My questions are:
Do you feel the public understand the severity of IBD or see it and the symptoms unimportant and almost comical?
How do you feel when explaining your condition now to how you did when you were first diagnosed?
Do you feel society think it is more acceptable for males to discuss what happens in the bathroom rather then females?
Thank you :smile:
I don't think the public knows much about IBD, but because I also have another medical condition that is extremely rare, from my perspective I think IBD dose have a public presence - it has large web forums such as this one, my hospital waiting room has adds for IBD support groups, etc.
I also feel IBD is far less comical than Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). IBS has all the embarrassments but without the seriousness that the more severe health risks associated with IBD demands.
As for male vs female - stereotypically, I think men are expected to make more jokes about bodily functions, whereas women perhaps find it more acceptable to discuss bodily functions in private talks among other female friends, but these conversations would involve period problems, and bowel problems may not be so acceptable topics for conversation.
These answers are just off the top of my head of course.
Perhaps it would help if your questions were more specific, e.g. what groups of people are you talking about when you ask what is acceptable? What's acceptable in a hospital appointment (for example) would be very different than among friends at school; when you ask about public perception, are you talking about in the media, in peer groups or somewhere else?; when you ask about explaining our condition - explaining it to whom?
(Probably I spent too many years learning about designing experiments at uni
but I think I could give you more useful answers if the questions were better defined. )
