{"paper_id":"f454625d-b626-4f6d-be80-e04dc2658532","body_text":"Abstract\nPhysicians must rely on patient-reported symptoms to care for “invisible illnesses,” including endometriosis. Physicians are inclined to trust or dismiss testimonies from those with endometriosis based on their perceived credibility. This study uses semistructured interviews with 38 U.S.-based individuals with endometriosis (“care-seekers”) and physicians to examine how care-seekers utilize their self-presentation in medical encounters to negotiate credibility and knowledge with their physicians, while building trust together. Primary themes include (a) Certain people with endometriosis are perceived with suspicion and decreased credibility due to aspects of their identities, like age, gender, and health literacy; (b) online research is a source of mixed outcomes by enhancing care-seekers’ health literacy but causing some to be judged as “pseudo-experts” or “Dr. Google”; and (c) people with endometriosis adopt strategies to “perform credibility,” such as modifying appearance and behavior.\nDisclosure Statement\nNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.\nData Availability Statement\nThe qualitative interview transcripts generated and analyzed during this study are not publicly available due to the sensitive nature of the topics discussed and the potential for participant identifiability. Deidentified excerpts are included in the article. Additional materials are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request, subject to ethical approval.","source_license":"CC0","license_restricted":false}