It’s estimated that one out of every 10 women is suffering from the chronic condition of endometriosis. It’s not an easy subject to talk about but one woman hopes her story inspires others to not let their diagnosis define them.
For those who get care at Avera Health, Alli Simonsen has been a familiar face across the clinics.
“I've been with Avera for 13 years actually, I worked in OB postpartum as a patient care tech for a majority of those years. I was also a scheduler for Dr. Saloum for a few years. She convinced me to go back to school, so now I do ultrasound in general radiology!” said Simonsen.
Diagnosing Endometriosis With Ultrasound
Ultrasound techs are a key component of a patient's pregnancy journey. For Alli, this device that she uses to take a baby's first picture played a key diagnostic role in her own health journey.
“I was trying to get pregnant, my husband and I, for over a year. And we just didn't know what was going on. We have twin girls that are 12, so we knew we could conceive. But the last year, we just didn't know what was going on. So I came in, saw Dr. Saloum, got an ultrasound, and that's kind of the start of when we learned about my endo,” said Simonsen.
“Endometriosis is a chronic inflammatory condition in women and that is when the endometrial glands that are supposed to be inside of the uterus, end up outside in the pelvis, and it can really affect women's lives,” said Amber Saloum, MD, an obstetrician and gynecologist with Avera Health.
Alli's ultrasound showed what initially was thought to be an ovarian cyst and a few other trouble spots that needed closer inspection.
“She suggested we do surgery and just make sure it's not an infection. That's when we went in and we had the surprise of all the adhesions from the endo,” said Simonsen,
“For Allie, we removed the ovarian cyst and then because of the endometriosis, she had quite a bit of adhesions. So we tried to carefully take down some of those adhesions and then after surgery, we put her on a medication called Depo-Lupron, which helps medically shrink down those sites of endometriosis. And we had her do that for three months, and she had a great response,” said Dr. Saloum.
“I think it was very helpful having somebody that I felt so close with. She just told me our options, this is what we're going to do, and we're going to do our best to get you to have that baby," said Simonsen.
Treatment Leads to Pregnancy
After healing up from surgery, a few short months later, the newest member joined the Simonsen family.
“I honestly didn't think I'd ever have another baby after my diagnosis, but definitely I'm glad that we tried some alternatives and we were able to do that,” said Simonsen.
“It's so gratifying. It just makes us feel really good that we identified a problem, we treated it, it got better, and we have a good outcome. And that's why I love my job so much,” said Dr. Saloum.
And speaking of Alli's job, every now and then, she will cross paths with a woman facing her own endometriosis journey. She's now living proof that there's life after a diagnosis.
“I've scanned quite a few patients, they've come in, they've been diagnosed with endo, they're just looking for any other signs of pain or blocked tubes, whatever it may be. And I just kind of let them know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel,” said Simonsen.
Raising awareness to endometriosis can help women get diagnosed earlier – when treatment can be more effective at slowing or halting the natural progression of the disease and reduce long-term symptoms.
Learn more about women's health services at Avera.
