ABSTRACT

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores a critical study of endometriosis using the experimental qualitative methodology of pinboard-pastiche. Typically, endometriosis is said to be at epidemic' proportions, with a sharp and historically recent increase in disease prevalence. Primary dysmenorrhoea is menstrual pain without identifiable pathology; secondary dysmenorrhoea is painful menses with underlying pathology. Deborah Lupton explains social constructionism as an approach which questions claims to the existence of essential truths. John Law is a well-known Science and Technologies Studies (STS) scholar and regular collaborator with Annemarie Mol. In this sense, Mol's approach is also a performative' one, following the feminist and queer theorist Judith Butler. In the biomedical imaginary, treatment is often understood as the end point of the illness trajectory. The book concludes with a set of reflections on the disease.