About three years ago, Brandi Rhodes, a yoga and Pilates instructor, and former WWE professional wrestler, was pregnant with her daughter when she felt what she calls an "internal pain."
"It felt like something inside, whether it was an ovary or my uterus, just felt really irritated and aggravated," Rhodes, 40, tells TODAY.com. Her doctor at the time told her that it was simply something that some women feel and it would go away after she gave birth.
But that didn't happen.
"The biggest shock was postpartum, when this was supposed to be going away, it definitely was not going away," Rhodes says. Her doctor then suggested pelvic floor therapy, and while the specialists Rhodes saw over the next three years were skilled and knowledgeable, the therapy only helped a little bit.
She started to experience other symptoms as well, like irregular menstrual cycles, heavy periods and severe bloating. "One day I'd wake up in the morning and I felt normal and fine and (could see) my abs," she says, "and then another day I would wake up and I would look three months pregnant."
"Then I found myself back at the doctor again," Rhodes recalls, "and that doctor really waved it off. She didn't really show concern. She really didn't have a lot of questions."
She was then referred to a nutritionist followed by a gastroenterologist, who said she needed a colonoscopy because her symptoms might indicate IBS. Rhodes, a fitness instructor and professional athlete who eats a nutritious diet, works out frequently and did not have GI symptoms, did not agree.
"That was the point at which I gave up. I just said, you know what, maybe this is in my head," Rhodes says.
Mentally, the experience and the continued symptoms started to weigh on her. At the time, Rhodes was building up Naked Mind, her yoga and Pilates studio, but she felt "defeated," she says. "That will make you not really want to go out there and conquer the world and help people with their fitness because you're feeling bad yourself."
It wasn't until fellow professional wrestler Maryse Mizanin shared her own health journey in February — she had 11 precancerous ovarian tumors — that Rhodes felt like trying to push for answers again.
"Seeing that really lit a fire under me," Rhodes says, and it made her realize she needed to keep taking her own symptoms seriously.
She made an appointment with another doctor who set her up with an ultrasound and performed a basic pelvic exam. After just the pelvic exam, the doctor said it "felt like endometriosis," Rhodes says.
Endometriosis is a condition in which tissue that normally grows inside the uterus begins growing outside of it, typically on the nearby reproductive organs, such as the ovaries or fallopian tubes. While a patient's symptoms and family history can help make a diagnosis, the only way to know for sure is to undergo laparoscopic surgery to find the endometrial tissue.
Learning that she may have a condition that could have been caught with such a simple exam left Rhodes feeling both angry and relieved. "It's been three years. What took so long?" she says.
She recalls telling her husband, WWE Universal Champion Cody Rhodes, "I'm so mad. I'm so worked up because I knew something was wrong. And the way that I felt so dismissed in so many different ways... This is so wrong."
The doctor set Rhodes up with a specialist who confirmed the diagnosis and gave her the option of surgery. The specialist offered to give her time to decide, but she recalls saying, "I've had three years to think about it. I want to have surgery."
This week, Rhodes underwent surgery to remove the endometrial tissue. The operation also revealed that she had stage four endometriosis, indicating a particularly severe case of the condition.
Now, Rhodes is recovering from surgery with the support of her husband and her mom and the flexibility of her studio staff. And she wants others out there to trust themselves —and to advocate for themselves —when they know something is off.
That's one reason why she shared her story in an Instagram post alongside a photo take in the hospital.
"Feel empowered by your own feelings," she says. "It can feel really discouraging, and you can start to second guess yourself and feel like maybe this is (your) fault. But it's not.You just haven't met the right professional yet."
