How the Medical Community Undermines Female Pain
Abby Norman was a dancer, scholarship recipient, a 19 year old sophomore at Sarah Lawrence College, and fiercely independent after a difficult childhood had left her emancipated from her parents, and living on her own since age 16. One thing she never thought of herself as was sick. But one day that changed in an instant.
"I got up one morning, and went to get in the shower, and I was overwhelmed by this pain," she says. "It was sort of abdominal, pelvic. It came out of nowhere and just gripped me."
In the years following, Norman's life would be spent trying to figure out what was behind this pain. But doctor after doctor said it was just anxiety, or related to sexual dysfunction, or even just completely made up. It was a daily struggle just to be believed, and as the pain grew, she got sicker.
Eventually, she got a diagnosis of endometriosis, which occurs when tissue lining the uterus grows in other parts of the body. It’s estimated that at least 10 percent of women suffer from the disease.
But Norman is not alone. There is a deep history of women not being believed or taken seriously when it comes to pain, especially related to the reproductive system. Norman documents her journey in a new book called “Ask Me About My Uterus: A Quest to Make Doctors Believe in Women’s Pain.” She shared her story with Takeaway producer Alexandra Botti, and examines the broader historical, sociocultural, and political context surrounding female pain.
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