Longmont Museum event to raise awareness for endometriosis

The Longmont Museum, UCHealth and physical therapy clinic Align PT are joining forces next week for a special event aimed at raising awareness for endometriosis.

On Wednesday, the museum will show a screening of the endometriosis documentary “Below the Belt” at 6 p.m. in Stewart Auditorium, 400 Quail Road. The film will be followed by a panel discussion featuring UCHealth professionals and medical experts from Longmont and Boulder.

The event raises money for the charity Endo Collective, which will donate endometriosis screening kits to local middle and high schools as part of the organization’s School Nurse Initiative. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased online.

“I think there are so many women out there suffering in silence and feeling alone, and they don’t have to,” said Amanda Moon, a former Longmont resident who went through endometriosis excision surgery at UCHealth Longs Peak Hospital.

Moon, who now lives in Denver, was diagnosed with endometriosis at 19. She was able to receive treatment but was told by her doctor that she might not be able to get pregnant — an occasional result of the disease, which involves the growth of tissue outside the uterus. Moon went on to have several children, but pain from her condition lingered.

“I came to the realization that my body needs surgery,” she said. “I knew that excision was really the only thing that was going to help.”

It wasn’t until 2019 that she was able to receive the procedure from one of the few doctors in and around Colorado who offer it: gynecologic surgeon Brian Nelson. Nelson will also serve on Wednesday’s panel.

“I want the entire community to know that (Nelson) is there, and that he and his staff are doing this work,” Moon said. “He is a huge asset to the Longmont community.”

The event was organized by Michele Forsberg, owner of Align PT in Longmont, who worked with Moon before and after her surgery. Forsberg came up with the idea to host a screening of “Below the Belt” after watching the documentary with her daughter, who has endometriosis.

“My daughter and I sat there crying, watching the film,” she said. “It was so profound and so powerful that I felt really compelled to have a screening here.”

March is Endometriosis Awareness Month, and the screening also falls on International Women’s Day. Forsberg said the event, for which almost 100 tickets have already been sold, was scheduled this way in an effort to break the “taboo” around women’s health issues and tackle misconceptions about the condition.

“They say one in 10 people have it, but I think that it’s more than that,” she said. “For people with uteruses to get the validation that their pain is not in their heads, I think that’s a really empowering piece of it.”