Enacting gendered pathologies: Diffraction in medical practices of treating endometriosis and infertility

Abstract

Medical technologies such as ultrasound or MRI scans and manual techniques such as palpation and pelvic exams are used in clinical practice to visualise the inner spaces of the body and to evaluate the emergence of pathological changes. This study explores how the boundary between the normal and the pathological is enacted in the case of the human reproductive system. We juxtapose two overlapping gendered conditions – endometriosis and infertility – while drawing on interview and ethnographic data collected in Finland among people diagnosed with endometriosis or experiencing infertility and clinicians working with endometriosis or infertility. Our study mobilises and develops further the feminist concept of diffraction. The concept helps us to illuminate the process of interferences engendered in the medical practice of diagnosing and treating endometriosis and infertility. We trace the multiplicity of diffractive patterns emerging in the diagnosis of these gendered conditions and examine the complications of diffractive patterns when rationales of endometriosis and fertility care collide. In addition, our analysis makes visible the spatial and temporal elements of diffraction. The study shows that medical interventions such as imaging technologies engender indeterminate ripple effects that diffract beyond the clinical context. Our contribution fills a gap in research by foregrounding embodied experiences of diffraction and by adding nuance to the understanding of structural power relations in medical practices.