She builds a convincing case that women describing discomfort are more likely than men to be dismissed by physicians, but along the way tells a story that will resonate with anyone (man or woman) who has ever experienced pain ... Norman is a terrific storyteller with a gift for weaving memorable anecdotes, some drawn from medical history, others from recent scientific debates and most plucked from her own travails ... Ask Me About My Uterus is an important addition to a long tradition of pain memoirs.
Norman, now a science writer, articulates her own struggles with clarity and calmness. She weaves in historical context about the diagnosis, treatment and perception of women in medicine, from the myth of 'hysteria' to cultural perceptions about women’s pain tolerance and propensity for 'female troubles' ...
Ask Me About My Uterus is ... a torrent of disconcerting information about the continued struggle to understand and value women’s bodies. Norman hopes to use that information to destroy misconceptions and pave the road for change.
Too often, a woman’s pain is not merely met with doubt, but suspicion, both within the medical community and outside of it. Author and activist Abby Norman, has put decades of labor—including careful, independent medical study—into studying this phenomenon ... As Norman communicates so powerfully, a woman’s relationship to her pain is a snarled coil of memory and socialization. The pangs of Norman’s endometriosis intersect with barbed memories of childhood—and with the legacy of a mother who subsists on the pain of hunger ... perhaps as Norman and others keep speaking—keep articulating the essential pain of being a woman in this world—the time-tested strategy of doubt will shatter.
She has a dark sense of humor ... A book lover, she starts each chapter with quotes, including this from Susan Sontag ... In the end, the young science writer advocates for patients to trust their instincts and for doctors to practice the art, not just the science, of medicine.
Norman’s narrative is further animated by her exploration of the historical and present day relationship between women’s mental health and physical pain. In her personal journey, Norman faced doctors who theorized that her physical pain was not medical, rather a result of her childhood trauma or of anxiety ... In her historical research, she stitched together a similar narrative where doctors disregarded women’s physical pain as a manifestation of their own uncontrollable emotions ... This book can provide validation for people whose pain has been dismissed and disbelieved by a medical system that pathologizes bodies that do not conform to that of the cis white male. But it is not just for those who would find kinship in its pages; it is also for physicians and healthcare providers to help them question, confront, and tear down their own biases and prejudices that they bring into the exam room.
Compelling and impressively researched, Norman’s narrative not only offers an unsparing look at the historically and culturally fraught relationship between women and their doctors. It also reveals how, in the quest for answers and good health, women must still fight a patriarchal medical establishment to be heard. Disturbing but important reading.
While the connection between her own story and the larger history is clear, Norman’s personal experiences are too often positioned as an afterthought, jammed into the sociological and historical narrative. She breathlessly shifts from discussing eight known cases of endometriosis in men to the story of her first period to a history of women dying during childbirth. Readers looking for a more personal and relatable account (as the title suggests) will be disappointed.
