In this episode I talk to Melanie Jeske, PhD, MS, a Sociologist of Science, Medicine, and Technology, and an Assistant Professor in the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy at Baylor College of Medicine. We talk about the problem of women's pain and why it can sometimes take seven years (seven years!) for a person living with endometriosis to get a diagnosis. Seven years of being passed from provider to provider in a frustrating phenomenon Dr. Jeske calls "buck passing". For centuries women have been dismissed as hysterical or emotional, unreliable witnesses to our own pain, especially Black women and women of color. Dr. Jeske shares through her research why this might be, and what we can do about it.
This episode was co-produced and edited by Rice University student Muna Nnamani, with support from the Scholarly and Creative Works Subvention Fund.
Here are links to some of the things we talked about.
Recommended Books and Resources
Bleed- by Tracy Lindeman
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1770416536?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback
The Making of a Modern Epidemic- by Kate Seear
Diagnostic buck passing
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1467-9566.70142
Navigating Undone Science
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277953626005435?via%3Dihub
Hastings Center blog post on ACOG Guidelines
Connect with Dr. Jeske:
Anything But Endo: Diagnostic Buck‐Passing in Endometriosis Diagnosis
Connect with Cameron:
Get Cameron's book This Is My Body
Follow Cameron on Instagram
Literary Disparities Instagram
Cameron's Tik Tok
Check out my last podcast, The Ish, for more conversations with writers on writing.