Endometriosis: The Psychosocial and Emotional Lived Experience of College-Aged Women

Brianna Graffia
In: Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All · 2019 · W2953722143
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This study explores the psychosocial and emotional lived experiences of college-aged women with endometriosis, revealing how stigma and liminality complicate physical pain.

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This honors capstone project investigates the psychosocial and emotional lived experiences of college-aged women diagnosed with endometriosis. The study combines a review of existing literature on adolescent patients with semi-structured interviews of current students to explore how stigma and liminality complicate their daily lives. The author finds that beyond physical pain, these women face significant social challenges, including having their symptoms dismissed by medical professionals as psychosomatic or catastrophizing. This paper is centrally about endometriosis — specifically focusing on the qualitative impact of the disease on the mental health and social integration of young adult women.

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Abstract

Endometriosis is a condition thought to affect as many as one in ten women. It is most commonly associated with infertility, intense abdominal pain, which may affect a woman’s ability to work and maintain social relationships; and pain during sex, which may prevent or challenge her in maintaining a sexually active relationship. On top of the ways in which women’s daily lives are affected by this condition, the women who experience endometriosis are also subject to having their symptoms dismissed by their doctors as either “catastrophizing” or psychosomatic This two-part project explores the real-life experiences of women who suffer from endometriosis. In the first phase, this is achieved through in-depth research into the literature which has already been produced. Though a fair amount of work has been produced on the lived experience about women of childbearing age, there still remains a large gap in the literature for the exploration of the lived experiences of adolescent women who have only recently received an endometriosis diagnosis. The second phase involves the use of semi-structured interviewing to explore the lived experiences of college-aged women who have received an endometriosis diagnosis. Using the ideas of liminality and stigma, the psychosocial suffering that is produced as a result of this chronic illness can be clearly seen to complicate the physical pain the woman already experiences.
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Degree Type Honors Capstone Project Date of Submission Spring 5-1-2019 Capstone Advisor Sandra Lane Capstone Major Anthropology Capstone College Arts and Science Audio/Visual Component no Capstone Prize Winner no Won Capstone Funding no Honors Categories Social Sciences Subject Categories Anthropology | Arts and Humanities | Other Anthropology Abstract Endometriosis is a condition thought to affect as many as one in ten women. It is most commonly associated with infertility, intense abdominal pain, which may affect a woman’s ability to work and maintain social relationships; and pain during sex, which may prevent or challenge her in maintaining a sexually active relationship. On top of the ways in which women’s daily lives are affected by this condition, the women who experience endometriosis are also subject to having their symptoms dismissed by their doctors as either “catastrophizing” or psychosomatic This two-part project explores the real-life experiences of women who suffer from endometriosis. In the first phase, this is achieved through in-depth research into the literature which has already been produced. Though a fair amount of work has been produced on the lived experience about women of childbearing age, there still remains a large gap in the literature for the exploration of the lived experiences of adolescent women who have only recently received an endometriosis diagnosis. The second phase involves the use of semi-structured interviewing to explore the lived experiences of college-aged women who have received an endometriosis diagnosis. Using the ideas of liminality and stigma, the psychosocial suffering that is produced as a result of this chronic illness can be clearly seen to complicate the physical pain the woman already experiences. Recommended Citation Graffia, Brianna, "Endometriosis: The Psychosocial and Emotional Lived Experience of College-Aged Women" (2019). Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All. 1099. https://surface.syr.edu/honors_capstone/1099 Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

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