María Teresa Pérez Zaballos spent five years visiting doctors before she got her diagnosis. She saw a gynecologist and a neuropathic pain specialist, had her digestive system checked, and took “a ton” of urinary tests. Eventually, she carried a packet of documents to each appointment, to show doctors all the conditions the others had already decided she didn’t have.
“It was when most people were saying, ‘no, no, no,’ that somebody said it might be endometriosis,” Pérez Zaballos said.
Pérez Zaballos, who lives in Paris, was working at the pharmaceutical company Merck, where she was involved in research identifying a biomarker for a rare cancer. “And I was thinking: How come we have nothing remotely similar in endometriosis?”
