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Ask Me About My Uterus

A Quest to Make Doctors Believe in Women's Pain

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About this listen

 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. Gender Studies Pain Management Physical Illness & Disease Social Sciences Health Medicine Mental Health

Critic reviews

Selected as one of the top ten titles in Lifestyle for Spring 2018.—Publishers Weekly
"Required reading for anyone who is a woman, or has ever met a woman. This means you."—Jenny Lawson, authorof Let's Pretend This Never Happened and FuriouslyHappy
"This book deals with such an important subject. Abby Norman's odyssey with her own health is sadly an all too common story to those of us who suffered in silence for so long. My hope is that anyone involved in women's health will read her story and revisit the way we treat women and their health concerns in our culture."—Padma Lakshmi, NewYork Times best-selling author and co-founder of the EndometriosisFoundation of America
"A fresh, honest, and startling look at what it means to exist in a woman's body, in all of its beauty and pain. Abby's voice is inviting, unifying, and remarkably brave."
—Gillian Anderson, Actress, activist and co-author of We: A Manifesto For Women Everywhere
"[Norman] 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.... [She] 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... Norman's life is much more than a disease.... [An] important addition to a long tradition of pain memoirs. Norman shares a particular tale of suffering but expresses a common frustration about the dearth of words to convey pain. Any schoolgirl can talk about love, Virginia Woolf famously said, but 'let a sufferer try to describe a pain in his head to a doctor and language at once runs dry.'"—New York Times Book Review
"Compelling and impressively, 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."—Kirkus Reviews
"From wandering wombs to ovary compressors, Abby Norman's book is packed with fascinating historical detail about how women's bodies have been misunderstood and mistreated by male doctors for centuries. It is also an important reminder that there is still a culture of silence surrounding women's gynecological health in the twenty-first century, and that there is work yet to be done when it comes to advocating for women's healthcare."—LindseyFitzharris, author of The Butchering Art
"With searing prose, science writer and editor Norman pens a heartfelt medical history and memoir of coming to terms with the limitations of one's physical body....A thoughtful read."—Library Journal
All stars
Most relevant
This is a tough, but really important read. It's a graphic account of the author's illness, the devastating effect it's had on her life, and how much worse her experience was made by her struggles to get a diagnosis and treatment. One of the things that struck me most was how the cost of healthcare worsened the situation - for example, she had to stop taking the hormonal contraception she was taking for endometriosis because the brand she was taking was discontinued and she couldn't afford any others. A real eye opener.

Tough but important read

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Abby Norman’s Ask Me About My Uterus is deeply moving. Her raw and honest storytelling will often leave you in tears, but more importantly, it offers much needed reassurance that women’s pain is real, no matter what others might want you to believe, and that you are not alone...

A must-read for all women, as well as anyone who loves us.

An absolute must read

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Wow. So much I can relate to. Quite sad I’ve finished it I so enjoyed listening to you read your work. Thank you Abby!

Wonderfully inspiring

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A very worthwhile book. Well read and, as an Endometriosis sufferer one feels understood and part of a community in which we all share the anger of not being believed by medical profesisonals and others. The fact that Norman also shares her biography puts everything into perspective and turns the book into a lovely, touching and at times funny biography of a modern woman. Absolute recommendation.

Wonderfully comforting and enraging

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