Rachel Langer has been in pain every moment of every day since she was 14.
It鈥檚 not always the same type of pain, either. Langer identifies three separate strains of pain that rock and roll within her: the achy pain that鈥檚 been a near-constant companion for roughly half her life; the stabbing pain that rears itself at least once a day; and the flare-up pain, the intensity of which has sent her to the ER on numerous occasions.
鈥淚 live with some form [of pain], sometimes all forms, every day,鈥� says Langer matter-of-factly.
The root cause is endometriosis: tissue that normally lines the inside of the uterus grows outside of it, forming lesions and gluing organs together.
Endometriosis affects one in 10 Canadian women, and there鈥檚 no cure.
But the Leo Award-winning, Vancouver-based screenwriter 鈥� whose growing list of credits includes This Life, Ghost Wars, and the highly anticipated series The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco and The Order 鈥� is leveraging her position within the film and television industry to draw attention to a disease that is largely misunderstood, misdiagnosed, and woefully underfunded.
Langer first opened up about her long health battle in a widely circulated essay entitled that ran in Chatelaine and Medium. Her social media feeds document hospital visits and writing for television through searing pain, as well as selfies with a stuffed uterus toy she鈥檚 named 鈥淩achel鈥檚 raging uterus.鈥�
And last month, Langer partnered with filmmakers erin cumming and Sheona McDonald on Inside Out, a with the tagline 鈥淩achel Langer didn't choose endometriosis, but she did choose to talk about it.鈥�
Langer wasn鈥檛 always so eager to speak publicly about her endometriosis, working as she does in a segment of the film industry where women are underrepresented.
鈥淚鈥檇 waited until I had enough gigs that I felt like people would still hire me regardless of their opinions on the matter,鈥� says Langer. 鈥淚 ended up speaking out because I felt like there was so much of my life that was being hidden away, which didn鈥檛 feel right.鈥�
But by sharing her story, Langer has impacted more lives than just her own, as she learned when her 2017 essay went viral.
鈥淚鈥檝e heard from so many women who say, 鈥業 didn鈥檛 know that other people were going through this, and I felt so alone,鈥� which isn鈥檛 what I was going for but it鈥檚 a nice by-product,鈥� she says.听听
Women with endometriosis often feel isolated because 鈥渢he reproductive system is still widely associated with hysteria,鈥� says Langer. 鈥淧eople just think, 鈥楶eriod cramps, that sucks, yours are just a little more bad,鈥� and I鈥檓 like, 鈥楴o, this is every day, all the time, this is a hostile takeover of my lady parts with rage-y cells that cause massive amounts of pain.鈥欌��
Doctors don鈥檛 always know what to do with endometriosis patients, says Langer, who first felt the searing pain of endometriosis at 14 but had to wait 11 more years for an ovarian cyst to burst before doctors were able to diagnose her.
She鈥檚 been prescribed nerve medication. She鈥檚 been told to go on continuous birth control. She鈥檚 had two IUDs.听 鈥淚t鈥檚 been suggested multiple times that I get pregnant because it could help for nine months, even though infertility can increase sometimes by up to 50 per cent,鈥� notes Langer. 鈥淭hey just want to fix something, because they鈥檙e results oriented, and they just want you to go away.鈥�
After years of mostly misses from medical professionals, Langer has developed what she describes as a 鈥減ain partition鈥� to cope with the unrelenting agony.听
鈥淢y foot will shake. Anyone who knows me well will go, 鈥極h, you鈥檙e doing a little foot shake, are you okay?鈥� I鈥檒l fidget or I鈥檒l stand or I鈥檒l lie down on the floor. I did a lot of laying on the floor at The Order, typing on the floor, writing on the floor.鈥�
Langer 鈥� who is scheduled for a hysterectomy later this month, a procedure that she notes does not guarantee an end to her woes 鈥� is quick with a list of action items that she believes will dramatically improve the lives of patients with endometriosis: more funding for research, more training for triage (鈥淭hey鈥檙e just not designed to work with chronic issues. They don鈥檛 consider that chronic becomes critical when there鈥檚 a flare-up鈥�), and the big one: believe women when they tell you something鈥檚 wrong.
鈥淚鈥檝e read countless stories where women have gone to the emergency room, are sent home, and end up with a burst cyst or twisted ovary,鈥� says Langer. 鈥淚 have a lot of privilege that comes with being a cis white women walking into the emergency room. It鈥檚 much harder for women of colour or trans women dealing with this kind of thing. We need to open that up and just believe woman.鈥�
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