Central to this volume, and critical to its unique creative significance and contribution, is the conceptual unification of syndemics and stigma. Syndemics theory is increasingly recognized in social science and medicine as a crucial framework for examining and addressing pathways of interaction between biological and social aspects of chronic and acute suffering in populations. While much research to date addresses known syndemics such as those involving HIV, diabetes, and mental illness, this book explores new directions just beginning to emerge in syndemics research - revealing what syndemics theory can illuminate about, for example the health consequences of socially pathologized pregnancy or infertility, when stigmatization of reproductive options or experiences affect women's health. In other chapters, newly identified syndemics affecting incarcerated or detained individuals are highlighted, demonstrating the physical, psychological, structural, and political-economic effects of stigmatizing legal frameworks on human health, through a syndemic lens. Elsewhere in the volume, scholars examine the stigma of poverty and how it affects both nutritional and oral health. The common thread across all chapters is linkages of social stigmatization, structural conditions, and how these societal forces drive biological and disease interactions affecting human health, in areas not previously explored through these lenses.

"Endometriosis" is not a common word. Some people associate it with difficult patients, pain during sex, and infertility. Others link it to stigma, grief, and not being believed by their doctors. Healers and Patients Talk provides insight into interactions between patients and health professionals in the clinical setting. The author examines the varied and contested enactments of endometriosis, the multiple ways in which people understand and use the term 'endometriosis', and the complex pathway to the diagnosis. Endometriosis is a label historically bestowed on white, heterosexual, cisgendered career women, but the author offers ideas about how such exclusionary practices developed over time. This is an important ethnography of endometriosis which discusses new concepts, such as the author's theoretical contribution of the 'a-diagnostic' category. Women living with endometriosis occupy this space and slip in and out of it, struggling to receive a diagnosis and treatment. This conceptual category may well apply to other chronic conditions that affect women. The author makes a significant contribution to scholarly understandings of endometriosis. The book considers recommendations for improving the care of endometriosis patients, shortening the time to diagnosis, and improving interactions between patients and care-givers.