There’s a phrase many people with endometriosis hear before they finally get diagnosed:
“Some cramps are normal.”
For years — sometimes decades — people with endometriosis are told that debilitating pelvic pain, exhaustion, painful sex, bowel symptoms, nausea, infertility, or heavy bleeding are simply part of being a woman. They’re told they’re stressed. Sensitive. Dramatic. Anxious.
Meanwhile, they’re missing work. Missing school. Missing relationships. Missing pieces of their lives.
And that’s exactly why events like Kingston’s upcoming Run to End Endo matter so much.
On May 30th, people across Kingston will gather at City Park for the Endometriosis Network Canada’s Run to End Endo event — raising awareness, building community, and advocating for better research and care for a disease that has been overlooked for far too long.
What is Endometriosis?
Endometriosis is a chronic inflammatory disease where tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus. These lesions can grow on the ovaries, fallopian tubes, bladder, bowel, pelvic walls, and sometimes even beyond the pelvis.
The result? Severe inflammation, pain, scarring, and sometimes infertility.
Symptoms can include:
- Extremely painful periods
- Chronic pelvic pain
- Pain during sex
- Pain with bowel movements or urination
- Heavy bleeding
- Fatigue
- Bloating (“endo belly”)
- Fertility difficulties
And importantly: symptoms do not always match severity. Some people with extensive disease have mild symptoms, while others with smaller lesions experience life-altering pain.
Endometriosis affects approximately 1 in 10 women and people assigned female at birth. In Canada alone, that translates to roughly 2 million people.
That makes it astonishingly common.
And yet, most people know almost nothing about it.
Why Does Endometriosis Take So Long to Diagnose?
This is where things get frustrating.
In Canada, the average delay to diagnosis is over 5 years — and some estimates place it much higher.
Think about that for a second.
Five years of severe pain.
Five years of wondering if you’re imagining it.
Five years of adapting your life around symptoms that no one seems to fully take seriously.
Historically, women’s pain has often been minimized or psychologized in medicine. Conditions affecting women have been dramatically understudied and underfunded for decades.
And endometriosis is perhaps one of the clearest examples of this problem.
For generations, severe menstrual pain was normalized instead of investigated. People were taught to “push through it.” To tolerate it. To stop complaining.
But endometriosis is not a tummy ache.
It is not weakness.
It is not “being dramatic.”
It is a serious chronic disease.
How Does Endometriosis Affect Mental Health and Relationships?
When people think about endometriosis, they often think only about pelvic pain.
But the psychological and relational impact can be enormous.
Living with chronic pain is exhausting. Many people with endometriosis experience increased rates of anxiety, depression, burnout, grief, isolation, and trauma related to medical dismissal.
Relationships can also suffer:
- Pain during sex can create fear and avoidance
- Fertility struggles can deeply impact couples
- Chronic fatigue can affect intimacy and connection
- Many people feel guilt, shame, or like their body is “failing” them
And because endometriosis symptoms are often invisible, people may feel profoundly misunderstood.
At Tri Health Clinic, we see this all the time. Many clients arrive carrying years of self-doubt because they were repeatedly told their pain was “normal.”
It wasn’t.
Why Is Endometriosis Research So Underfunded?
Despite affecting millions globally, endometriosis research remains dramatically underfunded compared to diseases with similar prevalence.
Research on women’s health in general has historically received disproportionately low funding. One recent Canadian analysis found that women’s health research accounted for only about 7% of funded grants over a 15-year period.
That has real consequences.
Limited research means:
- Delayed diagnosis
- Fewer treatment options
- Less physician training
- More misinformation
- More suffering
The good news? Awareness is finally growing.
Organizations like The Endometriosis Network Canada are doing incredible advocacy work to improve education, reduce stigma, and push for better support and funding. In recent years, Canada has begun investing more into endometriosis awareness and resources, though there is still a very long way to go.
Why Community Events For Endometriosis Matter
One of the hardest parts of living with endometriosis is feeling alone.
Community events like the Run to End Endo send a powerful message:
We believe you.
Your pain matters.
You deserve care.
They also help normalize conversations about menstrual health, pelvic pain, fertility, and women’s health more broadly — topics that have historically been hidden away or treated as embarrassing.
And honestly? That silence has hurt people.
The more we talk openly about endometriosis, the harder it becomes for the medical system to ignore it.
Kingston’s Run to End Endo
We are thrilled to support Kingston’s first-ever Run to End Endo event, led locally by Run Director Nawal and organized through The Endometriosis Network Canada.
📍 City Park, Kingston
📅 May 30, 2026
⏰ 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM
The event is non-competitive and open to all fitness levels. You can walk, attend virtually, volunteer, donate, or simply come show support.
We’re Proud to Support Sam Levang and the VISIBLE Study
We also want to give a special shoutout to Sam Levang, a PhD-level Clinical Psychology student who works with the Tri Health Clinic team. We are incredibly proud of the work she is doing in the field of women’s health and endometriosis research.
Sam let us know about this wonderful event and will be attending the Run to End Endo with a booth for the VISIBLE Study — a meaningful research project focused on improving understanding of endometriosis and related experiences. Her research is through the Sexual Health Research Lab at Queen’s University.
If you live with endometriosis, we strongly encourage you to stop by, learn more, and consider participating in the research. Better research is one of the most important ways we move this field forward.
Interested in attending?
- Attendee Registration
- There are also options to sign us as volunteers!
Looking for Therapy Support for Endometriosis?
Living with endometriosis can affect so much more than physical health. Chronic pain, painful sex, fertility struggles, medical trauma, relationship stress, exhaustion, and feeling misunderstood can take an enormous emotional toll.
At Tri Health Clinic, our therapists understand the complex relationship between chronic pelvic pain, sexual health, mental health, and relationships. Many of our clinicians work specifically with concerns related to painful sex, desire changes, medical trauma, fertility stress, and navigating intimacy while living with chronic illness.
You do not have to figure this out alone.
If you’re looking for evidence-based, compassionate support from therapists who genuinely understand endometriosis and women’s sexual health, we would be honoured to help.
Book an appointment with Tri Health Clinic
We Need a Cure For Endo!
For far too long, endometriosis has existed in the shadows of medicine.
But the people living with this disease have never been weak. They’ve been surviving a system that often failed to take their suffering seriously.
That’s changing.
Slowly.
Not fast enough.
But changing.
And every person who shows up to events like Run to End Endo helps push that change forward.
