{"paper_id":"a304f58e-f38f-4808-8f95-68a7a08496e5","body_text":"ABSTRACT\nThis article argues that online endometriosis communities constitute a form of digital doulaship, where community members create networked care webs that contest medical gaslighting and expand pathways to care. Through analysis of posts and comments from the Reddit community r/endo, this study demonstrates how individuals with endometriosis employ digital platforms to visualize otherwise inexpressible pain, broker access to healthcare resources, and affirm experiences of institutional dismissal. Unlike traditional doulaship’s dyadic relationships, digital doulaship operates through peer-to-peer, distributed networks that leverage platform affordances to create persistent communities of support. Drawing from disability justice scholarship on care webs and reproductive justice theories of advocacy, this research reveals how digital doulaship enables collective rhetorical labor that transforms private suffering into political representation. Rather than reinforcing fertility-focused medical frameworks, these communities actively resist reproductive framings of endometriosis, creating alternative rhetorical spaces where chronic pain is validated on its own terms. This analysis contributes to rhetorical scholarship by demonstrating how marginalized individuals craft meaningful advocacy practices within systems designed to silence their embodied experiences.\nDisclosure statement\nNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.\nNotes\n1 Tamer Seckin, “History of Endometriosis,” Seckin MD Endometriosis Center, October 1, 2022, https://drseckin.com/history-of-endometriosis.\n2 World Health Organization, “Endometriosis,” WHO, March 24, 2023, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/endometriosis.\n3 Ibid.\n4 Camran Nezhat, Nataliya Vang, Pedro P Tanaka, and Ceana Nezhat, “Optimal Management of Endometriosis and Pain,” Obstetrics and Gynecology 135, no. 5 (2020), https://doi.org/10.1097/aog.0000000000003461.\n5 Sarah Berg, “What Doctors Wish Patients Knew About Endometriosis,” American Medical Association, https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/population-care/what-doctors-wish-patients-knew-about-endometriosis.\n6 Elaine Scarry, The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987).\n7 Ibid., 4.\n8 Judy Z. Segal, Health and the Rhetoric of Medicine (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2005), 47.\n9 Leslie R. Anglesey, “‘We’re All Struggling to be a Complete Person’: Listening to Rhetorical Constructions of Endometriosis,” in Interrogating Gendered Pathologies, ed. Erin A. Frost and Michelle F. Eble (Logan: Utah State University Press), 69.\n10 Ibid., 69.\n11 Amy Koerber, From Hysteria to Hormones: A Rhetorical History (University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 2018), https://doi.org/10.5325/j.ctv14gp859.\n12 Casey Ryan Kelly, “White Pain,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 107, no. 2 (2021): 209–33, https://doi.org/10.1080/00335630.2021.1903537.\n13 Sara Davis and Abby M. Dubisar, “Communicating Elective Sterilization: A Feminist Perspective,” Rhetoric of Health & Medicine 2, no. 1 (2019): 88–111, https://doi.org/10.5744/rhm.2019.1004; Elizabeth A. Hintz, “Childfree Sterilization: A Normative Rhetorical Theory Analysis of Paradoxical Dilemmas Encountered by Childfree Patients and Providers,” Rhetoric of Health & Medicine 5, no. 3 (2022): 280–302, https://doi.org/10.5744/rhm.2022.50014.\n14 “From Ancient Roots to Modern Revolution: The Dynamic History of Doula Care,” Motherhood Center, March 17, 2023, https://www.motherhoodcenter.com/history-of-doula-care.\n15 “The Historical Significance of Doulas and Midwives,” National Museum of African American History and Culture, https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/historical-significance-doulas-and-midwives.\n16 DONA, “What is a Doula?” DONA International, https://www.dona.org/what-is-a-doula/ (accessed February 3, 2023).\n17 Shui-Yin Sharon Yam, “Complicating Acts of Advocacy: Tactics in the Birthing Room,” Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric 20 (2020): 198–218, https://doi.org/10.59236/rjv20i1.5pp15-16.\n18 Ibid., 199.\n19 Shui-yin Sharon Yam and Natalie Fixmer-Oraiz, “Against Gender Essentialism: Reproductive Justice Doulas and Gender Inclusivity in Pregnancy and Birth Discourse,” Women’s Studies in Communication 46, no. 1 (2023): 1–22, https://doi.org/10.1080/07491409.2022.2147616; Heather Adams and Nancy Myers, Inclusive Aims: Rhetoric’s Role in Reproductive Justice (Anderson, SC: Parlor Press, 2024).\n20 The Gender Doula, https://www.thegenderdoula.com/.\n21 Haley Kranstuber Horstman et al., “Pregnancy During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Communicated Narrative Sense-Making and Resilience,” Health Communication 39, no. 2 (2024): 205–15, https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2022.2163103.\n22 Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha and Stacey Milbern, “Crip Lineages, Crip Futures: A Conversation with Stacey Milbern,” in Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2018), 145–60.\n23 Ibid., 147.\n24 danah boyd and Nicole B. Ellison, “Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship,” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 13, no. 1 (2007): 210–30, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00393.x.\n25 José van Dijck, The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199970773.001.0001.\n26 boyd and Ellison, “Social Network Sites,” 26.\n27 Nicola Bleu, “23+ Reddit Statistics For 2023: Users, Revenue, And Growth,” StartupBonsai, January 2, 2023, accessed January 25, 2023, https://startupbonsai.com/reddit-statistics/.\n28 Nicholas Proferes et al., “Studying Reddit: A Systematic Overview of Disciplines, Approaches, Methods, and Ethics,” Social Media + Society 7, no. 2 (2021): 2, https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051211019004.\n29 r/endometriosis is the most populated thread, but expressly forbids the use of posting for research on their subreddit rules.\n30 Sarah Pink and Vaike Fors, “Self-Tracking and Mobile Media: New Digital Materialities,” Mobile Media & Communication 5, no. 3 (2017): 219–38, https://doi.org/10.1177/2050157917695578.\n31 “Endometriosis: A Look at Current Practices and Emerging Science,” The New York Academy of Sciences. https://www.nyas.org/shaping-science/events/endometriosis-a-patient-focused-look-at-current-practices-and-emerging-science/.\n32 Annette N. Markham, Life Online: Researching Real Experiences in Virtual Space (Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press, 1998); Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke, “Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology,” Qualitative Research in Psychology 3, no. 2 (2006): 77–101, https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa.\n33 Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2018).\n34 “About Community: R/Endo Subreddit,” Reddit, https://www.reddit.com/r/Endo.\n35 Yam, “Complicating Acts,” 208.\n36 Piepzna-Samarasinha and Milbern, “Crip Lineages, Crip Futures.”\n37 Ibid.\n38 Yam, “Complicating Acts,” 209.\n39 Ellamaemaeee, “Does This Sound Like an Endo Flare Up?”. Reddit, June 26, 2025. https://www.reddit.com/r/Endo/comments/1lktn5u/does_this_sound_like_an_endo_flare_up/.\n40 Ibid., 207.\n41 Super_Cattle7367, “New Doc on Monday: How Aggressive Should I Get,” Reddit, June 20, 2025, https://www.reddit.com/r/Endo/comments/1lghkl7/new_doc_on_monday_how_aggressive_should_i_get/.\n42 Scarry, The Body in Pain, 12.\n43 Mia Mingus, “Access Intimacy: The Missing Link,” Leaving Evidence, May 5, 2011, https://leavingevidence.wordpress.com/2011/05/05/access-intimacy-the-missing-link/.\n44 Shui-Yin Sharon Yam, “Complicating Acts of Advocacy: Tactics in the Birthing Room,” Reflections: A Journal of Community Engaged Writing and Rhetoric 20 (2020): 198–218.\n45 Mia Mingus, “Access Intimacy.”\n46 Segal, Health and the Rhetoric of Medicine.\n47 Ibid., 47.\n48 athenainpink. “Therapy to Cope with Medical Gaslighting?” Reddit, July 3, 2025, https://www.reddit.com/r/Endo/comments/1lqj5rf/therapy_to_cope_with_medical_gaslighting/.\n49 CLK_RR. “Having a Gaslighting Myself Moment!” Reddit, July 5, 2025, https://www.reddit.com/r/Endo/comments/1lsde6q/having_a_gaslighting_myself_moment/.\n50 Sarah Ahmed, The Cultural Politics of Emotion (Routledge, 2004), 27.\n51 Yam, “Complicating Acts,” 202.\n52 lovelygal8686, “I’m Sorry and I Love You,” Reddit, June 27, 2025, https://www.reddit.com/r/Endo/comments/1lm0fun/im_sorry_and_i_love_you/.\n53 Anbogtd, “Constant Back and Pelvic Pain,” Reddit, June 29, 2025, https://www.reddit.com/r/Endo/comments/1lnqvy7/constant_back_and_pelvic_pain/.\n54 January_Dallas, “An Excerpt from My Pain Journal … ” Reddit, http://reddit.com/r/Endo/comments/rf2i29/an_excerpt_from_my_pain_journal/.\n55 Fit-Independence3537, “Junk Journaling to Pass the Time Before Surgery + Updates,” Reddit, https://www.reddit.com/r/Endo/comments/1j1i97o/junk_journaling_to_pass_the_time_before_surgery/.\n56 HaHaHarleyQui1nn, “Pain Journals,” Reddit, June 4, 2021, https://www.reddit.com/r/Endo/comments/nsn1dz/pain_journals/.\n57 Scarry, The Body in Pain, 4.","source_license":"CC0","license_restricted":false}