Women's experiences of self-management in gynecological health: a systematic review of qualitative evidence protocol

Objective: To understand women's experiences of self-management in gynecological health, considering 'experience' as knowledge or learning gained through practice. Background: Over time, women's health care has shifted as society and contemporary values have changed. During the Renaissance, a model centered on the medicalization of the body took hold, undermining women's protagonism over gynecological health. Despite this, women's inherent and acquired knowledge about their bodies and health coexists with allopathic health practices and medicalization. Design: A systematic review of qualitative evidence will be conducted in accordance with the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P). Review Method: A three-stage search strategy will be conducted by two independent reviewers to explore the gynecologic health experiences of cisgender women aged 18 years and older who have already experienced menarche, excluding those who are experiencing the pregnancy-puerperium cycle. The review will consider interpretive and critical articles such as grounded theory, phenomenology, action research, feminist research, and ethnography. Databases including MEDLINE (Pubmed), Pubmed (NLM), Embase, BVS (Bireme), Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane, and Cinahl (EBSCO) will be searched. Unpublished studies will be searched in ProQuest, Base Acervus and BDTD databases.