Paper short abstract:

This paper investigates the conceptualisation process of endometriosis pain by drawing on conceptual blending theory. The article poses that pain narratives that rely on intertextual and interdiscursive references can be seen as evidence of the conceptual integration process.

Paper long abstract:

This work explores narratives of pain experienced by women who suffer from the debilitating gynecological disease of endometriosis.

Endometriosis affects 1 in 10 women yet its worldwide average diagnosis length is 7.5 years and it is mainly diagnosed when exploring infertility rather than complaints about incapacitating pain and other associated manifestations. As its symptoms occur during menstrual cycles, when some degree of pain is expected, it is not infrequent to find health-care practitioners that dismiss and normalize pain as part of the female condition by reference to low pain threshold (Bullo, 2018). Findings of the latter study also suggest that dismissal or normalisation leading to diagnosis delay may also happen as a result of miscommunication of symptoms, in particular, the way in which pain is conceptualised and explained during early consultations.

Drawing on empirical data collected through interviews and surveys investigating narratives of endometriosis pain experiences, I investigate how women's accounts of pain rely on intertextual and interdiscursive references that work as textual evidence of conceptual blending integration (Fauconnier and Turner, 2002). The study concludes that intertextuality and interdiscursivity as linguistic manifestations of conceptual blending (Bullo, 2017) may play a key role in conceptualisation and sense making of endometriosis pain experiences and argues that these findings may inform the construction of a toolbox to aid pain description during medical consultations.

The findings of the study have implications for health communication practices about the condition and will provide the basis for broader enquiries on making sense of pain.