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Long abstract:

This work explores how the self care practices of those living with chronic vulval infection- focusing on eating, cooking and cleaning practices, offer a multi-sensory, embodied, at home and easily accessible methodological approach to microbial ethnographic research. Attending to the specific methodological challenge of studying microbes as invisible and often undetectable beings, this paper advocates for ‘with-nessing’ (Atkinson et al, 2021) microbes through chronic illness self-care. It argues that specific forms of human-microbial intimacy are developed when living with a chronically infected body; microbial imbalances through infection are often manifested sensorially through discharge, bad smells, pain, rashes or gurgles. As such, through attending to the embodied effects of microbial infections, we can start to ‘with-ness’ microbial relations and transformations within the human-microbe body.

This paper draws on ongoing fieldwork in the Netherlands with people living with chronic bacterial vaginosis and chronic vulval candida, two common and yet difficult to ‘cure’ microbial infections. Many people turn to selfcare or DIY remedies to help in healing, including eating practices, diets and cleanses, with the sensorial embodied effects carefully watched, noted and measured. Through an exploration and journey through these practices, this paper will highlight how coming to ‘know’, ‘understand’ and ‘care for’ microbes translates into everyday life and ethnographic research. Furthermore, this work highlights not only how we can come to ‘know’ microbes, but also what microbial entanglements can teach us, such as how they come to act as a catalyst for re-evaluations of what constitutes a ‘good’ and ‘natural’ life.