From two of the world's leading experts in endometriosis comes an essential, first-of-its kind book that unwraps the mystery of the disease and gives women the tools they need to reclaim their lives from it.  Approximately one out of every 10 women has endometriosis, an inflammatory disease that causes chronic pain, limits life's activities, and may lead to infertility. Despite the disease's  prevalence, the average woman may suffer for a decade or more before receiving an accurate diagnosis. Once she does, she's often given little more than a prescription for pain killers and a referral for the wrong kind of surgery. Beating Endo arms women with what has long been missing--even within the medical community--namely, cutting-edge knowledge of how the disease works and what the endo sufferer can do to take charge of her fight against it. Leading gynecologist and endometriosis specialist Dr. Iris Kerin Orbuch and world-renowned pelvic pain specialist and physical therapist Dr. Amy Stein have long partnered with each other and with other healthcare practitioners to address the disease's host of co-existing conditions--which can include pelvic floor muscle dysfunction, gastrointestinal ailments, painful bladder syndrome, central nervous system sensitization--through a whole-mind/whole-body approach. Now, Beating Endo formalizes the multimodal program they developed, offering readers an anti-inflammatory lifestyle protocol that incorporates physical therapy, nutrition, mindfulness, and environment to systematically addresses each of the disease's co-conditions on an ongoing basis up to and following excision surgery. This is the program that has achieved successful outcomes for their patients; it is the program that works to restore health, vitality, and quality of life to women with endo. No more "misdiagnosis roulette" and no more limits on women's lives: Beating Endo puts the tools of renewed health in the hands of those whose health is at risk.

Endometriosis materializes when the endometrium - the tissue that lines the inside of the uterus - sheds, but does not exit a woman's body during her period. Instead, it grows outside of the uterus, spreading to organs and nerves in and around the pelvic region. The resulting pain is so physically and emotionally insufferable that it can mercilessly dominate a woman's life. The average woman with endometriosis is twenty-seven years old before she is diagnosed. It is one of the top three causes of female infertility. The pain it emits can affect a woman's career, social life, relationships, sexual activity, sleep, and diet. It is incurable, but highly treatable. Unfortunately, though, it is rarely treated in a timely manner, if at all, because of misdiagnoses and/or a lack of education among those in the medical community. This book gives hope to everyone connected to endometriosis. That includes every woman and young girl who has it, and the women and men in their lives - the mothers, fathers, husbands, children, and friends - who know something is wrong, but do not know what it is or what to do about it. This book is written at a level that everyone with ties to this disease can relate to and understand, but it is also for doctors with good intentions who lack the knowledge of how to diagnose or treat it. The Doctor Will See You Now is for women determined to let the world know their stories so that every woman with this disease - from the thirteen-year-old girl who is being told that her pain is "part of becoming a woman" to the woman who has been misdiagnosed for decades - knows she is not alone. Yes, her pain is real. No, she is not crazy. Yes, there is hope.

Endometriosis is the women's health issue that no one talks about. A chronic and incurable disease, endo effects one in ten women and girls, and yet it takes an average of ten years and eight doctors to be diagnosed. The most common solution was a hysterectomy. Until now. In Know Your Endo, Jessica Murnane shares her hard-won wisdom on how to survive - and thrive! - with endometriosis. In this practical and heartfelt guide, Jessica shares a progressive five-week plan focused on learning a new management tool each week that will help you take control of your body again.

Eleanor Thom is living with endometriosis and she thinks that it's time to talk a bit more about our private parts. Part memoir, part guide book and part survival guide, Private Parts retraces Eleanor's journey with endometriosis, offering readers practical, down-to-earth and friendly advice covering everything from what actually happens in an internal exam to the perfect post-op wardrobe. Eleanor writes as fearlessly as she has fought this disease; with heart, honesty and a humour that is rarely afforded to subjects as serious as this. - Phoebe Waller-Bridge Private Parts is just like its author: funny, brave, charming, honest, reassuring and ultimately brilliant - Joe Lycett Written for the newly diagnosed as well as those who have had more operations than they can count on one hand, Private Parts is a friend and companion to everyone whose life has been impacted by this little understood condition. It will arm you for your doctors appointments and bring light and laughter in darker times. Features exclusive inspirational interviews with Hilary Mantel, Paulette Edwards, Lena Dunham and Emma Barnett, as well as insights from experts in the field. *A Stylist and Dazed best of 2019 book* **As featured in How Do You Cope with Elis + John on BBC Radio 5, available to listen to on BBC Sounds**

Now in its fifth edition, Multiple Sclerosis: A Guide for the Newly Diagnosed is the best-selling guide to MS for newly diagnosed patients and their families. Written in plain language by renowned MS expert physician T. Jock Murray, this book guides patients at any stage who want to know more about the disease, its potential impact on their lives, and the medical treatments now available for managing it successfully. The fifth edition is updated to reflect recent advances in understanding the underlying mechanisms and disease progression, the diagnostic criteria and classification of MS, and new drugs and therapies. This book opens the window on an MS diagnosis and provides answers to the multitude of questions patients will have so they can take charge and make informed decisions about their health and treatment.

If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, this book should be your first stop. Written in easy-to-understand language by an MS specialist, this guide explores the questions that patients and their families typically ask--from disease basics, to treatment options, managing relapses, and lifestyle concerns, including diet and working. Whether newly diagnosed or coping with the unpredictable day-to-day, this valuable reference will arm you with the latest information. Designed to be a thorough, yet concise summary of all aspects of MS, the book simplifies complex medical topics and is based on the latest science. For patients at any stage and the people who support them, Multiple Sclerosis: Questions and Answers for Patients and Loved Ones provides the answers you need to understand this disease, its challenges, and the medical treatments and other tools now available for managing it successfully. Key Features: Complete guide with straightforward answers to the most frequently asked questions by MS patientsUp-to-date information on treatment options, including the benefits and drawbacks of new MS medications and who should be taking themAddresses special topics, such as pregnancy in combination with MS treatments and working after diagnosisPresents an overview of symptoms with tips on how to combat themOffers useful advice about symptom management and lifestyle changes to meet the physical and emotional challenges MS brings

A research-based approach to treating the devastating neurological condition multiple sclerosis, based on a combination of drug treatment and lifestyle modifications   Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a serious, progressively disabling condition for which current medical treatment is not particularly effective and has many side effects, however, this guide provides a genuine alternative. Through an exhaustive, evidence-based analysis of medical research, the study concludes that MS is a disease largely determined by lifestyle factors. Showing that people with MS who modify their diet, their exercise habits, and other aspects of their lifestyle can stabilize the illness and potentially recover, these recommendations will change the lives of thousands of people with MS and support their loved ones.

About losing one's life as it was once imagined, and the ultimate, uneasy peace that's achieved with the permanent uncertainty which accompanies living with a chronic illness. It begins with numbness on her left leg. Then it spreads. Even though an MRI finds a "mass" on her brainstem, it takes two more years for Meredith O'Brien to learn what is causing that numbness. Months after her 65-year-old mother dies from a fast-moving cancer, weeks after her father is hospitalized and she experiences an unexpected job change, she learns she has multiple sclerosis. Suddenly, Meredith, a married mother of three teens, has to figure out how to move forward into a life she no longer recognizes. Reimagining her life as a writer and an educator, as a mother and a spouse, she has to adjust to the restrictions MS imposes on her. It is a life, altered.

Editor of the award-winning site Feministing.com, Maya Dusenbery brings together scientific and sociological research, interviews with doctors and researchers, and personal stories from women across the country to provide the first comprehensive, accessible look at how sexism in medicine harms women today. In Doing Harm, Dusenbery explores the deep, systemic problems that underlie women's experiences of feeling dismissed by the medical system. Women have been discharged from the emergency room mid-heart attack with a prescription for anti-anxiety meds, while others with autoimmune diseases have been labeled "chronic complainers" for years before being properly diagnosed. Women with endometriosis have been told they are just overreacting to "normal" menstrual cramps, while still others have "contested" illnesses like chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia that, dogged by psychosomatic suspicions, have yet to be fully accepted as "real" diseases by the whole of the profession. An eye-opening read for patients and health care providers alike, Doing Harm shows how women suffer because the medical community knows relatively less about their diseases and bodies and too often doesn't trust their reports of their symptoms. The research community has neglected conditions that disproportionately affect women and paid little attention to biological differences between the sexes in everything from drug metabolism to the disease factors--even the symptoms of a heart attack. Meanwhile, a long history of viewing women as especially prone to "hysteria" reverberates to the present day, leaving women battling against a stereotype that they're hypochondriacs whose ailments are likely to be "all in their heads."  Offering a clear-eyed explanation of the root causes of this insidious and entrenched bias and laying out its sometimes catastrophic consequences, Doing Harm is a rallying wake-up call that will change the way we look at health care for women.  

Hailed by PopSugar, BookRiot, and Autostraddle, this is a vital exploration of the ways in which society overlooks--and fails--women with disabilities and chronic illnesses by assuming they are "just fine" Miriam's doctor didn't believe she had breast cancer. She did. Sophie navigates being the only black scientist in her lab while studying the very disease, HIV, that she hides from her coworkers. For Victoria, coming out as a transgender woman was less difficult than coming out as bipolar. Author Michele Lent Hirsch knew she couldn't be the only woman who's faced serious health issues at a young age, as well as the resulting effects on her career, her relationships, and her sense of self. What she found while researching Invisible was a surprisingly large and overlooked population with important stories to tell. Though young women with serious illness tend to be seen as outliers, young female patients are in fact the primary demographic for many illnesses. They are also one of the most ignored groups in our medical system--a system where young women, especially women of color and trans women, are invisible. And because of expectations about gender and age, young women with health issues must often deal with bias in their careers and personal lives. Not only do they feel pressured to seem perfect and youthful, they also find themselves amid labyrinthine obstacles in a culture that has one narrow idea of womanhood. Lent Hirsch weaves her own harrowing experiences together with stories from other women, perspectives from sociologists on structural inequality, and insights from neuroscientists on misogyny in health research. She shows how health issues and disabilities amplify what women in general already confront: warped beauty standards, workplace sexism, worries about romantic partners, and mistrust of their own bodies. By shining a light on this hidden demographic, Lent Hirsch explores the challenges that all women face.

Rate your pain on a scale of one to ten. What about on a scale of spicy to citrus? Is it more like a lava lamp or a mosaic? Pain, though a universal element of human experience, is dimly understood and sometimes barely managed. Pain Woman Takes Your Keys, and Other Essays from a Nervous System is a collection of literary and experimental essays about living with chronic pain. Sonya Huber moves away from a linear narrative to step through the doorway into pain itself, into that strange, unbounded reality. Although the essays are personal in nature, this collection is not a record of the author's specific condition but an exploration that transcends pain's airless and constraining world and focuses on its edges from wild and widely ranging angles. Huber addresses the nature and experience of invisible disability, including the challenges of gender bias in our health care system, the search for effective treatment options, and the difficulty of articulating chronic pain. She makes pain a lens of inquiry and lyricism, finds its humor and complexity, describes its irascible character, and explores its temperature, taste, and even its beauty.  

A trailblazing, conversation-starting history of women's health--from the earliest medical ideas about women's illnesses to hormones and autoimmune diseases--brought together in a fascinating sweeping narrative.   Elinor Cleghorn became an unwell woman ten years ago. She was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease after a long period of being told her symptoms were anything from psychosomatic to a possible pregnancy. As Elinor learned to live with her unpredictable disease she turned to history for answers, and found an enraging legacy of suffering, mystification, and misdiagnosis.   In Unwell Women, Elinor Cleghorn traces the almost unbelievable history of how medicine has failed women by treating their bodies as alien and other, often to perilous effect. The result is an authoritative and groundbreaking exploration of the relationship between women and medical practice, from the "wandering womb" of Ancient Greece to the rise of witch trials across Europe, and from the dawn of hysteria as a catchall for difficult-to-diagnose disorders to the first forays into autoimmunity and the shifting understanding of hormones, menstruation, menopause, and conditions like endometriosis.   Packed with character studies and case histories of women who have suffered, challenged, and rewritten medical orthodoxy--and the men who controlled their fate--this is a revolutionary examination of the relationship between women, illness, and medicine. With these case histories, Elinor pays homage to the women who suffered so strides could be made, and shows how being unwell has become normalized in society and culture, where women have long been distrusted as reliable narrators of their own bodies and pain. But the time for real change is long overdue: answers reside in the body, in the testimonies of unwell women--and their lives depend on medicine learning to listen.

"Should be read by anyone with a body. . . . Relentlessly researched and undeniably smart." --The New York Times Named one of BuzzFeed's "Best Books of 2021" What Doesn't Kill You is the riveting account of a young journalist's awakening to chronic illness, weaving together personal story and reporting to shed light on living with an ailment forever. Tessa Miller was an ambitious twentysomething writer in New York City when, on a random fall day, her stomach began to seize up. At first, she toughed it out through searing pain, taking sick days from work, unable to leave the bathroom or her bed. But when it became undeniable that something was seriously wrong, Miller gave in to family pressure and went to the hospital--beginning a years-long nightmare of procedures, misdiagnoses, and life-threatening infections. Once she was finally correctly diagnosed with Crohn's disease, Miller faced another battle: accepting that she will never get better. Today, an astonishing three in five adults in the United States suffer from a chronic disease--a percentage expected to rise post-Covid. Whether the illness is arthritis, asthma, Crohn's, diabetes, endometriosis, multiple sclerosis, ulcerative colitis, or any other incurable illness, and whether the sufferer is a colleague, a loved one, or you, these diseases have an impact on just about every one of us. Yet there remains an air of shame and isolation about the topic of chronic sickness. Millions must endure these disorders not only physically but also emotionally, balancing the stress of relationships and work amid the ever-present threat of health complications. Miller segues seamlessly from her dramatic personal experiences into a frank look at the cultural realities (medical, occupational, social) inherent in receiving a lifetime diagnosis. She offers hard-earned wisdom, solidarity, and an ultimately surprising promise of joy for those trying to make sense of it all.