Founder, Femade
Anusha gandhi, Msc neuro
Hi, my name is Anusha Gandhi (She/Her).
Writing my bio is tough for me because so much of what I have gone through, medically, has consumed my memories of who I used to be. Chronic pain has a funny way of taking centre stage but I am committed to looking at the big picture, accepting the way things are today and appreciating the little things. I am a work in progress. I started experiencing painful periods since the beginning of my menstruation journey, at the tender age of 14. In that first year I was admitted to the hospital for blackout pain and was prescribed birth control; I was on it for 15 years of my life.
It was only when I began exploring the idea of being a mother that I was referred to a fertility centre to do a battery of tests. It was then that I was officially diagnosed with Endometriosis.
I have since had one ablation and two excision surgeries to remove endometriosis from my ovaries, bladder, colon, and diaphragm. For me menstruation always meant debilitating cramps, very heavy flow, and period diarrhea. For nearly 20 years I was convinced that my bowel issues were exclusively due to endometriosis. To my surprise, mere months before my first excision I was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance, completely depleted and under the impression I had a very bad flu. That day I was diagnosed with severe ulcerative colitis, and put on a biologic called Entyvio. One of the many MRIs picked up a kink in one of my bile ducts so I continue to have MRIs once a year to try to rule out Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis. I also suffer from random bouts of idiopathic pancreatitis, and since my last excision in 2020 I now have a prolapse, loss of nerve innervation in my rectosigmoid (ie I cannot poop on my own), and just received a sacral neurostimulator that I will have implanted in my back for the rest of my life.
“Its the in-between-appointments that are so critical to our mental and physical wellbeing. ”
For chronic pain patients we often don’t just have one thing, its an ongoing journey of accumulating diagnoses and looming question marks. Imagine seeing all of these different specialists who have their own expertise, do not communicate with one another, and see you once every 6 months. Its the in-between-appointments that are so critical to our mental and physical wellbeing. For my own health and wellness I began seeing allied healthcare professionals such as an osteopath, a pelvic floor physiotherapist, and many others who were much more accessible in the in between moments. But again, everything continued to be siloed and I had to repeat my story each time. I thought, what if we had everything under one roof where my healthcare was shared among practitioners: a multidisciplinary allied healthcare centre.
Nothing like that existed, or at least not to the standards I held it to. I am not a practitioner. But I am a patient. I am a scientist. I am a business woman. So I created it. I created my dream based on my wishes and wants. I created a dream that so many other patients have echoed. And it seems I created a dream others didn’t think would be possible. Every single person that walks through Femade’s door is a part of history. Her story. Our story.
Credentials
MSc in Neuroscience from Carleton University
15+ years in global biotech sales
Board Member - Ontario Health Technology Advisory Council
Director - Women’s Health Coalition of Canada - past
Advisor - Ottawa Hospital Lived Experience Team
You can find more about me here: