ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book explains that endometriosis is not just a disease, but a complex political phenomenon. The initial stages of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, medical thought and practice was guided by a set of problematic assumptions about the subjects of disease and, by extension, cause and effect. Self-help literature has its own unique history, concerns and style, and thus enacts a version of the disease that overlaps with, but departs from the one we see within biomedical literature. The book highlights the political and ethical dimensions of disease theories for women living with endometriosis. It argues that women's accounts of endometriosis were dominated by a sense of themselves as inherently dysfunctional, irrational and disordered, ideas closely associated with notions of menstruation and the feminine as monstrous. The book concludes on an ambiguous and ambivalent note, questioning the utility of self-care arrangements for some women.
