Circuit Breaking: Pathways of Treatment Seeking for Women With Endometriosis in Australia

Lenore Manderson, Narelle Warren, Milica Markovic, Milica Marković
Qualitative health research · 2008 · vol. 18(4) , pp. 522–534 · doi:10.1177/1049732308315432 · PMID:18354050 · W2157879334
article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 60 in-corpus citations
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This qualitative study identified external intervention, life disruption, embodied changes, and fertility issues as key motivators for Australian women seeking treatment for endometriosis, highlighting gendered diagnostic delays.

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Abstract

Pain resulting from endometriosis is experienced as both a chronic, ongoing condition and an acute episode at time of menstruation, often occurring in association with diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, heavy bleeding, and other reactions. Women expect pain with menstruation, however, and even if they experience major disruptions as a result, they find it difficult to distinguish normal from pathological discomfort. Drawing on qualitative research conducted from 2004 to 2006, we describe the "circuit breakers" that lead Australian women to seek medical advice. These include outside intercession, major disruptions to everyday life, changes in embodied experience, and difficulties in conception and pregnancy. Women's ideas of menstrual pain as "normal" are shared by doctors, resulting in further delays before a definitive diagnosis of endometriosis is made. During this time, women move between doctors and in and out of medical care, which they described through particular narrative styles to highlight the complexity of help seeking. We explore the ways in which ideas of gender, informed by women's embodiment but also the quality of their reporting of symptoms, influence their interactions with health professionals.

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Condition tags

mesh:D004715mesh:D017699endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Patient Acceptance of Health Care Adolescent Adult Aged Attitude to Health Chronic Disease Endometriosis Endometriosis Female Humans Middle Aged Pelvic Pain Pelvic Pain

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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Cited by (50)

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