Berättelser från den mörka kontinenten : en studie om vulvovaginal smärta och vård på lika villkor

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study is to examine how women with genital pain experience health care in terms of information, availability, treatment and resources. Through interviews with women with vulvovaginal pain these experiences are further compared to the Swedish guidelines and criteria’s regarding equal health care. Applying critical theories of gender and power to the material enables to examine if discourses of female bodies and diseases affect women’s right to health and health care. The analysis shows that women with genital pain are in general dissatisfied with the quality of the health care given to them. Discourses about women's bodies, pain and diseases contribute to the normalization and elimination of female genital pain in the health care system and in the society as whole. The conclusions are that a more fundamental and accurate effort on gender equality is needed to determine how gender and normative male standards in medicine affect women's access to a satisfactory health care on equal terms.