Chapter 8: The Endometriosis Experience: Narratives of Personal Crisis Utilising the Camera as a Tool of Validation

A ‘crisis’ is understood to be a serious situation, often difficult and treacherous in need of critical attention. Formerly, the word ‘crisis’ denotes the change in disease, indicating progression or decline. This term triggered the cogitation surrounding the critical issue of the ‘damaged’ female reproductive body and has foregrounded thoughts of past internal pain and confusion experienced as resultant of Endometriosis. Known to be a rather common gynaecological condition, exhibiting endometrial-like lesions in the pelvic cavity or elsewhere in the body, affecting the normal physiology of reproductive organs, causing pain, inflammation, and bleeding, yet it is still under-diagnosed and largely misunderstood. This illness, much like other gynaecological complications, cannot be seen on the outside of the body, compromising its believability, and its lack of representation in South Africa specifically, leads to the questioning of its validity and self-doubt. Thus, it is important to cast light on the often-suppressed narratives of gynaecological illnesses that have been predominantly dismissed, or misconceived.

In response, reflections of autoethnographic accounts are uncovered through constructed visual narratives, portraying the lived realities of women with Endometriosis – allowing the once silenced narratives to reflect an unfeigned experience. What is explored and analysed through a subjective frame, is how the mode of photography, as a tool for documenting and representing, resulting a visual narrative can bring about a sense of validation for women with an invisible illness such as endometriosis.