The pain got worse when it spread to a yoga position called child pose, a little trick she’s used over the years to fight endometriosis.
Realizing that the pain would keep her from going back to her neighborhood, Finkenauer also realized that she had had enough. Phone in hand, the Iowa Democrat and a new congressman have started googling hysterectomies, which could be the ultimate solution to a condition without cure.
“I’m 31 and just tired of this pain, and there just aren’t a lot of options,” she said on Wednesday, sitting in a chair in her Capitol Hill office. . “I’m someone who just got engaged. Daniel and I hope to have a family someday in Iowa and, you know, the fact that I went so far as to start googling it was just, c was frustrating. ”
The Democratic rookie who represents a swing neighborhood that she helped turn blue in 2018 looked at the screen and then started digging deeper.
She read that about 1 in 10 women have the same condition that was diagnosed when she was a teenager, that it was the main cause for women of hysterectomies, a procedure that removes the uterus from a woman and thus takes away her ability to give birth, and that the condition was one of the least funded by Congress despite the fact that it affects nearly 200 million women worldwide.
In a 30-minute interview in her office, Finkeanuer – for the first time – publicly discussed the years of pain she has endured and worries that talking about endometriosis, a pain disorder affecting women where the tissue which generally lines the uterus grows outside the uterus, would make it appear weak in a politically charged environment which tends to feed on these characteristics.
While noting that she was very nervous about talking about something so personal, the Iowa Democrat explained how she was fighting her battle against endometriosis in public, launching a new congressional caucus on Capitol Hill that aims to both to promote education and to reinforce the small amount of funding for the disorder. receives from Congress.
“Like being stabbed with a knife”
Living with endometriosis is not new to Finkenauer, but it still hasn’t been easier.
“It’s like being stabbed with a knife,” she said, gesturing as if she was pierced in the abdomen. She said that even though these sharp pains tended to subside, the pain in her lower back could last much longer and almost feel like her back was “in a vice”.
She was diagnosed at the age of 18 after spending four days in the hospital due to severe pain. Later, she underwent two surgeries where the doctors burned the affected tissue, which she said grew back.
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She had to manage the pain while doing her chores in Washington. Walking through the United States Capitol tunnels, going to the floor of the House to vote and attending committee hearings all have a painful price.
Finkenauer never thought too deeply about talking about the condition, even suffering in silence for years while serving in Iowa.
“When you are young and a woman, there are sometimes, you know, you can’t afford to have people who think you can’t do it,” said Finkenauer, the second youngest woman elected to Congress. “I mean they already think you can’t do it because, maybe they think you can’t do it because you’re a woman, maybe they think you can’t can’t do it because you’re young. “
“I didn’t want to give anyone another reason to think that I couldn’t do my job,” said Finkeanauer. “And so I never shared it.”
Her fiancé, Daniel Wasta, was her rock, including when Finkenauer debated a hysterectomy. He told her to do “whatever you need to do. I’m with you,” said Finkenauer. “Because he looked at him, okay, he saw me suffer, and it breaks his heart because he can’t do anything.”
“Strong as hell”
But this flight and the internalization of his condition that followed changed everything.
The idea of eliminating her chances of giving birth, the millions of women who shared this condition with her, and the lack of money that Congress is spending on the disorder has brought her to a conclusion.
“I started thinking about it and I’m like, well, I’m here in Congress with the ability to do something about it and say something about it and raise awareness about it because part of the The reason it has been so frustrating is because there are not really any good treatment options, “said Finkenauer.
Some doctors recommend surgery, pain relievers, hormone therapies, including sending your body to early menopause, but there is no cure for the disease. The National Institute of Health, which gets most of its funding from Congress, spent about $ 13 million last year to research the disease, far from the billions spent on aging, obesity, dementia and various cancer research.
She began reaching out to fellow congressmen, telling them about her story and the need to devote more resources to both condition research and awareness raising as many women suffer from endometriosis have not been diagnosed or treated.
Finkenauer began sending a message to a group of women parliamentarians with whom she has grown since arriving in Washington, which includes a number of front-line Democrats. Representative Susie Lee, a Democrat representing a swing district in Nevada, saw the message and immediately offered her support, becoming one of more than two dozen inaugural caucus members.
Lee, who says she’s struggling with infertility – something many women have experienced with endometriosis – said she wanted to help. “I think it’s important for women across the country to see that their leaders are experiencing some of the same struggles they have.”
Finkenauer also approached a host of other people, including Puerto Rico’s resident commissioner Jenniffer González-Colón, about the matter and told his story, which González-Colón called “very convincing” and personal. She noted that she also wanted to focus more attention on endometriosis due to the large number of Puerto Ricans who have the condition.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for someone to spread and educate a lot of other people,” said the Republican delegate, without the right to vote in an interview. She will be co-chair of the caucus. “This condition will not ask which party you are affiliated with,” she said.
Finkenauer admits that she’s nervous about talking openly about something so deeply personal.
But she hopes it can help others. She plans to tell her story on the house floor on Thursday afternoon and announce the formation of her new caucus, which will also mark one of the first days of endometriosis awareness month. Her fiancé plans to watch the speech from the public viewing gallery above.
“It doesn’t make me weak to have this,” she said. “In fact, I hope people will see that, especially women who have it or are people who love women who have it, realize that they are strong as hell.”
Finkenauer says she hopes for her speech and the focus she places on endometriosis will offer a glimmer of hope to those suffering without final recovery.
“You are not alone in this area and there may be hope,” she said. “When you have this kind of pain, sometimes a little hope that there may be something someday, it goes a long way.”