Impact of AUFI on life
In our study, we found that the diagnosis AUFI negatively impacted participants from a young age, in their personal lives and their relationships, that AUFI was isolating and that it fractured the female identity. Our findings are similar to prior studies of women with AUFI.6, 7 For example, Richards and colleagues found that AUFI presented challenges at the time of diagnosis as well as throughout different life stages, and with different relationships.6 Their participants conceptualised AUFI as a life-framing experience that affected how participants viewed themselves.6 Our findings provide a richer description of how AUFI affected self-identity of participants by making them feel as though something was missing from their female identity.