ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that medical treatment for women with endometriosis has a central function in the constitution of subjects. Consequently, biomedicine has approached the diagnosis and treatment of women with endometriosis with this typical patient profile' in mind. Suzanne Fraser's work considers the constitution of subjects via the highly politicised practice of methadone maintenance treatment in Australia. Surgery is both a diagnostic tool as well as a method of treatment. In 2006, the United Kingdom's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) released a set of guidelines for the investigation and management of endometriosis. It highlighted the problems with the use of laparoscopy as a primary diagnostic measure, because of the risk of complications associated with the surgery. The chapter examines hormonal drug therapy. Hormonal therapies taken by women with endometriosis are not uncontroversial. Treatment therefore plays a central role not just in the production of subjecthood but also in the production of the disease/epidemic itself.
