Case Study: Carmen
By: Kaleb Jimenez, Karyn How, & Grace Choe
Meet Carmen! Carmen is an immigrant nail salon worker working at Unhappy Nails.
Context
As Carmen was pregnant, she continued to work at Unhappy Nails to earn enough money for her family and to send money abroad to her parents. However, one day, she felt pain in her lower abdomen and vaginal bleeding. She was hesitant to go to the OBGYN at first since she didn’t have health insurance and had to pay out of pocket. Her symptoms persisted and she began to worry about her unborn child so she went to see an OBGYN. The OBGYN informed her that she had experienced a miscarriage. Unfortunately, this was not Carmen's first miscarriage and the OBGYN had informed her that she had preeclampsia. Preeclampsia is a high blood pressure disorder which leads to higher chances of a miscarriage (1).
A Walk In Carmen's Shoes
Take a walk with Carmen! Learn more about her story and the interactions between EDCs and her life in terms of economic stability, education, and the healthcare system. Hover over each icon to learn more about Carmen.
Economic Stability
Because of Carmen's low income and low socioeconomic status, she felt uncertain about receiving immediate care and is even unable to receive check-ups and prenatal care because she has to work to pay her rent and bills.
Healthcare System
Carmen was unable to receive consistent healthcare as Unhappy Nails refused to provide health insurance to their workers.
Education
Carmen had not visited the OBGYN and received prenatal care since she did not know to visit the doctor and could not afford it. She is unaware of the potential harms of the chemicals she is regularly exposed to at work. Carmen continued to work while being exposed to the toxic fumes of the chemicals, because she did not know about the reproductive effects of nail polish.
Carmen's Background
Carmen has infertility caused by EDC exposures from working at the nail salon, being low-income, a woman of color, and no health insurance.
Overall Social Determinants of Health
The reproductive effects and pre-eclampsia diagnosis are effects of things called the Social Determinants of Health (SDOH). SDOH are the circumstances in the places that we live and work in that impact our health outcomes and unveil the existing disparities (2,3).
