One in ten women have endometriosis and it takes an average of seven years before they receive an accurate diagnosis-or any relief from this incurable illness' chronic pain. Shamed and stigmatized, Lara fought back against a medical community biased against women and discovered that the ignorance of many doctors about women's anatomy was damaging more than just her own life. Five years of doctors insisting she just had 'bad period cramps,' or implying her pain was psychological. It was five years before Lara learned what was happening to her body. Combined, these debilitating conditions have wreaked havoc on her life, causing excruciating pain throughout her body since she was fourteen years old.

Less than a year before, she received not only the diagnosis of endometriosis, but also a diagnosis of pelvic floor dysfunction, vulvodynia, vaginismus, and vulvar vestibulitis. And beyond that? She let the whole world know that she wasn't having any sex, as sex was excruciatingly painful. In April 2014, Deputy Editorial Director at BuzzFeed Lara Parker opened up to the world in an article on the website: she suffers from endometriosis. It was my way of taking this pain and saying, 'Whatever. I wanted the world to know that all of this pain I had been feeling.that it was related to my vagina. I wasn't ready to be completely honest about my vagina yet, and the world wasn't ready for that either. With unflinching honesty, Lara Parker, the Deputy Director for BuzzFeed, shares her day-to-day challenges of living, working, and loving with chronic pain caused by endometriosis in this raw, darkly humorous, and hopeful memoir. 'A refreshingly honest read about living with chronic pain.' - Hello Giggles 'In Vagina Problems.Lara Parker unpacks the personal and economic costs of endometriosis.' - Vanity Fair

Vagina Problems by Lara Parker