‘There is the right surgeon for you’: Ottawa teacher opens up about living with pain from endometriosis

An Ottawa woman is sharing her story after undergoing a rare, complex surgery at the Ottawa Hospital. CTV’s Leah Larocque reports.

An Ottawa Grade 1 teacher is sharing her story in hopes of supporting her surgeon’s push to make the capital a centre of excellence for patients living with endometriosis.

“There is the right surgeon, the right doctor for you, even though you may need to be a little bit patient to get there. It’s really important to never give up,” says Danika Fleury.

“There is light at the end of the tunnel.”

Fleury underwent one of the most complicated endometriosis pelvic surgeries ever performed at the Ottawa Hospital.

Endometriosis is a painful chronic condition where tissue, like the lining of the uterus, grows outside the uterus in the pelvic area.

People can experience painful periods, and patients are put on the birth control pill or other hormonal medications. This can only reduce the pain; it doesn’t stop the progression of the condition.

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But in Fleury’s case, she couldn’t take any hormones because she was also being treated for breast cancer.

Fleury says it “was incredibly frustrating and demoralizing to be in so much pain and not have a good plan forward.”

In May 2025, Fleury began seeing Dr. Sony Singh, surgeon and head of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Newborn Care at the Shirley E. Greenberg Women’s Health Centre at the Ottawa Hospital.

“It was incredibly validating. When Doctor Singh told me that I was, in fact, dealing with severe endometriosis, and that I did need surgery, and that we were going to have a good plan going forward. It was like the biggest weight being lifted off of me, and I felt like crying tears of happiness at that moment,” she says.

Fleury underwent a complex four-hour surgery in September.

Dr. Singh has been advocating for patients suffering from endometriosis.

“We have the education, we have the skill set, we have the technology, but we don’t have this access to surgery time and the resources. There’s absolutely no investment in endometriosis clinical care as a priority anywhere right now,” he says.

Singh says many people don’t understand that endometriosis can go beyond the pelvic area and invade other organs such as the bowel, the bladder, ureter, and the kidneys.

Fleury’s surgery was one of the most complex ever done at the hospital because the endometriosis had invaded into the pelvic nerves, which support muscle function and the ability to walk and move.

Singh and a team of medical experts used advanced imaging and virtual reality (VR) of the pelvis to help the team prepare for surgery. “It was the right time to make a home-grown solution so that Danika didn’t have to leave the country, leave the city to get care, which is what many patients have to do.”

Fleury says, “It’s frustrating. Women in the endometriosis community are suffering in silence and really lacking the support that we need.”

Ahead of her surgery in September, Fleury says she was nervous. “And I knew there were a lot of risks going into it, but I had no other choice. I couldn’t live the way that I was living anymore.”

Singh is advocating that more attention be given to complex conditions such as endometriosis to build a centre of excellence in Ottawa.

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“Because of scarcity of resources, we really are overwhelmed with the number of cases we have. There’s an area of endometriosis when it invades the pelvic nerves that’s really complex, and we have limited resources in all of Canada. There’s only a couple of other people who do this… we needed to invest and build a program that can do this surgery safely,” he says.

Fleury is hopeful for other women living with endometriosis.

“I think that having the center of excellence here in Ottawa will be incredible. And I think I know that we could help so many women,” she added.