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Olympic Skater Tara Lipinski Reveals 'Battle Wounds' Scars Post-Endometriosis Surgery

Photo credit: Tara Lipinski / Instagram
Photo credit: Tara Lipinski / Instagram

From Women's Health

  • Tara Lipinski, 38, opened up about her endometriosis journey and recent surgery in a new Instagram post.

  • The Olympic skater shared photos from her hospital bed and close-up shots of her "battle wounds," a.k.a. stomach scars.

  • Tara says she experienced pain for years, but opted to have "an excision procedure" when it worsened.


Two weeks ago, Tara Lipinski underwent surgery for endometriosis, and now she's opening up about her whole journey on Instagram.

The Olympic gold medalist shared photos from her hospital bed alongside a lengthy account of her journey with endometriosis. She's one of many celebrities opening up about her experience with endo. Olivia Culpo "described excruciating cramps and periods," Julianne Hough says her endo pain made sex painful and "frustrating," and Tia Mowry notes difficulty conceiving due to her endometriosis.

Tara began sharing her experience in the caption: "This is me two weeks ago before going in for a laparoscopic surgery for endometriosis. I know I could have chosen to move on and not share my experience, but I didn’t want to miss an opportunity to help even a few people- to inform and support other women who may be struggling with this painful disease."

View this post on Instagram

This is me two weeks ago before going in for a laparoscopic surgery for endometriosis. I know I could have chosen to move on and not share my experience, but I didn’t want to miss an opportunity to help even a few people- to inform and support other women who may be struggling with this painful disease. As an athlete I’ve been conditioned to be hyper competitive about succumbing to pain and injury, something that definitely helped during my skating career. But it’s probably not the best approach now. I went in and out of this surgery pretending it wasn’t happening and telling myself to feel no pain and get back to my normal routine immediately. And while I feel lucky to be “back in the game” under the care of an incredible surgeon, I still thought I’d share my journey, hopefully to bring more awareness to this condition. For starters, I am a very health conscious person. I’m always testing and checking for illness or things that feel “off,” and keeping myself as healthy and informed as possible has been a priority. I’ve always felt like an encyclopedia of what could physically go wrong with my body- and I’ve taken pride in that. The irony of my endometriosis diagnosis is that I knew almost nothing about a disorder that affects one in ten women. That’s 176 million people. I’d never heard another woman mention “endo” or the complications and pain that accompany it. And that definitely shows the lack of information that’s out there and the comfort level that affected women have discussing their endometriosis. Endo is a disease in which cell similar to the lining of the uterus are found outside of the uterus. Endo lesions can grow on your organs (bladder, ovaries, bowels to name a few) causing scarring and adhesions, and that can sometimes result in these organs sticking together. This is all accompanied by inflammation and pain. I think the more we talk about endometriosis, the more proactive we can be about treatment. To me, it feels like a hush hush topic that women feel they just need to tough out. No woman should live in pain or think “this is just something I have to deal with.” My story began years ago. I am one of the lucky ones. CONT IN SLIDES

A post shared by Tara Lipinski (@taralipinski) on Sep 16, 2020 at 2:51pm PDT

She reveals her shifting perspective: "As an athlete I’ve been conditioned to be hyper competitive about succumbing to pain and injury, something that definitely helped during my skating career. But it’s probably not the best approach now. I went in and out of this surgery pretending it wasn’t happening and telling myself to feel no pain and get back to my normal routine immediately. And while I feel lucky to be 'back in the game' under the care of an incredible surgeon, I still thought I’d share my journey, hopefully to bring more awareness to this condition."

Tara adds what she's learned in the last few years: "The irony of my endometriosis diagnosis is that I knew almost nothing about a disorder that affects one in ten women. That’s 176 million people. I’d never heard another woman mention 'endo' or the complications and pain that accompany it."

This is Tara's way of changing that. She wrote: "I think the more we talk about endometriosis, the more proactive we can be about treatment. To me, it feels like a hush hush topic that women feel they just need to tough out. No woman should live in pain or think 'this is just something I have to deal with.'"

"My story began years ago," she continued in the caption. "I am one of the lucky ones..."

Tara went on to share her experience in the slides. "... I still had intermittent pain that I overlooked. And I probably didn't describe my symptoms accurately or forcefully enough to my doctors for them to suspect endometriosis." Tara says her pain "progressed" during the last five years, but she managed it. She decided to undergo surgery this year after her pain and symptoms worsened.

"I had an excision procedure, that uses robotic scissors to cut the endo from the places where it exists," she explained. "My surgery was a success. I had a 'moderate amount of endo' and pretty much 100 percent of it was removed. I feel lucky that my recovery has been mainly pain free. This certainly isn't the case with all women- every case, surgery, and recovery is unique."

"Again, I am one of the lucky ones," Tara concluded her post. "After a week or so I began to even forget I had surgery until I'd look down at the battle wounds across my stomach. It felt so good to finally have a diagnosis."

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