All in her head : the truth and lies early medicine taught us about women's bodies and why it matters today

Title:

Author:

Comen, Elizabeth, author.

ISBN:

9780063293014

Personal Author:

Comen, Elizabeth, author.

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

xix, 347 pages ; 24 cm

General Note:

Source of cataloging data: WCP

Abstract:

For as long as medicine has been a practice, women's bodies have been treated like objects to be examined and ignored, idealized and sexualized, shamed, subjugated, mutilated, and dismissed. The notion that female bodies are flawed inversions of the male ideal lingers on, as do the pervasive societal stigmas and ignorance that shape women's health and relationships with their own bodies. The author draws back the curtain on the collective medical history of women to reintroduce us to our whole bodies: how they work, the actual doctors and patients whose perspectives and experiences laid the foundation for today's medical thought, and the many oversights that remain unaddressed. She examines the eleven organ systems to share unique and untold stories, drawing upon medical texts and journals, interviews with expert physicians, and her own observations from treating thousands of women.

Contents:

Introduction -- Skin (Integumentary: it's what's inside that counts) -- Bones (Skeletal: skulls and whalebones) -- Muscle (Muscular: who's the weakest of them all?) -- Blood (Circulatory: matters of the heart) -- Breath (Respiratory: perhaps women breathe different air) -- Guts (Digestive: the price of going (and not going) with your gut) -- Bladder (Urinary: a thousand years of holding it in) -- Defense (Immune: self-sabotage) -- Nerves (Nervous: the "bitches be crazy" school of medicine) -- Hormones (Endocrine: the hormone hangover) -- Sex (Reproductive: the mother of all moral panics) -- Conclusion -- Acknowledgments -- Index.

Subject Term:

Women's health services -- History.

Women -- Health and hygiene -- History.

Women -- Health and hygiene -- Sociological aspects.

Sexism in medicine.

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Library	Material Type	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
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Summary

USA Today Bestseller

A surprising, groundbreaking, and fiercely entertaining medical history that is both a collective narrative of women's bodies and a call to action for a new conversation around women's health.

For as long as medicine has been a practice, women's bodies have been treated like objects to be practiced on: examined and ignored, idealized and sexualized, shamed, subjugated, mutilated, and dismissed. The history of women's healthcare is a story in which women themselves have too often been voiceless--a narrative instead written from the perspective of men who styled themselves as authorities on the female of the species, yet uninformed by women's own voices, thoughts, fears, pain and experiences. The result is a cultural and societal legacy that continues to shape the (mis)treatment and care of women.

While the modern age has seen significant advancements in the medical field, the notion that female bodies are flawed inversions of the male ideal lingers on--as do the pervasive societal stigmas and lingering ignorance that shape women's health and relationships with their own bodies.

Memorial Sloan Kettering oncologist and medical historian Dr. Elizabeth Comen draws back the curtain on the collective medical history of women to reintroduce us to our whole bodies--how they work, the actual doctors and patients whose perspectives and experiences laid the foundation for today's medical thought, and the many oversights that still remain unaddressed. With a physician's knowledge and empathy, Dr. Comen follows the road map of the eleven organ systems to share unique and untold stories, drawing upon medical texts and journals, interviews with expert physicians, as well as her own experience treating thousands of women.

Empowering women to better understand ourselves and advocate for care that prioritizes healthy and joyful lives-- for us and generations to come--All in Her Head is written with humor, wisdom, and deep scientific and cultural insight. Eye-opening, sometimes enraging, yet always captivating, this shared memoir of women's medical history is an essential contribution to a holistic understanding and much-needed reclaiming of women's history and bodies.

Reviews (1)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Oncologist Comen serves up a startling survey of how male medical professionals have dismissed, pathologized, and misunderstood women's bodies throughout history. Comen notes that 16th-century doctors prescribed penetrative sex as a treatment for the bogus diagnosis of chlorosis, which was thought to afflict young women suffering from "weakness and pallor," and that the erroneous 19th-century belief that women don't get heart disease continues to reverberate in the underrepresentation, and sometimes outright omission, of women from studies on the condition. Highlighting how health guidance for women has often been based more in patriarchal values than objective science, Comen explains that Victorian dietary advice discouraged women from "eating meat, or eating too much," because male doctors believed women were "congenitally less capable" of controlling their appetite. Moral panics about wearing corsets, masturbating, and bicycling followed the same pattern, Comen contends, arguing that complaints about the latter, ostensibly stemming from fear that cycling would damage genitalia, were actually about men's anxieties over the independence afforded women by the new mode of travel. Meticulously researched and conveyed in lucid prose, this fascinates and outrages in equal measure. Agent: Yfat Reiss Gendell, YRG Partners. (Feb.)

Introduction	ix
Chapter 1 Skin Integumentary: It's What's Inside That Counts	1
Chapter 2 Bones Skeletal: Skulls and Whalebones	30
Chapter 3 Muscle Muscular: Who's the Weakest of Them All?	59
Chapter 4 Blood Circulatory: Matters of the Heart	85
Chapter 5 Breath Respiratory: Perhaps Women Breathe Different Air	114
Chapter 6 Guts Digestive: The Price of Going (And Not Going) with Your Gut	136
Chapter 7 Bladder Urinary: A Thousand Years of Holding It In	166
Chapter 8 Defense Immune: Self-Sabotage	191
Chapter 9 Nerves Nervous: The "Bitches Be Crazy" School of Medicine	222
Chapter 10 Hormones Endocrine: The Hormone Hangover	256
Chapter 11 Sex Reproductive: The Mother of All Moral Panics	288
Conclusion	318
Acknowledgments	327
Index	335

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Summary

Summary

Reviews (1)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Table of Contents