Suspected Endometriosis: A Critical Scoping Review of Medical Literature

Endometriosis is a chronic, progressive, inflammatory pain disease that affects at least 10 percent of women and unknown numbers of gender-diverse people globally. Presently, those with endometriosis symptoms wait an average of four to twelve years to receive a surgical diagnosis, as currently, this is the only way to confirm the disease’s presence. Clinical endometriosis diagnosis – when a physician suspects someone has the disease based on non-surgical evaluations – is increasingly encouraged in Western capitalist medical systems in order to reduce diagnostic delay, and circumvent problems arising from the reliance on a surgical diagnostic method, which is invasive and can be sterilizing. However, people with suspected endometriosis – those who have not had this diagnosis confirmed through surgery – are yet to be considered as a population with unique care needs, experiences, or desires. This is the first academic contribution in the social sciences to consider suspected endometriosis in particular. First, I conduct a scoping review of suspected endometriosis within medical literature. I then reframe this medical literature through a critical intersectional body studies perspective, finding that a lack of biomedical knowledge and care concerning those with suspected endometriosis produces racialized, gendered diagnostic outcomes which serve white supremacist and patriarchal projects of ableism and cisheteronormativity. Next, I consider the future ‘gold standard’ of endometriosis treatment, identifying a clinical turn presently underway within the endometriosis paradigm which places increasing reliance on clinical, rather than surgical, diagnostic methods and treatments. Ultimately, this research disidentifies suspected endometriosis with its biomedical construction, and argues expanded critical intersectional research is urgently needed in order to develop more relevant, accessible, and effective care for those affected with suspected endometriosis.