Coffee and Tea with CarrieVee

A Frank Discussion on Endometriosis

• Carrie Verrocchio

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In this soul-stirring episode of Coffee and Tea with CarrieVee, Carrie sits down with the radiant Brianna Booker—author, wellness coach, and fierce advocate for holistic healing.

 Brianna shares her powerful story of walking away from corporate burnout and stepping into a life rooted in purpose, peace, and authenticity. With raw vulnerability and gentle wisdom, she opens up about the moment she knew she had to choose herself—and how that decision transformed everything.

From honoring your body to embracing faith, Brianna’s journey is a lifeline for anyone feeling stuck, depleted, or longing for something more. This conversation is a reminder that healing isn’t just possible—it’s your birthright.

Brianna Booker is a writer, storyteller, and advocate for chronic illness awareness.  She blends personal experience with poetry and raw honesty to create work that makes others feel less alone.  When she's not writing, she's reading fantasy novels, needle felting, or spending time with her pets. 

Contact Brianna Booker

Book Purchase link: https://amzn.to/4jT75yM
Instagram: @yarrowsbloom
Email: yarrowsbloom@gmail.com

Radical Empowerment Method Book on Amazon:
https://amzn.to/3Bdp2BC

Book CarrieVee for a Speaking Engagement:  https://www.coachcarriev.com/contact-me

Join the Confidence and Clarity Membership!  https://carrievee.com/confidence-clarity-1

Schedule your Discovery Call with CarrieVee!
https://schedulewithcarrievee.as.me/?appointmentType=12343596


Step Into Your Big Life Freebie:
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The Radical Empowerment Method 2.0 Online Course
https://www.coachcarriev.com/radicalempowermentmethod2


Get to an EVENT!  www.carrievee.com/events

Contact CarrieVee!
IG: @iamcarrievee
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email: carriev@coachcarriev.com 

CarrieVee:

Welcome back to coffee and tea with Carrie V, I'm Carrie V, your biggest fan, the person who will be leaving you until you can believe in yourself, and then I'm still going to keep believing in you. This podcast is all things leadership, communication, confidence, clarity and life. And joining us today is Brianna Bucha, and she is going to share her heart with her amazing new book that is just Brianna. Is it even a Can we buy it

Brianna Booker:

yet? Yes, it is available on Amazon. Yay, because

CarrieVee:

my book is a not for resale copy. This is my gold. It's like someday people are going to approach me and say, we'll give you $50,000 for that, because it's a pre release. I'm very excited. This book was and is amazing. There's so many, so many interesting facets to you. So I want to give you as much time as we possibly can give you. What? Why this book? Why is it so important, and why is it your mission to get this message out there.

Brianna Booker:

Yeah, thank you so much. Great question I wrote, what endometriosis couldn't take from me because of the experience I went through with endometriosis. I let's see if I go back, I've dealt with issues with my reproductive organs since they began functioning, and it has taken many, many, many years to get diagnosed, which is common in people with endometriosis. And at my lowest points, I started writing poetry. And when I had that poetry, I kind of decided after a while I had this backlog of a bunch of poems written, and I thought, if this could benefit someone else, then I want to share it. And so what I ended up deciding is to write this book that includes both my story as well as poems throughout. And I wanted to be raw and totally honest, because if you have endometriosis or another chronic illness, or even just as a woman, strength is so important, and knowing that you have people in your corner is so important. And if I can just make one person feel seen through reading this book, then that's what it truly is for

CarrieVee:

it is and it is beautiful, and your poetry is stunning. Thank you. Thankful that you're sharing it with us so vulnerable, vulnerably, sometimes it's hard to share those deepest, most personal sides of ourselves, but what you are doing is true servant leadership. You're you're leading by being a servant and sharing these, these deep hurts with us. Why do you think that it takes so long to diagnose a woman with endometriosis, which I feel like, should it be that hard?

Brianna Booker:

I really don't think it should be that hard. And I mean, I love it. We're getting right into the nitty gritty. Then I will follow you down this rabbit hole. Honestly, I think it is because we are women, and unfortunately, in the medical and health field, women are not as focused on and when it comes to endometriosis, we don't know a whole lot about it, and we just started to kind of dive into how we can even diagnose it. So because of that, it's just taken a very, very long time. A lot of women go through doctor after doctor after doctor that belittles them. And I think as women, we're just meant to be in pain, and they just think, Oh, it's just a normal, like period issue, but it's not, it's a whole body inflammatory disease, and a lot of people battle with some really tough things with it. And I wanted to make sure that they understood that there are other people out there like them, and to just keep going and just keep trying, and just keep looking for for that person that will listen to them. Yeah,

Unknown:

and you are definitely that person.

Brianna Booker:

I try. I try every day.

CarrieVee:

You are definitely that person i i want to give our listeners a little bit of of feedback. This is something that drew me to you immediately. So I spoke at a conference in Troy, Ohio, where brianna is from, and I would say there were probably about 250 women in that room, yeah, and I gave a keynote, and at the end, I opened it up for questions, and Brianna raised her hand and asked me if I would share her book with my listeners. This is boldness, one which I absolutely love, but it also told me that what she had in her hand as she held up the book and asked me that question, what she had in her hand was not just a book, but it was a mission and a vision. And a passion that she wanted to get out to as many people as she could. And I'm not afraid to raise my hand and ask a question that I could have very easily said, no, no, I don't I don't know you. I don't know the book. Yeah, but I was so touched by your passion that it was an immediate Yes, let's talk. Let's get this out there. Wow, I have never, as far as I know, I've never experienced endometriosis, although I also don't have any of those. I don't have any of those reproductive organs left in my body. And I just remember, let me put it this way, that word was never used on me, but I knew that I would wake up, doubled over in pain, and I was told, you need a hysterectomy. There was and it was back before I started questioning anything. I just followed what was told to me,

Unknown:

right.

CarrieVee:

Yeah, right, yeah. How many women do you think that happens to? I mean, can you share with us, as much as you would like to deeply into your journey, what that felt like, physically? Because there may be people listening who have been told like me, well, you just need to do this without any explanation, and then we wake up from surgery and wonder, Am I even still a woman? I mean, you just took the parts that make me female? Yeah,

Brianna Booker:

yeah. I battled with that heavily, and I go through that pretty in depth in my book, talking about how I didn't feel like I was a woman anymore. I'm so hard sorry to hear that you went through that, because I do think there are a lot of women out there that have experiences like yours. A lot of doctors, unfortunately, haven't heard of endometriosis or don't know a whole lot about it, and so we just need to, like, that's one big reason why I wrote this story, is because we need to get it out there, and we need to showcase that this is something that we need to be aware of, one in 10 women, which actually is the old study that they say that one in 10 women are diagnosed with endometriosis, or have endometriosis, even if they don't know it. But that's actually outdated. I think it's more like one in seven, one in seven women

Unknown:

that sent you. Yeah, yeah.

CarrieVee:

So if you think about everyone that you hang out with when you go out on girls night or girls weekend, I mean, you look around and you count the women, you know, if it's one in seven, how many people is that? How many women is that? That you currently know? That's a lot. Yeah, that's a that's a stunning statistic. Yeah.

Brianna Booker:

And thankfully, when it comes to endometriosis, it's so vast, there are four stages similar to cancer. I don't like to say that because it's not classified as a cancer, but it does react very similarly in the body to a cancer, and I would say the majority of women are stage one or stage two, and then they never progress. And so a lot of times, it's not going to cause as big of an issue as it did in me or in many women, but it those ones that where it does really take you down, like I literally felt completely broken. I felt totally broken as a person. I didn't feel like I was a woman anymore. I felt like, if I couldn't conceive, then what was I to society? And I think one big thing that I don't always like to talk about, but I think I wrote this book as a part of my legacy. If I'm not able to have children, and if my line dies with me, which it does, I'm an only child. I wanted something to benefit the world. And if this book can, just like connect with people and help with awareness of chronic illness, of women's rights, of any of that, then that's what I want it to do.

CarrieVee:

That is so incredibly beautiful. Can you so I love what I love what you just said, and our our journeys are very different. My My hysterectomy came well after I was finished having children and then having my ovaries removed, just happened in 2021 so well into my 50s, lots of years between the uterus and the ovaries, right? But I already had children, and I already had children, so my feelings are going to be light years away from you. You are a young woman, so reading the book and and. Having met you and knowing how young you are, and the feelings that came with I can't I can't imagine. I can't get my arms. I can't wrap my arms around that. Can you walk us through like, how many doctors, how many people, how many people looked you in the eyes and told you it was all in your head. I, I feel and I, I'm, I'm asking this question, even though I've been through the book, I want you to bring all of us through this journey, one so they'll get the book and be able to help you grow your legacy and pass this along to their maybe, children, grandchildren. We probably all know someone who is experiencing things, but we don't know what they're experiencing. So if you can help us with that, I would be forever grateful.

Brianna Booker:

Absolutely I feel like for me, it starts with just like most people, I started my period and I talked to my mom, and turns out my mom had very, very painful periods as well. So she just told me, unfortunately, it's genetic. It's going to be painful for you, because that's what she thought. And we started piecing together all these different things. She had a very, very hard time even conceiving me. She had many miscarriages before me, and then gave up after me, because she's like, I don't want to deal with that anymore. But one thing that's very interesting with my story specifically is my first doctor's appointment that I went to as an adult by myself. I had pelvic pain and got an internal ultrasound done. If anybody's done one of those, you know what it's like? Oh yes, yes. And the doctor said, flat first appointment in my face, you probably have endometriosis and need surgery. And my jaw dropped. I was like, What is this? I've never heard of this before. What do you mean? I can? I curse on here? Because, yes,

CarrieVee:

you can. I was like, fuck that

Unknown:

I'm not doing surgery. I was like, 18 years old, oh my gosh.

Brianna Booker:

And I was terrified. I was completely terrified of what that meant. So I had to take a couple years starting to kind of understand and learn what endometriosis was. Oh my gosh, what a cutie

CarrieVee:

on my lap during every podcast. Moment of gravity. Okay, you can only sit. Okay. Go ahead, absolutely.

Brianna Booker:

So that was a very different experience for me, for most women, because, like you said, a lot of people do say, Oh, they belittle the pain or it's just in your head. And honestly, I still get that sometimes, like I'm expected as a working adult woman to work a full time job, and that is hard, unfortunately it is, and that's just life. I've totally accepted that and understood that, but a lot of doctors don't realize how much pain women are in, because really, technically, periods are not supposed to be painful. If your period is painful, you like, if your daughter's mentioning pain, you need to take them to the doctor, and you need to find somebody that will listen to you and look into it, because

CarrieVee:

say that again. Like, I really want you to drive that point home that periods are not supposed to be painful. Like, let's hear it again. Periods

Brianna Booker:

are not supposed to be painful. Thank you. They're not. You're not supposed to have pain with your period. And if you or your daughter or an aunt or anyone in your life mentions that they're dealing with painful periods, go to a doctor and don't stop until you get to a doctor that's going to listen to you, because things can be done, and you should not be living with that daily pain.

CarrieVee:

What can what can they expect at a doctor's appointment where they're taken seriously. I feel like a lot of doctors aren't taking it serious yet, but let's say they find someone who's taking them seriously. What can they expect?

Brianna Booker:

It's different for everybody. Ask a lot of questions. I highly recommend bringing someone that's in your corner, even at 33 years old, whenever I've went to appointments where it's just myself, it does not go as well as when I have my partner there with me, because he's able to double down, double check if he doesn't understand something, he looks at me. I look at him. We ask those questions again, and you just have to advocate for yourself, because nobody's going to and sometimes that's really hard to do when you're alone. So Take someone with you, take your partner, take a friend, take your mom, Take someone with you and ask the right questions and try. Different things. Over the years that I've dealt with this, I've learned of a lot of individuals that find really great relief from a bunch of different things. Some things work for some women and some don't. I was on one medication that made me start to lose my eyesight permanently.

Unknown:

Oh my gosh. And that's a very rare

Brianna Booker:

symptom that just happened to happen to me, so it it's always going to be a journey. You're always going to be learning. And I think that's the same with any chronic illness or anybody in this world. Really, you have to listen to your body and you have to do what's best for you. Yes,

CarrieVee:

I love that you said that. Listen to your body and do what is best for you. We know our bodies, we we know what we're feeling, and we're the only people who know what we're feeling. My My husband asked me today we were taking a walk, and he said, Does my hand look better? He was swollen up this morning, and I reached over and I said, it doesn't matter if I think it looks better. Does it feel better? You are the only one who can do this and know if your hand is feeling better. It's the same way with our bodies. No one lives in this body but us. And do you feel that we are taught, as women, though, to ignore what we feel.

Brianna Booker:

Yeah, yes, we are definitely told to ignore what we feel and just kind of put our heads down and do what needs to be done. And it is so hard. It makes it so hard to speak out. You feel so alone, I feel like a lot of times I can't even share these feelings with other women. And I mean, you've, you've met with me and talked to me. I'm very open. I'm a very open person. I will tell you anything, and I will definitely say I was surprised. A lot of my family and friends who have now read the book came back and said things to me like, Man, I really, truly didn't understand what you were going through. Wow, it's hard. It's hard out there for us, and truly sharing your story is so important. It

CarrieVee:

is if more people share their story, I've had people ask me often as a speaker, well, I would love to do that, but I don't have anything to say. Oh, how much to say? Yeah, yes. And you not only have so much to say, you have so much to say that others need to hear if we don't share about these things. Nothing, nothing changes. I mean, I remember back in 2010 when I had my hysterectomy, I asked the doctor, I said, well, as long as I'm coming in, as long as I have to do this, can we do something about like, the fact that I can't walk around the block without peeing my pants? And she just looked at me and she said, has, have you never addressed this with anyone? I said, No, I was taught that it's not nice to talk about these things, right? Yeah, right. And they did a Euro dynamic study that which I failed miserably, like they cut the thing short, because it was so my bladder control was so bad, I guess four babies sitting on my bladder just didn't do well for it anyway, if I had though been able to just speak about it freely, what I found out afterwards is that every woman and everybody who everybody I knew, had the same ladder sling put in that I had put in, they never talked about it. I thought there was something wrong with me, and I was terrified and embarrassed to say I I'm walking around the block with major pads on, because I will pee myself before I get home a short block.

Brianna Booker:

I love that you mentioned embarrassment, because I have a story from when I was a kid. I say it when I was a kid. I was in high school, so I'm talking like 1617, years old, and I asked my mom one day, out of the blue, I said, When can we start wearing thongs? And she cracked up laughing, because to her, in her head, she's like, you could wear that. That's your choice. You can do it. But it didn't come off that way to me. To me, I was immediately embarrassed, because it was something that I felt like you shouldn't talk about and if I talk about thongs, how could I talk about the pain that I experienced during my period? There's no way I could speak up and say that. So, like, it's so interesting to me, the things that I myself, kind of forced into my own head because. My mom didn't mean anything by that whatsoever, but just her laughter was enough to embarrass me, to feel like I couldn't talk about things. Oh, and I feel like a lot of women deal with that. I feel like a lot of people deal with that same, similar experience. It's taken me so long to just accept the embarrassing things in my life. I'm gonna make mistakes. Yes, it's gonna happen. My mantra is, do the hard thing, yes, because you're either not going to do it and never see what could come of it, or you're going to do the hard thing, even if it is embarrassing, even if it is scary, it's okay. Yes, it's okay. Do the hard thing, yes,

CarrieVee:

and and talk about the embarrassing thing. Yeah, I guarantee you, I guarantee you, when you talk about that embarrassing thing, someone else around you is having the same experience, and they're so glad you brought it up. Absolutely,

Brianna Booker:

absolutely no, yeah,

CarrieVee:

yeah. And it's something now that our daughters, who have had children, I will just say to them, so when you start to pee your pants, and we'll all laugh about it, but because, because, if we, if we just normalize it, the conversation becomes easier. And what you are doing with this book is normalizing this conversation around endometriosis. I keep taking this the wrong way, because the cameras reverse, normalizing this conversation around endometriosis, which was a Gosh in the back in the day when I was in high school in the 80s and and college in the 80s, endometriosis was rarely said because it was, it was connected to reproductive organs, and we didn't talk about such things, no, no, how much has it?

Brianna Booker:

I hope that it has, but I can say that I have seen that it is still really, really hard for people like one, one experience that I have recently my sister Lindsay has a a 12 year old son. Hi Logan, if you watch this, he being 12. We've talked to Lindsay like, hey, it's that age. He's turning into a teenager. Have you talked to him? And she will shut down the conversation as like a mom. She's like, No, no. That's job, which I totally understand, but that's a really good example of things that we don't talk about. Yes, we don't talk about sex, we don't talk about reproductive organs, we don't talk about chronic illness. I am so surprised now that I've shared my story. How many people in my life Tell me, oh my gosh, I deal with pain in this way. I have dealt with this chronic illness, and it's crazy how many similarities there are and how much you can learn from this book, even if you don't have endometriosis. I have had so many people come to me and say, Oh, my God, your tip to use the 10s unit or to have a heating pad on you. 24/7, I have a heating blanket, literally, like right over there. Uh huh. Tips and tricks like that are beneficial to anyone that deals with fun things in life, I like to call chronic illness, because everybody has something right?

Unknown:

Yes,

Brianna Booker:

everybody can learn something out of this book. I

CarrieVee:

Yes, and everyone needs to have a copy of this book. And I'll make sure Brianna that we link this book underneath whether you're whether you're listening or watching, there will be a link to this book underneath of this podcast, so just go click on it and grab the book. You are right. Everyone can learn something and the the poetry is beautiful. Your writing style is beautiful. You are true storyteller. You also have animals, and I believe it was it knitting or crocheting. Oh, needle felting. Okay. Can you describe for us what needle felting is?

Brianna Booker:

Oh, my gosh, it I don't even know where to start, but it is literally wool, like just straight wool, all off of a sheep or an alpaca or synthetic wool that you take a specified needle that has tiny little barbs on it that you can barely even see, and you poke it with a needle so you really get to, like, take some take some anger out on this little pile of wool. And you poke it so many times that it slowly turns into a hard shape, and then you build whatever you want out of it. You can build creatures, animals. I've needle felted on wool sweaters as well. It is so much fun. I enjoy it so much I want to do it. Thank you. It's like my grandma hobby. It's like in the evenings, I'll sit down in front of the TV and I'll just be poking something with a needle over and over and over again.

CarrieVee:

I love this. See, there is something for everyone in this book. Back to the topic of endometriosis, though, before I let you go, I can't believe. How can I miss clone? You're you are so easy to talk to, and you're so open with sharing these things. If a woman was wondering if she had endometriosis, what should she be looking for? I'm I imagine the symptoms are kind of, there's probably a wide range of symptoms, but absolutely, what can she be looking for? So when she goes to the doctor you mentioned, ask the right questions, how does she know what questions to ask?

Brianna Booker:

That's a very, very good question. I would say. It's so hard. It really is, because, like, I don't want to say, go Google it, because I feel like every time you Google some sort of ailment, it tells you it's some deadly virus or cancer. But I would, I want to say, do some research. Okay, look into it. I would say one thing that I've really kind of had a lot of success with is looking into not just the internet, but either books or not, not shamelessly plugging my own, but there are other books by really great doctors that talk about not only endometriosis, but any sort of chronic pain. There's also groups online. I feel like the experiences of groups online is so much more centralized than the internet's generic response that it gives you, because we're still learning about this disease. So the internet's going to give you outdated information. Yes, if you connect with other people that have similar experiences as you, or similar symptoms as you. Even just look up your symptom, you will probably find a group of people on Facebook, Instagram that are talking about their experience, and you can learn so much there.

CarrieVee:

That's great advice. That's great advice. And if someone wanted to connect with you, if they wanted to send you an email or a message and had a question for you, how could they get a hold of you? Absolutely, please

Brianna Booker:

do. If you have any questions for me, please connect. You can find me, of course, under Brianna Booker, if you look me up, and then also my tag is yaros bloom. That's y, A, R, R, O, W, s, B, L, O, O, M, that's on Instagram, Facebook. That is my email as well. So you can connect with me there.

CarrieVee:

Okay, fabulous, and I will link all of that underneath this podcast episode too. So whether you're listening or watching again, just go click those links, and Brianna is so open. And I know there's no question you could ask her that would make her face turn red, or she would write back and say, Nope, that was that went too far. She is sharing her story, if you not, if I'm going to say, when you get the book and you read it, you will see how open she is at sharing and being real and authentic. And I highly recommend, highly, highly, highly recommend you get your hands on this book. So before we let you go, what is your superpower?

Unknown:

Hmm,

Brianna Booker:

honestly, I want to say writing. Yeah. I have started writing this year, and I have fallen in love with it. I've written as like my day job as well, but that's just very different. Once I finally found my voice, it felt like every moment of my life has brought me to this point where I start to write my own stories. And I feel like that is so powerful. And if anyone out there has that dream of writing, do it. It's easier than you think, and it is so much fun. And if you don't have someone in your corner, I will always be in your corner. I love

CarrieVee:

it. I love it. And yes, writing is definitely, definitely your superpower, you would think that you've been writing for decades, and you're not even decades old yet. So you would think you're writing for decades when you read this book, it's so well done. What is something that can get our listeners writing? Something, a writing prompt, a journal prompt, something that they could just sit down with a journal and start writing?

Brianna Booker:

I think I've been thinking about this one a lot. You mentioned it to me at the beginning, so I was a little prepared. But I think that you should think about what makes you strong. Mm, I love that about your strengths, and write down your strengths, no matter how little whatever brings you. Strength. Write about it, journal about it, make sure it's in the front of your mind every day so that you can build a better you. Yes,

CarrieVee:

that's beautiful. Thank you so much for hanging out with us. This has been fabulous. We'll have to have you back again, because there's so many things we didn't even cover yet, but we'll give people a chance to read the book, and then we'll have you back. Maybe we can even do like a question and answer. I'll never really write in their questions, and we'll answer them on the podcast. I love that. Yeah. Let's do that. Let's do that. You are so open, and I so appreciate your willingness to share this journey and to be so authentic about your feelings around it. And I, like I said, I just can't even imagine the pain and the heartache that you have been through and are going through, and I really appreciate you sharing it with our listeners. There is, there are so many people that are benefiting right now from listening to this. So thank you for hanging out with us. Yes,

Brianna Booker:

yes, thank you for inviting me. I've really appreciated it. And like we said, if there's any questions you have for me or need someone in your corner, shoot me a message. Yes.

CarrieVee:

All right. Thank you so much. Thank you. Bye.