"It’s Just a Bad Period" and Other Ways of Dismissing Women's Pain: An Ethnographic Look into the Experience of Endometriosis

This thesis uses online ethnographic methods to analyze the impact of patriarchal values on the illness experiences of women with endometriosis. Current literature suggests that negative impact on patients with endometriosis with regard to cultural discourse surrounding menstruation and chronic illness. Utilizing a combination of critical discourse analysis and constructivist grounded theory, the results of this research demonstrate that patients engage in a form of performance that is reactive to normalization and dismissal of pain by doctors and wider social support due in part to cultural stigmas of menstruation and chronic pain, as well as the inherent power imbalance in the doctor-patient relationship. This performative role as a patient also creates a reclamation of power by participants in the form of strong medical familiarity and casual use of medical terminology. The intent to benefit future research are discussed with the limitations of this study.