This presentation addresses issues related to the circulation of the terminology of endometriosis in different speech communities and to term appropriation by laypeople and patients, in French. With an approach based on corpus linguistics and terminology research, different axes are explored in a corpus composed of four subcorpora representing key stages of term circulation between experts, journalists, associations of patients, and patients.

From a methodological perspective, this presentation discusses aspects such as corpus compilation, term extraction, and the contrastive approach used to identify and describe relevant differences in term usage within and between the subcorpora. The talk also focuses on some of the key findings so far, particularly regarding media representations of endometriosis and how the media both disseminate knowledge and downplay the severity of the disease. Other examples relate to term variation (both denominative and definitional) and its role in the ambiguity that can be observed in some of the discourses on endometriosis. One final aspect concerns term appropriation by patients and the concept of patient expertise, focusing primarily on the results of an experiment designed to automatically identify the lexical layer shared by patients with endometriosis or type 2 diabetes. These observations can provide new insights into the impact of term circulation and media representation of endometriosis on laypeople’s and patients’ understanding of the condition, and how they could serve as a starting point for improving patient-provider communication and creating better-tailored resources for patients.