Endometriosis at the Intersection: Trauma, Identity, and the Struggle for Equitable Care—A Narrative Review

Rachelle Warner, Jodie Avery
In: Women's Reproductive Health · 2026 · vol. 13(2) , pp. 555–574 · doi:10.1080/23293691.2026.2636611 · W7154720174
article OA: closed CC0
Full text JSON View on OpenAlex View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

This narrative review explores how trauma and identity influence the experiences of individuals with endometriosis and their struggles to access equitable healthcare.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

Endometriosis is a chronic inflammatory condition affecting millions worldwide, yet it remains underdiagnosed and undertreated—particularly among marginalized individuals. Drawing on medical sociology, feminist theory, and trauma studies, this paper challenges dominant biomedical narratives through four themes: medical dismissal and diagnostic delay; trauma as an amplifier of pain; erasure of intersectional identities in clinical care; and patient resistance through self-advocacy. Systemic biases rooted in racism, sexism, classism, ableism, and transphobia compound the trauma of endometriosis, causing physical and Page 2 of 4 psychological harm. We call for trauma-informed, intersectional, and reproductive-justice frameworks to create more equitable, inclusive care for all people with endometriosis.
Full text 962 characters · extracted from oa-doi-fallback · click to expand
Abstract Endometriosis is a chronic inflammatory condition affecting millions worldwide, yet it remains underdiagnosed and undertreated—particularly among marginalized individuals. Drawing on medical sociology, feminist theory, and trauma studies, this paper challenges dominant biomedical narratives through four themes: medical dismissal and diagnostic delay; trauma as an amplifier of pain; erasure of intersectional identities in clinical care; and patient resistance through self-advocacy. Systemic biases rooted in racism, sexism, classism, ableism, and transphobia compound the trauma of endometriosis, causing physical and psychological harm. We call for trauma-informed, intersectional, and reproductive-justice frameworks to create more equitable, inclusive care for all people with endometriosis. Disclosure Statement No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s). Data Availability Statement No new data were generated in this work.

Text is read by the "Ask this paper" AI Q&A widget below. Extraction quality varies by source — PMC NXML preserves structure cleanly, OA-HTML may include some navigation residue, and OA-PDF can have broken hyphenation. The publisher copy (via DOI) is the canonical version.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

⚙ Ask this paper AI returns verbatim quotes from the full text · source: oa-doi-fallback ⓘ

Answers must be backed by verbatim quotes from this paper's full text. Hallucinated quotes are dropped automatically; if no verbatim passage answers the question, we say so. How this works

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.

References (91)

Source provenance

openalex
last seen: 2026-07-03T06:05:06.779468+00:00
unpaywall
last seen: 2026-06-02T02:00:03.124865+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK