The Department of Philosophy will host Dr. Morgan Thompson, assistant professor of philosophy at Northwestern University, for its colloquium on Friday, Jan. 23, at 3:30 p.m. in Marquette Hall 105. A light reception will follow.
Thompson will discuss the “Normalization of gynecological pain and inductive risk evaluation in the CDC’s contraception guidance.” People with severe menstrual pain, fibroids, or undergoing many gynecological procedures are often not believed when reporting pain, and other times are told to bear the pain. Drawing on Wiggleton-Little’s account of pain-related motivational deficit, Thompson argues that the normalization of gynecological pain explains why some pain reports are viewed as credible but do not inspire action to manage the pain during institutional decision-making. Specifically, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s contraception guidance unjustifiably downgrades evidence for the efficacy of lidocaine injections for managing gynecological pain during IUD insertion. The CDC committee’s evaluation of inductive risk relies on a bias that heavily weights the potential harms associated with the intervention but ignores the ongoing harms of gynecological pain from IUD insertion.
