In this gripping episode of The Medical Detectives, we sit down with Simone, whose harrowing medical journey took her from being an active, adventurous athlete to navigating years of misdiagnoses, medical gaslighting, and life-altering surgeries. What started as severe menstrual pain turned into a baffling cascade of symptoms—black tar-like bleeding, debilitating cyst ruptures, and chronic pelvic pain—that left her searching for answers in a system that dismissed her concerns for years.

Simone recounts how her symptoms escalated while living out of her van, forcing her to become her own advocate as she bounced between gynecologists, emergency surgeries, and specialists. After undergoing multiple procedures, including a hysterectomy and the removal of her left ovary, the real cause of her suffering was finally uncovered: Nutcracker Syndrome, a rare and underdiagnosed vascular compression disorder.

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