HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Ask Me About My Uterus: A Quest to Make…
Loading...

Ask Me About My Uterus: A Quest to Make Doctors Believe in Women's Pain (edition 2018)

by Abby Norman (Author)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
1749155,608 (3.8)3
For any woman who has experienced illness, chronic pain, or endometriosis comes an inspiring memoir advocating for recognition of women's health issues In the fall of 2010, Abby Norman's strong dancer's 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 wasn't 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 women's bodies have long been the battleground of a never-ending war for power, control, medical knowledge, and truth. It's time to refute the belief that being a woman is a preexisting condition.… (more)
Member:Calavari
Title:Ask Me About My Uterus: A Quest to Make Doctors Believe in Women's Pain
Authors:Abby Norman (Author)
Info:Nation Books (2018), 288 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:
Tags:to-read

Work Information

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

Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 3 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 9 (next | show all)
Very important book about normalizing women's pain.

Based on an advanced copy provided by NetGalley. ( )
  JessicaReadsThings | Dec 2, 2021 |
2.5 stars. I got this for information on endometriosis but that was buried underneath unresolved feelings and ceaseless descriptions surrounding the author's childhood. ( )
  Tosta | Jul 5, 2021 |
Hilarious, well-written, informative. Provided an incredible amount of "wow, someone else understands what I'm going through" moments. Easily one of my favorite books of all time. ( )
  jlpoulin | Dec 19, 2020 |
A fantastic and thoughtful exploration of what a woman goes through on the quest to get a diagnosis and to be believed. ( )
  sonyahuber | Dec 3, 2019 |
Ask Me About My Uterus recounts science writer Abby Norman's years-long attempt to get doctors to understand that she is ill. Despite having endometriosis and other debilitating chronic pain conditions, medical professionals have repeatedly dismissed her as a "bright and wound tight" hypochondriac. Norman's story will be familiar in kind, if not in severity, to many women. Studies have repeatedly shown that doctors are less likely to believe women's accounts of their symptoms or suffering.

I found the book's subtitle slightly misleading. Norman isn't necessarily on A Quest to Make Doctors Believe in Women's Pain (at least, her activist work isn't as sharply in focus here as other elements of her story are). Much of the book focuses on her dysfunctional family life and her legal emancipation at the age of 16, and the ongoing consequences of her relationships with her mentally ill mother and grandmother. I did hope that there would be more discussion of gynaecological health issues in here than there actually was (though I still learned a lot—endometriosis isn't actually associated with fertility issues! It's not actually a disease of the uterine lining and/or menstruation! Cis men have endometriosis! Foetuses have been found to have endometriosis!). Still, a powerful and important read. ( )
  siriaeve | Jul 4, 2019 |
Showing 1-5 of 9 (next | show all)
no reviews | add a review
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
First words
Quotations
The pain scale doesn’t call on doctors to empathize with a patient, and supposedly, that makes it a good clinical tool. But even if it’s a good tool for clinicians, it’s not a good tool for patients.
Last words
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

For any woman who has experienced illness, chronic pain, or endometriosis comes an inspiring memoir advocating for recognition of women's health issues In the fall of 2010, Abby Norman's strong dancer's 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 wasn't 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 women's bodies have long been the battleground of a never-ending war for power, control, medical knowledge, and truth. It's time to refute the belief that being a woman is a preexisting condition.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.8)
0.5
1
1.5
2 2
2.5 1
3 5
3.5 2
4 10
4.5 2
5 5

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,187,630 books! | Top bar: Always visible