In the middle of training for two marathons and an ultramarathon in 2017, medical professionals diagnosed culinary arts professional turned long-distance runner, and body politics advocate Latoya Snell, with stage four rectovaginal endometriosis. In this stage of the condition, the endometrial lining grows in places it shouldn’t, such as the ovaries, fallopian tubes, bowels, bladder, and in the rarest cases, the lungs.
While everyone’s experience with endometriosis is different, typical symptoms include: debilitating pelvic pain, heavy periods, fatigue, and miscarriage, none of which are foreign to Snell. Snell says she’s “normalized painful periods, frequent moments of passing out, anemia from blood loss, and clotting” since she was nine.
As an endurance athlete, she tried just about everything to keep going, things like wearing a portable heating pad during runs, massaging CBD oils on her waist and pelvic regions, managing pain with medication, and even layering diapers with tampons during races to mitigate heavy bleeding. She also began changing her diet upon noticing that some foods…
