The book begins with Norman sharing the catalyst of her quest for doctors to take her pain seriously - an acute attack of pelvic and abdominal pain in her college dorm shower. However, it was the exact thing I needed to help navigate my emotions and physical trials during the post-op period.Īsk Me About My Uterus - A Quest to Make Doctors Believe Women’s Pain by Abby Norman is part memoir and part non-fiction, divided between heavy medical research and Abby’s personal experiences intertwined throughout. Many experts no longer believe the disease is triggered by uterine cells that escaped the womb, but rather by uterine-like cells that originated outside of it.I feel, I should preface this review with the fact that I read this book right after getting out of my own endometriosis excision surgery and off my head on oxycodone. We learn of recent ideas challenging long-held notions about the origins of endometriosis.

We read about baby monkeys who grew up with emotional issues because their real cuddly moms were removed at birth and replaced with pretend wire-doll monkey-mothers. We learn about Sigmund Freud and his views of his “hysterical” female clients. 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. “Becoming a disappointment to a man,” she writes, “seemed to do the trick.” Norman repeatedly told doctors that sexual intercourse ached “like a dull pinch, that resonated to my pelvis.” No one paid attention until her boyfriend accompanied her and mentioned his frustration. So she didn’t know how to assign a number to it: “Bad enough that I couldn’t ignore it, which made it definitely higher than a four or five.” She questioned whether she was a six or higher and whether the doctor would believe her anyhow. She was still aching, but not in the original horrors of it all. A stabbing pain in my middle” - Norman eventually got to an emergency room, where she was handed the typical 1-10 pain scorecard. If they congregate near the bladder, urinating hurts near the sciatic nerve, pain can shoot down the legs inside the lung (a rare event), breathing can be stifled.Īfter one bout - “as sudden as a thunderclap. Women with the disorder have heavy, agonizing periods along with a litany of other symptoms depending on where the rogue cells lurk. Norman suffers from endometriosis - a chronic and debilitating illness triggered by uterine-like cells growing outside of the womb.

Ask Me About My Uterus by Abby Norman