Welcome to Aligned to Rise, the podcast for ambitious women who are ready to reclaim their vitality, align with their true power, and rise into the life they were meant to live.
Hosted by functional nutritionist and performance coach Alyssa Chavez, this show blends the science of gut and hormone health with the soul of mindset work, nervous system healing, and emotional release. Whether you’re navigating endometriosis, period pain, fatigue, or digestive drama—or you’re just craving deeper clarity and confidence in your body and purpose—you’ll find the support you need right here.
Each week, you’ll hear raw conversations, expert insights, and practical tools that help you:
Understand what’s really going on in your body
Rewire limiting beliefs and emotional patterns
Nourish yourself on every level—physically, emotionally, and energetically
Step fully into the bold, aligned woman you know you’re meant to be
*Out of the vault! This episode originally aired October of 2024, but I've had so many questions coming in about endo surgery that I thought it was time to bring it back!*
Today, we’re diving into one of the most frequently asked questions: How to prepare for endometriosis surgery and what to expect. If you’ve been feeling uncertain about the process, this episode will give you the guidance you need to feel more confident going in and recover more smoothly afterward.
We’ll cover everything from pre-surgery preparation to post-op recovery tips, ensuring you have the tools and knowledge to support your healing journey. Let’s make this experience as smooth as possible!
In this episode, you’ll hear:
-Myth-busting common misconceptions about endometriosis surgery.
-How to plan ahead, from researching your surgery to practical tips like what clothes to wear and how to set up the support you need for recovery.
-Meal prep ideas and food considerations to help reduce inflammation and promote healing after surgery.
-Natural tools for managing pain and inflammation, beyond just what your doctor prescribes.
-The importance of patience and resting your body for full recovery.
-How long-term diet and lifestyle changes can help prevent multiple surgeries, plus alternative treatments and healing modalities to explore.
I’ve curated a list of anti-inflammatory recipes linked below! Whether you're preparing for surgery or looking to manage your endo symptoms long-term, these recipes will nourish and support your body.
Check it out and start planning for your healing journey!
Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only. This may not be the best fit for you and your personal situation. It shall not be construed as medical advice. The information and education provided here is not intended or implied to supplement or replace professional medical treatment, advice, and/or diagnosis. Always check with your own physician or medical professional before trying or implementing any information read here.
Subscribe to the Aligned to Rise Podcast: Apple | Spotify
Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only. This may not be the best fit for you and your personal situation. It shall not be construed as medical advice. The information and education provided here is not intended or implied to supplement or replace professional medical treatment, advice, and/or diagnosis. Always check with your own physician or medical professional before trying or implementing any information read here.
SPEAKER_00
Hello, and welcome back to the Endobelly Girl Podcast. Today we are going to be talking all things endometriosis surgery, which is a major part of endocare for so many, and yet so many people go into it without really knowing what to expect. But thanks to this episode, you will not be one of those. So I wanted to share a story with you really quickly before we dive in here. I so I have I offer a free consultation for potential clients before they start to work with me one-on-one, just so we can make sure it's a good fit and I can tell, share a little bit more about what that looks like. And so I had met with a potential client, and we were just talking about her journey so far and everything she had been through, and she shared with me that she had had so far 12 surgeries for her endometriosis. And the thing is that that story is fairly common. It's not like a once-in-a-blue moon thing. I mean, I hear that all the time. I talk to many people who have had two, three, five, nine, twelve, fifteen surgeries. And that is so crazy to me. And my question always is why, why does that become the case for some people, but others can have one surgery and then move on? And I will share later in this episode what I believe to be the biggest reason for that. So stay tuned. So today's episode will be like having a friend who's been there before, because now you do, but a friend who also happens to be a functional nutritionist and can give you insights from that point of view. So we are not today going to dive into all the ins and outs of surgery because I am not a surgeon. I cannot give you medical advice. I say that in the intro of every episode, so you all know that. At the end of the day, you know, the choices that you make around that are between you and your doctor. But what I can do is help to share with you certain actions that you can take pre and post-surgery that can help with your recovery and having a smooth experience all around. So let's dive into that today. What we are going to look at today are we're going to look at some key ways to plan ahead for a better experience. So, my type A friends, I see you out there, you will love this. Tools for supporting pain and inflammation, and considerations for long-term care post-op. So let's dive in. So, first of all, I would like to start off by doing some endo surgery myth busting. I'm all about myth busting, really getting to the heart of the matter, the truth of the matter, and so I wanted to share that with you all today. So, myth number one, that surgery is the only endocare that you need. The truth is that quality excision surgery can be an important piece, but can't actually stand alone without supporting the root cause of why your symptoms and why that endometriosis growth is happening in the first place. Myth number two: all types of surgery and all surgeons will give you the same result. The truth? Nope. Be sure when you are looking into surgery for yourself that you look for somebody who specializes in endometriosis excision surgery. Not just any old OBGYN, not a general reproductive surgeon. You want to actually look for somebody who specializes in endometriosis surgery. I think that that is really key. Again, I'm not a medical expert, but this is just from my own experience, from the experiences of so many endo warriors that I've talked to. That's one of the beautiful things about the work that I do is that I have a lot of conversations with endo warriors between my one-on-one work with clients, the people who are actually my clients, and the people who I do those free consultations with who are considering it. I have conversations with people who are in my membership. There's many ways, and just sometimes just connecting through Instagram or different places like that. So through all of those conversations and, you know, social media groups that I'm in and whatnot, I see over and over and over again people who don't have, don't work with an expert endometriosis surgeon, just end up having a really hard time with recovery, oftentimes end up having to go back in for another surgery further down the line. And I fully believe that that can make a huge difference. So yes, do your homework, do your research. All right, myth number three for today that this is a minor surgery. The truth, this is a minimally invasive surgery, but not necessarily a minor surgery. I'm sure that that can vary a lot dependent on your unique situation. But from my personal experience, and again from experiences of many people that I've talked to over the years, a lot happens in there. And not to scare you away, but just I think it's important to have reasonable expectations for recovery. So even though the incision sites are quite small, especially if you're having the robotic type surgery, which I know there's a lot of debate out there around that, doing the robotic versus not robotic. I'm not even gonna touch that today because I don't know enough to really give a logical conclusion on that. That's that's what I've got to offer about that today. There's many people out there who can give you more insights and information on that particular topic, and I am not one of them. But typically you have very small incision sites, but that doesn't mean that there wasn't a lot happening inside of your body. So I just think that that's important to be aware of because I was thinking going into it that, oh, you know, it's uh tiny little incisions, you know, it's it's a supposed to be a relatively quick surgery. Mine ended up being about four hours long. There was a lot going on in there. But a lot happened during that time, you know, there was a there was a lot of tissues and things that they were working on during that time. So yeah. Just anticipate that it's you know, it's not like, oh, you're gonna get up the next day and be fine. Um it's often just a lot more to it than that. So let's take a look then at what you actually need to know. For starters, I always recommend planning ahead for a better experience. So that starts way back before you even book your script your surgery, which is to do your research on your surgeon. Look for that skilled excision surgeon who specializes in endometriosis. And just a reminder also that excision surgery and ablation surgery are not the same thing. Again, I'm not going to go into the ins and outs of the differences with types of surgery today because that's not my area of expertise, but I just wanted to just share that with you all today since that's the topic that we're talking about, but definitely do your research on that. There's some really good resources out there like Nancy's Nook and I Care Better. Those are some great resources that you can look into. I'm happy to share those in the show notes for you so that you can find more information on those. But those are some really great places where you can find some good information about surgery and even look up surgeons in your area and all of that good stuff. But what we're really going to focus on today is how to support yourself from a holistic perspective, looking at all the things that you can do to support your body in that healing process. So as far as planning ahead, one thing that I really recommend is just preparing your environment ahead of time, preparing your sleeping space, considering how accessible that is. I know for myself, I prepared a sleeping space downstairs. My bedroom is upstairs, and I didn't want to have to traipse up and down the stairs those first few nights, which I'm glad I did because I actually physically couldn't go up the stairs anyway. So I prepared a sleeping space downstairs where it was easier for me to access and get in and out, and found that to be a lot easier. And then same thing with your clothing, shower situation, entertainment, comfort, just kind of have all of that set up for yourself ahead of time so that you feel comfortable and ready to go when you come home from your surgery. And don't be afraid to ask for help, right? I know that I really I'm not a big ask for help kind of girl, to be perfectly honest. I am kind of a do-it-yourself kind of girl, but I have to say that having people there by my side when I was recovering was so incredibly invaluable. My mom came over the first couple of days just to help me, you know, bring me food and water and just kind of help me around the house. My dad came over and actually cooked dinner for us one night. My aunt came over and a friend of mine came over just to keep me company. At one point in time, I had all of those people in my home at the same time. My husband came home and I had like a whole party happening at the house. So it was wonderful to feel supported. As far as clothing, too, coming circling back to that, just you'll want to think about having clothing that's comfortable and easy to wear because you probably won't want to have any pressure on your abdomen. So thinking just loose-fitting clothing that's easy to get on and off, you know, drawstring pants that are nice and loose, loose t-shirts, things like that, dresses can be really good just as something kind of loose to cover your body so you don't have to struggle with clothing. And let's see, food considerations. I know that's something I wanted to talk about today, too. You will be coming off of anesthesia when you first are coming home from your surgery, so definitely thinking light foods at first is really good. Things like soups and broths are great. Bone broth is very healing and wonderful. And you can even add in some anti-inflammatory spices like ginger and turmeric, can be really wonderful. I highly recommend this is something that I did in preparation for my surgery, and I'm so incredibly glad that I did, which was to prep and freeze some meals in advance. So I cooked a few meals in the week leading up to my surgery and stuck those in the freezer, and so that way all I had to do was pull them out and heat them up, and that made my life so much easier because I don't like having to rely on takeout food. It's just, it doesn't feel great for my body, and I didn't want to have to stress about that stuff. So I just prepared a few meals ahead of time and had them in the freezer ready to go, and I I found that to be so incredibly helpful. So that's something that I would highly recommend. And if that's something you're interested in, stay tuned until the end of the episode today, because I have a special something for you that can be helpful for that. All right, tools for pain and inflammation. Now, your doctor will more likely than not prescribe some medications for you, some pain medications. So, of course, work with your doctor on that front. Again, that's not what I'm here to talk about today because that's not my area of expertise. But there are some holistic tools that you can use to help to kind of complement that and also just to kind of keep you going when maybe you're at a point where you're weaning off of the medications. So I really like anti-inflammatory herbs like ginger and turmeric, which you can get in tea form. You can use the fresh herbs and add them to soups or salads or stir fries, things like that. Smoothies can be really great place to use those herbs. You may also, so a lot of people immediately post-surgery, especially if you're if your surgeon uses gas to inflate your abdomen, which is very common. A lot of women experience gas pain afterwards, where that gas is kind of just trapped in your abdomen and needs to work its way out. So things like ginger and peppermint can be really supportive of that, as well as movement, just getting up and moving your body. Now, when I say movement, I mean movement. You're not going to be getting up and doing jumping jacks anytime soon. But what you can do is get up and just walk around your house. In fact, I think it's fairly common these days that doctors will encourage that anyway in those post-op days, so that you can help to move that gas out of your body. So that is that's something that was recommended to me and I found to be really helpful. The hardest part I know was for me and so many people, is having patience because a lot of that recovery is rest and time, right? Your body went through a lot. It it there's a lot of healing that needs to be done, and that takes time, and it also requires you actually resting. I know, trust me, as a ambitious business owner over here who is super passionate about what she does and loves to help to support other people in their endo journeys. It was very difficult for me to kind of step back and rest during that time, but it also is super necessary. So just remember that. Have patience with yourself, take your time, take it easy, and you'll be fine, right? Just one day at a time. I actually have a friend, this is kind of circling back to our earlier conversation. I have a friend who is a colleague of mine, she's a fellow nutritional therapy practitioner. We actually went through our training together for that, also has endometriosis, and she had had surgery prior to us meeting. And she actually initially, her very first surgery that she had was an ablation surgery, and later on went back to have an excision surgery, which again, I'm not going to go into the full details, but just so you have an understanding, if you really have no idea what I'm talking about. Basically, an excision surgery is like pulling out a weed from the roots, and an ablation surgery is just like chopping off the weeds at the at the ground level. So it makes a big difference in the way that you feel, and she was telling me how how very differently her recovery went from one surgery to the next, because she didn't realize at the time when she had her initial surgery that there was even a different option out there. That's why I wanted to mention that today. And she was telling me how how incredibly painful her recovery was from the ablation surgery, and not that it was pain-free when she had her excision surgery, but certainly was a very different experience. And of course, she also, being somebody who is like me, very holistically minded and wanted to support her body from more of that root cause approach, she also was doing a lot to support her body in between those surgeries and feels like that that really helped to support her experience when she went in to have that second surgery. Now, I wanted to circle back. Remember, earlier in this episode, I mentioned that woman who I spoke to who had had 12 surgeries, and I wanted to circle back to that. Now, first of all, I want to be super, super clear as I'm talking about this stuff. My intention is never going to be to push blame or shame if you have already had multiple surgeries or you end up needing multiple surgeries. Because you know what? We can only move forward. But let's give your body the best chance for success that we can. It's one of those things. You just, A, you don't know what you don't know, and B, oftentimes you just don't know that your body needs support until you start having these crazy symptoms and you need surgery, and it is what it is. You know, I I know there's I see talk out there, especially in the land of social media, of course, where people think that if we're taught when we're talking about dietary and lifestyle stuff, that basically it's it's like a way of blaming you for having endometriosis because you didn't eat the right diet. It's not that at all. In fact, I don't believe that one bit. But I do believe that dietary and lifestyle strategies, amongst other things, can be very supportive in helping you to avoid having surgeries, you know, multiple surgeries moving forward in your life. So the best solution that I have found to help to avoid multiple surgeries, that just from my personal experience and from my clinical experience and from all the conversations I've had with so many different women is long-term care, right? A surgery really is a one-time event. And I do think it can be very helpful for so many women. So if that's something that you need, by all means, I am very much not against it. In fact, I think it is very supportive for so many women. But then you have to think about your long-term care afterwards. It's not like, oh my gosh, you had the surgery, you're good to go, you don't ever have to think about endometriosis again in your life. Not necessarily. For some people, it might look like that. And if that is your journey, great, awesome, more power to you. I will be over here cheering you on. But I find for many people that's not necessarily the case. So my recommendation really is to build a support team around you, right? Exactly what you need can look a little bit different for everybody, but I do think that getting that long-term support can be incredibly helpful. So options to look into, things to think about. Pelvic floor physical therapy is one modality that has been very supportive for so many people. So I've heard people even recommending starting it before surgery and or after surgery. You can speak to a pelvic floor PT in your area and see what would be kind of the best option for you. But that is something that can be super supportive because it is very common with endometriosis to have some pelvic floor dysfunction going on. There's a lot of trauma that's happened in your body. There can be a lot of hypersensitivity in your body. And so getting that long term, I say long term, it's not like you have to go to pelvic floor PT for the rest of your life, but for a period of time to help to support that recovery process, I know a lot of women find to be super, super helpful. Using a tool like functional nutrition, and sure, am I a little bit biased towards that modality? Perhaps. But there's a reason that I practice the way that I do, and that's because I found it to be incredibly beneficial and an incredibly powerful tool for people. So for myself, the functional nutrition work is something that I started prior to surgery and have continued since my surgery, being that this is what I do for a living. It's something that I focus on on the daily in my life, and am blessed enough to be able to help many other women through my one-on-one program and through my membership as well. And that's really all about getting to the root cause of what's going on in your body. So using things like functional testing and of course the diet and lifestyle strategies as well. But one thing I do want to remind people of is that it's more than just diet. Because I can't tell you how often I have conversations with women who come to me saying, I'm doing all the things, I'm eating this amazing diet, and I'm still having symptoms, and I'm still having this, I'm still having that. And that's where really investigating to get to the root cause of what's going on in your body. So that can be oftentimes that involves things like looking into your gut health, looking into, you know, some specific nutrients and your status on that, looking into your immune health and how your immune system is functioning, because that has a lot to do with the growth and development of endometriosis. There's a lot of moving factors, yes, looking into the hormones as well, although that's not really a first stop for me because as I've talked about many times before on the podcast, hormone imbalance is a symptom and not a root cause. But definitely a piece of the puzzle. One of the moving pieces, right? Because I really believe that endometriosis is it's multifactorial. It's not one thing. It's not like, oh, if you clean up your diet, you're good to go. Oftentimes it requires multiple layers of support. So my best recommendation is to work with somebody to help to develop a plan for your unique body because that can look a little bit different for everybody. And yeah, if you're already doing a lot of the diet and lifestyle stuff, that's great, but you may still need deeper support than that. And that's those tools are things that I've found to be super supportive. Not that there's any guarantee that if you do this functional work that you'll never have to have surgery again. I'm not gonna sit over here and make claims like that because everybody's different, every every situation is unique, but I do find that it makes a huge difference and can certainly be a help in avoiding having to have repeat surgeries and all the things. Because it's a big deal having surgery. Let's be real. It's not something you want to take lightly or dive into just because it's something you want to really consider and see what is a good fit for you. I know for myself, I had my surgery in 20, what year is it now? It's 2024. It was in 2022 I had my surgery, and I had really started doing the functional nutrition work prior to that, and have continued since then, and I have really seen a lot of improvements since my surgery. Now I definitely saw a lot of improvement from the surgery itself, but uh there were some symptoms that were still coming up for me afterwards, and through the dietary and lifestyle and targeted supplement and through the functional testing that I use to really see what's going on in my body, just like I do with my clients, I've been able to really see some improvements along the way in pain levels, in my overall experience when I'm having my periods and my ovulation and everywhere in between. So I, yeah, I'm just a big believer in all of that. All right, my friend, if you have a surgery coming up or if it's something you're thinking about, I have now I want to be super clear. I'm a nutritionist. I am not a chef, I am not a recipe creator, it's not my thing. There are a lot of people out there, however, I even have some colleagues who are amazing at recipe creation and do a fantastic job. So what I've done is rather than me sitting down and creating a recipe book that would probably take me like years to complete, because I don't write down my recipes. I just, I don't know, I just cook things where I'm using other people's recipes. But what I have done is I've curated a list of recipes that I have really enjoyed. It's just, it's pretty casual. It's just in a Google document where I've linked up, you know, some recipes, pictures, reason I've liked it, some good make-a-head meals that you can freeze if you're getting ready for your surgery. So if that's something that sounds like you need it, it's definitely something you can use even if you don't have a surgery coming up, but you just want some good anti-inflammatory recipes that are just nourishing and healing. I will link to that in the show notes and you can download that and enjoy it and get yourself one step closer to that healing process. So hope you enjoy that. Thanks for joining me today on this journey. So glad we were able to chat. All things surgery recovery. This is a question that I receive frequently. So I thought I would just go ahead and do a whole episode on it. All right, my friend, thanks so much for joining me today, and we'll talk soon.
