“Free butterflies will come out of these deep wounds”: A grounded theory of how endometriosis affects women’s psychological health

Federica Facchin, Emanuela Saita, Giussy Barbara, Giussy Barbàra, Dhouha Dridi, Paolo Vercellini
Journal of health psychology · 2017 · vol. 23(4) , pp. 538–549 · doi:10.1177/1359105316688952 · PMID:28810386 · W2573341809
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-06 ⓘ

This grounded theory study explored how living with endometriosis causes psychological distress through disruption of life continuity, associated with diagnostic delays, poor relationships, and lack of support.

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Abstract

This study aimed to develop a grounded theory of how endometriosis affects psychological health. Open interviews were conducted with 74 patients. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale was administered to all women, who were divided into distressed versus non-distressed. At the core of our grounded theory was the notion of disruption due to the common features of living with endometriosis. Experiencing disruption (vs restoring continuity) involved higher distress and was associated with a long pathway to diagnosis, bad doctor-patient relationships, poor physical health, lack of support, negative sense of female identity, and identification of life with endometriosis.

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Condition tags

mesh:D004715endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Attitude to Health Endometriosis Mental Health Stress, Psychological Women's Health Adult Endometriosis Female Grounded Theory Humans Middle Aged Stress, Psychological Stress, Psychological

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (27)

Cited by (50)

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