Books: Please Read This Leaflet Carefully: Understanding Endometriosis

The Hands-on Guide to Clinical Reasoning in Medicine Mujammil Irfan Wiley-Blackwell, 2019, PB, 368pp, £29.19, 978-1119244035 DEVELOPING CLINICAL REASONING The Hands-on Guide to Clinical Reasoning in Medicine aims to provide a practical approach to undertake clinical reasoning for medical students in their training years, newly qualified doctors, and advanced nurse practitioners. The book is written in an informal, conversational style with a friendly and coaching feel. To engage fully with this book, a reader must have a good working knowledge of a range of medical conditions. The book is organised into clinical specialties including respiratory neurology and endocrinology. Each section is set out to provide an introduction to the topic including history taking, clinical examination, pathophysiology, and key investigations. The reader is challenged by a series of simulated clinical scenarios to evoke guided clinical reasoning. As a chapter progresses, further clinical information is presented to develop a case. Although readers can dip in and out of chapters, the glossary is a must to understand the acronyms used and the reader must consult the chapter guide. Mujammil Irfan uses mind maps as representations of potential thought processes to guide the reader through understanding clinical reasoning. For a novice without developed patterns of clinical reasoning, each section may require a little more consideration; however, these could be easily parallel within clinical scenarios seen in early practice or discussed within medical school training. Reviewing this as a doctor qualified for a few years, the questions are thought provoking, with a patient at the centre. The prompts in the text serve as a useful guide to develop skills in clinical reasoning. Bernadeta Bridgwood, GP, Hannage Brook Medical Centre, Derbyshire. Email: [email protected] DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp20X710597 * * * * * Please Read This Leaflet Carefully Karen Havelin Dead Ink, 2019, PB, 320pp, £9.83, 978- 1911585541 UNDERSTANDING ENDOMETRIOSIS It would be impossible to read this book and not have gained insight into the physical, mental, and emotional pain of endometriosis. Please Read This Leaflet Carefully graphically depicts the suffering caused by endometriosis and sections leave the reader exhausted. Starting with her character Laura’s life as a single mother in New York, relishing some of the freedom it brings, Havelin traces her past back to her childhood in Norway where she endured multiple allergies and, despite this, was a keen and accomplished figure skater. She describes Laura’s ambivalent relationship with her parents, especially her mother, and about her sexuality. There is a page-turning quality in her description of the challenges of her relationships and the love story element of it is compelling. Her dilemma, as a woman with a debilitating illness, about the ethics of bringing a child into the world will resonate with the equivalent dilemma being faced by many people contemplating pregnancy but concerned about the effects of climate change. The detailed and harrowing descriptions of the effects of endometriosis mean that the book is not a comfortable read and her reference to the lack of listening and understanding of various health professionals ( ‘Doctors barely hear what you say’ ) make it even less comfortable: ‘If you’re too hysterical, they write you off. If you’re too calm, they do the same.’ The book chronicles Laura’s coming to terms with her body and some of the psychological journey could be applied to anyone living, or trying to live, with any chronic, debilitating illness. Work done by Dr Kate Young, public health researcher at Monash University in Australia, has uncovered how doctors can fill knowledge gaps with ‘hysteria narratives’, and she has found that this is especially likely to happen with endometriosis. Prior to the 1990s women were routinely excluded from clinical trials and, even now, based on unbiased assumptions about risk, women are often misdiagnosed, for example, in cardiac disease. This book joins several others highlighting the biases and prejudicial attitudes afflicting many women’s health problems. Because this is such an important subject and because this book is such a good read, it richly deserves to be included in GP teaching reading lists. Lesley Morrison, Retired GP, Scottish Borders. Email: [email protected] DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp20X710621 Love Until It Hurts Fiona Blakemore Independently published, 2019, PB, 454pp, £8.99, 978-1697350999 A MEDICAL PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER Ruth Cooper is a young GP, recently returned from Australia and recovering from a personal trauma, and working under Life & Times Books 350 British Journal of General Practice, July 2020