Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

Ask Me About My Uterus: A Quest to Make Doctors Believe in Women's Pain by Abby Norman

8 reviews

alyssatuininga's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative medium-paced

3.5

 

There were parts of this book that I loved but parts that seemed out of place for sure. The layout was odd, bumping around in time. I did like her humor and her writing style but I feel like this book needed a lot of editing.

I am not sure why she included the long story of her childhood and her mother's issues. I don't feel like it was relevant to the story, especially with the depth and detail it was told.

My biggest regret with this book is that it wasn't what I thought it was. It was marketed as a book about women's pain and the medical community. This book is an autobiography about one woman's journey through complex medical issues.

I really wish there had been more science and fewer long-drawn-out stories that didn't seem to have much to do with the topic. The ending was also very abrupt and felt unfinished.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Eating disorder, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

sellnow_hannah's review against another edition

funny informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

This was a personal account of a woman living with chronic illness and she weaves elements of memoir, science, and history. I would say it’s mainly a memoir and an emotional glimpse into what it’s like to live with an unexplained illness highlighting the challenges in interacting with the medical system as a chronically ill person. While this was an emotional and heavy topic, I did enjoy the author’s frequent snarky comments and humor.
The downsides of this book were the timeline and the meandering nature of her writing. She seemed to jump back and forth in time in her personal story often and some of the science and history elements (while insightful) didn’t tie in as well with her personal story. Overall an enlightening read and one I’d recommend for people in healthcare. 

(I don’t rate memoirs below a 4 star because I think it takes a lot of courage to be this vulnerable and share your life story. So for me 4-4.25 is good, 4.5-4.75 is great, 5.0 is fantastic.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Eating disorder, Blood, Vomit, Medical trauma, and Suicide attempt

mccalab's review against another edition

emotional informative medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Vomit

abbystapleton's review against another edition

challenging sad slow-paced

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Eating disorder, and Vomit

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Miscarriage

Minor: Infertility, Transphobia, and Suicide attempt

laureljeanreads's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative sad medium-paced

5.0

I always feel weird rating memoirs but I feel like this is such an important topic explored and done so with a really good mix of some medical research facts as well as personal experience that shines through. The fact that this is not just this authors story, but is the story of so many other people dealing with chronic pain, uterine issues and not being believed by medical professionals is both sad and enraging.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Blood, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Minor: Infertility, Miscarriage, Transphobia, and Suicide attempt

sammantha's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

This book is phenomenally written and so much more than I ever could have imagined. I’ve never dog-eared so many pages in my life. Highly recommend, especially to doctors and nurses. “I had never wanted to be right; I had only wanted to be well.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Miscarriage and Excrement

caseythereader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

 - Part memoir and part history of doctors dismissing "female problems," ASK ME ABOUT MY UTERUS is gripping and enraging. I'd wager that even if you don't have endometriosis in particular, you'll see your own experiences with the medical system reflected here (me. I did, it's me).
- Norman doesn't shy away from describing exactly what her pain - physical and emotional - feels like. This book is a tough read but I think many will find it cathartic to be seen on the page.
- Norman is careful to point out that not only women deal with uterine pain and illness, and also that not all women have uteruses, and the extra layer of fear and frustration this can add to trying to get diagnosis and treatment. She's also up front about how being straight, white, and cisgender framed her whole situation and afforded her more privilege throughout this process than others (and the flip side of that, of how being a traditionally feminine woman led to instances of dismissal).
- It's in the content warnings listed below, but I want to point it out here as well since it's not obvious from the summary - major content warnings for child neglect, eating disorders and suicide particularly in the chapters discussing Norman's childhood. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

hollandvk's review

informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Eating disorder, Sexism, Blood, Medical content, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Vomit