Cripping Endometriosis

Overview - Provides new insights into endometriosis through feminist disability studies - Addresses urgent debates around gender equity in medicine - Draws from archival research at medical institutions Access this book Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout Other ways to access About this book This book argues for reframing endometriosis as a chronic pain condition, rather than an infertility issue. Drawing from feminist theory, disability studies, historical and archival research, and personal, embodied knowledge of living with the disease, it analyzes the deeply rooted misogyny and racism of Western medicine’s research and treatment of endometriosis as a “career woman’s disease”—a framing which demonizes women’s reproductive choices and focuses on gender roles rather than their pain, experience, and agency. Offering a unique lens through which we can re-examine broader issues of autonomy, authority, and agency within the healthcare system, it will appeal to scholars in gender studies, disability studies, medical humanities, feminist studies, and the history of gynecology, as well as women’s health advocates and healthcare practitioners. Similar content being viewed by others Table of contents (8 chapters) Reviews “Maria Rovito’s book is a mirror held up to the systems that have failed people with endometriosis for generations. With courage and clarity, she weaves her lived experience into a larger tapestry that reveals the hidden legacies of medical racism, narcissism, and eugenics that still shape how society responds to pain, to women, and to marginalized bodies. As an advocate for endometriosis, I believe her work is essential reading—not only to understand the disease itself, but to confront the cultural, historical, and medical forces that have silenced millions.” (Sallie Sarrel, PT ATC DPT, Co-founder The Endometriosis Summit) “As a surgeon who treats endometriosis and trains others in the field, I know firsthand how complex and misunderstood this disease remains. Maria Rovito’s book is both brave and necessary: it interlaces the deeply personal realities of living with endometriosis with a rigorous examination of the historical and systemic failures that perpetuate suffering. Rovito challenges the medical community to look beyond the operating room and confront the broader forces that influence diagnosis, treatment, and trust. This book is an urgent contribution to the conversation about what true progress in endometriosis care requires.” (Andrea Vidali, Founder Endometriosis Surgical Specialist International, Co-founder The Endometriosis Summit) “This bold, urgent, and unflinching book refuses to relegate endometriosis pain to a footnote in medical history, positioning it instead as a central concern of feminist disability studies. Rovito combines razor-sharp historical analysis with literary insight to expose how medical racism and misogyny shape patient experiences, and her “poetics of feminist fury” offers a transformative new framework for understanding illness, collective resistance, and healing.” (Chris Bobel, PhD, Professor of Women/Gender/Sexuality Studies, University of Massachusetts at Boston, Author of The Managed Body (2019, Palgrave) and Editor of The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies (2020)) “For anyone who has been told that their pain isn’t real or that it’s all in their heads, this book will feel like a revelation. Rovito traces not only the fraught history of endometriosis and gynecological pain, but she also forcefully, boldly, and necessarily argues that we can do better and that we’ve always deserved better. This is an urgent feminist work that fuses scholarship and activism and offers new insights to anyone interested in the study of biopolitics, power, and gendered bodies.” (Breanne Fahs, PhD, Professor of Women and Gender Studies at Arizona State University, Author of Unshaved (2022) and Fat and Furious (2025)) “Maria Rovito’s Redefining Endometriosis is a rich exploration of a deeply and willfully misunderstood disease. Rovito’s deep dive spans centuries of medical ignorance, misinformation and maltreatment to help tell the big-picture story of why endometriosis care — and many other facets of women’s healthcare — remain abysmal to this day. Reimagining Endometriosis views literature, media and rhetoric about endometriosis through the lens of feminist disability studies, offering readers a novel way to grasp the complexity and all-encompassing reality of living with this brutal disease.” (Tracey Lindeman, Journalist and Author of BLEED: Destroying Myths and Misogyny in Endometriosis Care (2023)) Authors and Affiliations About the author Maria Rovito is Instructor of Medical Humanities at Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, USA and an active public intellectual. Accessibility Information PDF accessibility summary This PDF has been created in accordance with the PDF/UA-1 standard to enhance accessibility, including screen reader support, described non-text content (images, graphs), bookmarks for easy navigation, keyboard-friendly links and forms and searchable, selectable text. We recognize the importance of accessibility, and we welcome queries about accessibility for any of our products. 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Bibliographic Information Book Title: Cripping Endometriosis Book Subtitle: Feminist Disability Histories and Reflections on Power and Pain Authors: Maria Rovito DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-15681-5 Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0) Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2026 Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-032-15680-8Published: 17 February 2026 Softcover ISBN: 978-3-032-15683-9Due: 03 March 2027 eBook ISBN: 978-3-032-15681-5Published: 16 February 2026 Edition Number: 1 Number of Pages: XV, 254 Number of Illustrations: 3 b/w illustrations, 4 illustrations in colour Topics: Gender Studies, Cultural Studies, Social Philosophy, History, general, Nursing Ethics