Victoria’s Story

For more than 14 years, endometriosis shaped every part of my life. If you’re reading this, there’s a chance it has shaped yours, too.

As a teenager, my parents carried the weight of my pain right alongside me. They brought me to more doctors than I could bear to count. Appointment after appointment. Specialist after specialist. Each one offering another prescription, another hormone therapy meant to stop my periods, ease the pain, or the hopeful promise of, “This is the one that will cure you.”

But the relief never lasted.

For years, doctors were blind to what was truly happening inside my body. I underwent repeated laparoscopic surgeries where the endometriosis was cauterized — burned away — only for the pain to return just a few short months later. Each time, we were told it had been “taken care of.” Each time, it came back stronger. It was exhausting. It was isolating. And it was devastating to watch my parents search so desperately for answers while I tried to learn how to live inside relentless pain.

Endometriosis didn’t simply cause discomfort. It consumed my body. It pulled at my ovaries, damaged my fallopian tubes, and spread like a web, binding my organs together. The pain was relentless, the kind you learn to hide because explaining it feels impossible. While I was living inside that pain, my husband and family lived beside it, carrying their own heartbreak as they watched me endure surgery after surgery, setback after setback.

Then I was introduced to Dr. Malcom "Kip" Mackenzie. Endometriosis Excision Specialist. Co-Founder of the Endometriosis Alliance of Ma (TEAM)

His patience and kindness were a beautiful relief after so many years of dismissal. He listened. He believed me. He is an excision specialist and knew that endometriosis must be carefully excised, cut out at the root, not simply burned away. For the first time, I felt understood. The endometriosis had grown aggressively, causing my organs to adhere to one another. The damage was extensive.

At just 28 years old, after years of fighting, I made the heartbreaking decision to have a hysterectomy. It brought relief, but it also brought profound grief, for the body I once had and for the life endometriosis had permanently altered. It is a decision no woman should have to face so young, yet so many of us do.

After the birth of my daughter, something shifted in me. Holding her, I knew I could no longer stay silent. I thought about the years I lost. The pain I normalized. The times I wasn’t believed. And I realized too many women are still suffering quietly, feeling dismissed or told that their pain is “just part of being a woman.”

That is why Swing for Hope was created.

This golf tournament is more than a day on the course. It is a day where our community comes together to raise awareness, to support education and research, and to stand beside the women who feel unseen. It is a reminder that we are stronger when we show up for one another.

Too many women suffer in silence. Too many wait years for diagnosis. Too many carry this pain alone.

Swing for Hope exists for awareness. For earlier diagnosis. For better understanding. And most importantly, for connection.

If you are living with endometriosis, I hope you feel seen here. Your pain is real. Your story matters. And together, as a community, we can change what the future looks like for women facing this disease.

Forever hopeful,
Victoria