March Is Endometriosis Awareness Month — And This One Is Personal

When someone battles a sickness, it is hard to see on the outside at times how truly life changing it can be. For local Kate Thurston, she looked normal on the outside, but felt constant pain from a disease called Endometriosis. 

“I am mostly a private person. I don’t often share the hard parts of my life publicly. But when it comes to health and especially when sharing my story might help another woman feel seen, heard, or less alone, I am an open book.”

March is Endometriosis Awareness Month, and unfortunately, Thurston is far more educated about this disease than she ever wanted to be.

Endometriosis is a disease in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside of the uterus. It causes severe pain and, in some cases, infertility. What many people don’t realize is that it is also a progressive disease. It can spread. It can attach itself to organs such as lungs, bowels, bladder, and more. And it can quietly take over your life while the outside world sees nothing at all.

Thurston said her symptoms started years ago.

“I was always the ‘lucky’ one with female issues that weren’t normal like painful, irregular periods, hormones that swung from one extreme to the other, and ovarian cysts that would grow as large as a grapefruit and then rupture. The first rupture sent me to the ER because I was convinced it was appendicitis. After a scan, they told me it was a ruptured cyst.”

From that point on, things escalated.

“When cysts came, I stopped going to the ER. I would stay home and let them rupture because there wasn’t much anyone could do anyway. That became my normal. Slowly, my life stopped feeling like my own.”

Her pain began to dictate everything.

“I canceled plans because I physically couldn’t move. I started canceling so often that I worried friends thought I was exaggerating or worse, lying. That’s the cruel thing about endometriosis: you can’t see it. On the outside, I looked fine. On the inside, it felt like someone was twisting a knife and stabbing me over and over again. I kept hoping it would go away. After about a year of pushing through the pain, I finally began seeking answers. I needed to know why I was constantly getting cysts. Why they hurt so badly. Why my body felt like it was betraying me. The disease began stealing pieces of the life I loved.”

Thurston said she had always been active; riding and working horses multiple times a week, doing farm work, physical labor. But it reached a point where she couldn’t even mount a horse without help. After riding for thirty minutes, she couldn’t dismount on her own. She said she would go home and spend the next two days in bed, barely able to function.

Depression began knocking and it knocked hard.

“I didn’t recognize myself anymore. I was in constant pain, exhausted, emotionally drained, and grieving a version of myself that felt out of reach. In eight months, I saw four doctors. The first told me I just had painful periods, handed me 800 mg of ibuprofen, and sent me home. The second monitored cysts through ultrasounds and suggested dietary changes. I changed everything. Nothing improved.
The third doctor looked at me and suggested it was all in my head. That I might be mentally unstable, and recommended I see a behavioral specialist. Let me tell you something: when you are bleeding, in severe pain, emotionally exhausted, and desperate for answers, being told it’s ‘in your head’ is devastating. I left furious and I never went back.”

Eventually, Thurston went outside of Connersville to Ball Memorial and saw a surgeon who specialized in endometriosis.

“It took time to get in, but for the first time, I felt heard. She listened. She believed me. She suspected endometriosis and explained that the only way to diagnose it is through surgery. It does not show up on scans the way people assume. You have to physically go in and look.”

Three months later, Thurston had surgery.

“When I woke up in recovery, I was told I had Stage 4 Endometriosis, the most severe stage. I knew it was bad. I didn’t realize it was that advanced. I had four incisions in my abdomen. The pain from surgery was temporary, but for the first time in a long time, the constant internal pain eased.

However, the disease had attached itself to my bladder and bowels. Some of it could not be removed safely at that time.”

Thurston said her quality of life improved for about a year and then she started having symptoms again. She found another specialist and had a second surgery in 2024. This time she went to IU Health where ablation surgery was performed.

“That surgery was useless I felt. I didn’t feel much different and within a year I had another surgery. 

Fast forward to 2025.

“The pain returned. My life once again felt consumed. I found a specialist in Carmel, Dr. Said, who focuses specifically on endometriosis. It took four months to get in. During that time, my world felt small again, it was filled with pain, fatigue, frustration.”

Her doctor recommended excision surgery — cutting the disease out rather than burning it. By that point, Thurston told her doctor to do whatever she needed to do, she was desperate for relief.

“In June 2025, I underwent extensive surgery. The endometriosis had fused my bowel to my hip. It had fused to my bladder. The surgery was complex, but after recovery, I felt relief again.”

While she feels better than she has in years, Thurston still battles the disease.

“It doesn’t go away, this is incurable. I am constantly trying to find a new type of medication to stop the growth of endometriosis, I am always trying to find a way to get healthier.”

Because here is another truth about endometriosis: there is no cure.

It will come back. It may cause pain again. A hysterectomy does not cure it. Removing ovaries or fallopian tubes does not guarantee it goes away. It can contribute to infertility and may increase certain health risks.

“If I could go back, I would advocate for myself more aggressively from the beginning. I wouldn’t wait. I wouldn’t minimize my symptoms. I wouldn’t accept dismissal. If you are a woman reading this and something feels off, if your pain is not normal, if your cycles control your life, if your body feels like it’s fighting you, please seek help. Immediately.

Listen to your body.
Do not let someone convince you that you are dramatic.
Do not let anyone tell you it’s just anxiety.
Do not stop until someone listens.

Living with endometriosis is not ‘just bad cramps.’ It is chronic. It is exhausting. It is invisible. And it is real.

If sharing my story helps even one woman push for answers sooner than I did, then being open about something this personal is worth it.

You are not crazy.
You are not weak.
And you deserve to be heard.”

Thurston gives a thumbs up before her third surgery.