A woman was in pain for decades. A surprise meeting helped her learn why.

Dawn Jemison's pelvic pain started when she was 11 — and never really stopped. The Fort Wayne, Indiana, native started experiencing pelvic pain in middle school. At first, it was dismissed as puberty. By her late teens, she was in pain multiple days each month. In her 20s, she was diagnosed with anemia and lupus. But nothing explained the "terrible, twisting, stabbing pains" that ranged from her ribcage to pelvis, or the swollen feeling in her legs. Over the next two decades, Jemison, now 43, would see a range of doctors and undergo dozens of tests and exploratory procedures. Some doctors thought it might be endometriosis and recommended birth control, which didn't help. Two doctors even recommended she have a baby to "regulate (her) system," she said. Some thought it was all in her head, Jemison said, while others thought she was drug-seeking.