? So a few years before the shit hit the fan, I would have this thing where I thought it was anxiety and I couldn't get like I felt like I couldn't take a full breath. And I'm like, am I developing a panic disorder? Like, what is going on? And I remember I was with my family in New Zealand, and it's, you know, the most beautiful place on earth, right? And I'm like feeling like I'm about to have a panic attack because I can't take a full breath. And I'm like, I can't wrap my head around why I I don't feel mentally anxious. I feel anxious about nothing right now, but I'm feeling like a panic attack is going on. And that was the start of the symptoms of the endo on my diaphragm. Those are that's an endometriosis diaphragm symptom, is you feel like you can't take a full breath. I know. Doesn't that make you feel like you can't breathe right now? Yeah. I'm like, I've got it. Oh my God, I've had it for years. I know, I know, I know. So that's a symptom. I was also having pain going down the back of my leg. I am dancing, teaching dance many hours a week. Yeah. I thought I was dealing with that. That went away. Both of those things went away right after the surgery. Holy shit. Wow. So the endo, kind of like sciatica, the endo can push on a nerve, and then you have pain going down the back of the leg. So I had that. I also had, and I don't know that it's related, but I think about a year before um this happened, I started having like weird facial swelling. Um like angiodema. All of a sudden, I I sort of looked like I drank like polyjuice potion, and all of a sudden I'd have like these pop-ups. That no one has no doctor has ever said to me that that was related to endo, but leading right up to the chaos, I feel like it had to have been a factor that might immune. Have you had it since? No, but I do take Xurtec every day for it. So endo is not considered um an immune, like an autoimmune disorder, but there are many doctors that do consider it an autoimmune disorder. It sounds like we need more research on it. Is it genetic? That's what my doctor said, that he thinks it's a there's a genetic component. There um I've heard doctors say, you know, does everyone get somehow this uterine uterine lining outside of the uterus, but their bodies, it doesn't grow. It's often say that often like you'll hear doctors say it's not a cancer, but it behaves like a cancer in the way it grows around the body. And and granted, like all of this I'm saying I'm not a doctor. I've just done so much research after this happened. You know, you don't know. I all I knew was like Amy Schumer had it. And I remember like sitting in a doctor's office reading about Tara Lipinski needing to use a surrogate because of endo. And I'm like, oh, that's terrible for her. And then finding out, you know, a month later or whatever that you have it too. Right. Yeah. And I know um Bendy Irwin, Steve Irwin's daughter Australia also has it. Yeah. I see some of her posts sometimes, and it's it appears excruciating. And it also it sounds to me, and I had not done my research like you, that we just don't know anything about it, like other than cut somebody open and you can see. Well, I'm glad that they're able to detect what it is once you know they have your body open, but that they're I'm glad you're in that study. Have you mentioned to your doctor or the study that you were having like these anxiety panic attacks, pain down your legs? Because those could be used maybe in studies in the future to be like these could be symptoms. Um no, I mean, I think it's they're kind of like known symptoms. If you were to go to an endometriosis specialist, they would already know that those are symptoms. Oh, okay. The that study, and I don't do you have like show notes or like on Spotify or something. So I can I can send you the link for people to enroll in the study. They really want, I'm actually not the the best candidate for the study because I have confirmed endo. They want people that don't have confirmed endometriosis. So like right before you're going in for your surgery, they um that's who they want. And they send you a kit and you send period blood back to them. And they're they're doing some pretty cool research that we can link a great um YouTube video and the link to the actual study. Okay, yeah, send me that and I will include it in the show notes. Um did you can you still hear me? Okay, okay. Okay.

unknown 34:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 34:30

It's like you froze for a second there.

SPEAKER_01 34:31

I was like, fuck, not again.

SPEAKER_00 34:33

Uh so was it frustrating for years and years that you were having all of these issues, not being able to get pregnant. Maybe your doctors weren't believing you that it sounds like they weren't really believing you when you weren't writhing in pain and all of this. Like, how did that make you feel as a woman? Just I know you were it feels like for a decade you tried to get pregnant and you quit. It was like five years. Um, it makes me feel pretty ragey.

unknown 35:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:02

I mean, I think like I was already a feminist, but after this happened, I it's like my my number one, you know, when you take those quizzes, like your number one voting issue is like is for sure women's rights. I it's like feminism motivates everything now for me and voting and what organizations I donate to. Um I think there's hopefully the tide's turning. It's talked about, you're hearing about more, you know, we're actually doing research on women now. Um, so what would you say to a woman who's like sitting in the waiting room and she feels like she's not being taken seriously and she's got this pain? Uh so if you listen to that podcast I mentioned on Huberman Lab, sh that woman is like her whole thing is like believe women. If women if you are in extreme pain every month from your period, you have endometriosis. That's that's her saying that. That's not me saying that. So if the doctor isn't listening to you, find an endometriosis specialist. Um, you actually recommended to me when I was kind of coming out of this and in shell shock and you know, trying to make sense of how I wanted to handle this, which drugs I wanted to take or not take. Um, I've the there's endometriosis groups on Facebook that are so helpful and you can hear from other women. Um, they're pr they're pretty gay, great, and on Instagram too. So, you know, social media can feed misinformation, but it can also give you community and hear from other women that are have experienced what you're experiencing. Definitely. I found the most important thing for me, and unfortunately, Courtney's not here today, but she came out to babysit me when I was going through chemotherapy once. And she she was a big proponent, still is, uh, of support groups because she has been in recovery now for about 14 years uh through AA. And she's a sponsor um and she does incredible work with that. But she asked me and she was like, Are you in a support group? And I was like, No, like I don't even it didn't even cross my mind to join a support group. She, without even asking me, signed me up for a support group. They called me, they texted me, they emailed me, and they were like, here's the next breast cancer support group. And I was like, fuck, I don't want to like sit there with a bunch of women. Luckily, it was on Zoom. But still, you know, you just you go to a place for a for me at the time, I was really down and depressed, but I tell you what, it was the best thing that I had ever done for myself. I heard these stories just through their conversations and people being able to share their stories. I, you know, found a few other places, other sites that I could go to, get some more information. And honestly, it was community really helped me through. Yeah. And that I learned like you, um, I was hesitant to start these drugs that they wanted me on. I did it for a few months and it caused just serious damage to myself, and I decided to go off of them. But it was through that community that I, you know, was able to research and talk with a few other people that had been on these drugs, and um, that was my choice to no longer take them because they were doing more harm than good. So yeah. Yeah.

unknown 38:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:20

Find community. Don't uh and you know, if like there's influencers out there, don't always listen to what they have to say. Try and find the doctors that are actually at the forefront of whatever it is you're going through, endometriosis uh in this case. But also if you can find community and talk to other patients, that's really the the best way to start and see, you know, what sites and stuff they've gone because there's so much misinformation all over the internet, all over social media that it's easy to get sucked in and they're just looking for clicks. Right. Right. There's community and then there's people looking for clicks, right? So it's like deciphering between the two and what's actually helpful to you and what's not feeding you misinformation. Yeah. And I was actually listening to a podcast and sh one of the hosts on there, she was also a breast cancer survivor. And I reached out to her on Instagram and I asked her a couple questions and she got back to me. I was so surprised because she's also an actress, and you know, you think like, oh, she's uh you know, kind of a Hollywood star, she would never respond to me. And she did. I was it, I was so moved and I was yeah, it was just touching. But yeah, I felt seen, and you know, that somebody who went through it and she had so much to share that she actually got back to me and she gave me a couple numbers of the doctors in LA that she had seen for this or that. And yeah, it was great. Yeah. I mean, I So don't be afraid to reach out. Yeah, the human, like good people, and that most people, I believe, are good. If they've been through a hard situation, they want to help somebody else that's going through the same thing. Well, Hills, do you have anything else to add? I mean, I guess I just want to reiterate that like painful periods are not normal. Okay. Painful periods are not normal. Painful periods are not normal. Yeah. Good to know. And let's just hope that more research is done in this area. And the next, you know, I worry about my daughter. I have a daughter. If this is genetic, is she gonna have the same issues? And that maybe by the time she's at an age where this could become an issue, you know, we've we're in a completely different place and it can be treated better and it can be diagnosed easier. Yeah, absolutely. And it sounds like we're kind of making those steps to do so. But again, it's such a shame that you can't be officially diagnosed until you're actually inside a woman's body and you can see it. So maybe we'll come up with something that'll be able to detect it. Yeah, just a blood test, I think would be so great, right? Feels like a disease of blood. The blood is the issue. Should there should be a blood test for it, but um, I think there's now a blood test that can detect certain types of breast cancer, which is phenomenal. Yeah. Um, at least I had read a couple headlines regarding that, and I don't know if that's happening here or in Europe. It seems that it's possibly Europe or Japan that or maybe China that's making headway there. Cool. I feel like our country is a bit behind where we can be. Sure. But that's that's an episode that's another episode for another day. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, well, if if anyone has any questions, um, would they be able to reach out to you through Instagram handle? Uh, Hilary Pollock. I'll sp I'll spell Pollock. It's such a strange spelling. But Hilary H I L A R Y Pollock P-A-W L I K. I'm married into that. I'm married into that Pollock. The Pollock. And Hilary has another Instagram. She is hikes with hills or something like that. Well, yeah, I've been sleeping on that one, though. I haven't been good about posting it. My hiking influencer page. Yeah. Really tanked. Well, next next time I'm an LA, we need to go do a hikes with hills up in the mountains there. Not just one of our regular Griffith Park hikes. No, no, there's so many other good ones.

unknown 42:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:24

And if anyone has any other questions for us or just wants to reach out to us instead of Hillary, you can always email us at that wasn't the plan pod at gmail.com or reach us through our social media. We're on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube. Um, Hills, thank you so much for sharing your story today. Thank you for having me. And yeah, if you have anything else to add, just let me know. We can pop back on and do another uh tiny recording. And if you can share um the YouTube link, and if you can remember the Dr. Huberman uh doctor as well, that you can put those. Or do you want me to do you want me to look it up and I can just say it really quick? Sure. That's fine. Thais Aliabadi. Okay. I got it. I'm writing it down so I can include, I'll find it in you. Okay. I am laughing so hard that our earrings were the problem.

SPEAKER_01 43:26

You know, you should do it if it takes posts of us like, what? And then and then us being like, problem solved. Maybe I will do that.

SPEAKER_00 43:38

Honestly, I feel like I've had that issue before and I completely spaced it. So I'm actually typing up things to send to guests, like, here's the browser wear, do this, do that, don't wear earrings. Cause I was like, I'm always like, what earrings to wear? But when I wear it lights up your face a little bit. Right. And so when I wear these, I can't wear earrings because it just hurts. But I like wearing my ear pods just because I don't have to fuck and put those on all the time, but I forget that think, think, think, thing, think. Anyway, um, Hills, thanks so much for joining me today. Um, if you want to jump back. Oh my God, yes. And I hope it was okay. I hope it's not boring. Whatever. It is great. It's the story. And I know you have so many other stories to share too, even like slightly funny ones and short ones that don't involve like surgery. Speaking of it, I'm gonna start a text with my friend Katie, who loaned me this red light. Um, and she was like pet talking me before it. She's like, You've got this. This is important, what you're doing, sharing this. It is, I know. Yeah, I I pretty quickly was able to let it go. Because it's you. I don't know how it felt if it wasn't you, but it's like just talking to a friend. I thought that woman um was so interesting and lovely, the lottery woman. Oh my god, isn't she great? Um her story. Who does that? Seriously. And just like her husband, and that he they think it might be because he was a 9-11 responder, was there that's a theory, maybe. Awesome. I don't know. Yeah. Um, well, for everyone listening, thank you so much. Again, if you need to reach out, please do. And Hilary, thank you, and goodbye. Thanks for having me. Bye. Bye. Thanks for listening to That Wasn't the Plan. If you found it helpful or at least mildly entertaining, a quick grading review and a click on the subscribe button would be lovely and genuinely helps us. And if a friend comes to mind, please share. Until next time. Bye.