Partners instead of patients: Women negotiating power and knowledge within medical encounters for endometriosis

Kate Young, Jane Fisher, Maggie Kirkman
In: Feminism & Psychology · 2019 · vol. 30(1) , pp. 22–41 · doi:10.1177/0959353519826170 · W2914765680
article OA: green CC0 ⤵ 31 in-corpus citations
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This study investigated how 26 women with endometriosis navigated knowledge and power in medical encounters, finding they required doctors to acknowledge their own bodily knowledge and listen to them to facilitate effective care.

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Abstract

Endometriosis is currently poorly understood by the medical sciences; contemporary healthcare has been evidenced as failing to meet the diverse needs of the women who live with the condition. This study examined women’s experiences of navigating knowledge and power within medical encounters for endometriosis. In-depth interviews were conducted with 26 women who have been diagnosed with endometriosis about their experiences of the condition and associated healthcare. Women valued both their own knowledge and their doctor’s clinical expertise; as to which they privileged was situational, but it was essential the woman dictated which it would be. Women were wary of the social status and power of doctors to reduce their wellbeing through medical labels they did not identify with or by inhibiting their access to care. They identified the need for doctors to listen to and believe them as being essential to the provision of healthcare that meets women’s needs and addresses the complexities of endometriosis. Our findings suggest that medical education needs to equip doctors with the skills to acknowledge and incorporate women’s knowledge of their bodies within the medical encounter, and to understand how their practice affects women’s social and economic participation.

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Condition tags

endometriosis

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

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