Ask Me About My Uterus: A Quest to Make Doctors Believe in Women's Pain

About this book

For any woman who has experienced illness chronic pain or endometriosis comes an inspiring memoir advocating for recognition of womens health issues In the fall of 2010 Abby Normans strong dancers body dropped forty pounds and gray hairs began to sprout from her temples. She was repeatedly hospitalized in excruciating pain but the doctors insisted it was a urinary tract infection and sent her home with antibiotics. Unable to get out of bed much less attend class Norman dropped out of college and embarked on what would become a years-long journey to discover what was wrong with her. It wasnt until she took matters into her own hands -- securing a job in a hospital and educating herself over lunchtime reading in the medical library -- that she found an accurate diagnosis of endometriosis. In Ask Me About My Uterus Norman describes what it was like to have her pain dismissed to be told it was all in her head only to be taken seriously when she was accompanied by a boyfriend who confirmed that her sexual performance was indeed compromised. Putting her own trials into a broader historical sociocultural and political context Norman shows that womens bodies have long been the battleground of a never-ending war for power control medical knowledge and truth. Its time to refute the belief that being a woman is a preexisting condition.