Reviews tagging 'Infertility'

Unwell Women by Elinor Cleghorn

19 reviews

catherineleigh's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Misogyny, Sexism, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Ableism, Chronic illness, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Abortion, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Classism

Minor: Cancer, Infertility, and Rape

solliereads's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

What an absolutely vital and incredible read! This book has made me totally rethink my approach to medical misogyny and medical malpractice as a direct result of the disbelief of women and their experiences with pain. I've suffered with unexplained chronic pain for a long time, and I've always been turned away when I attempted to seek help, support and understanding of the pain and exhaustion that no professional has ever seemed to want to touch with a five-foot pole. Reading this book felt like a warm hug - true, the facts are harrowing, particularly those regarding the experiences of women of colour and their repeated erasures from feminist movements, as well as their especially harsh experiences with medical malpractice and being treated as experimental patients without their expressed knowledge or consent, but every single fact has been included in this book to scream out that all women, regardless of race and class, deserve and demand to be believed by the professional practitioners that hold their lives in their hands.

I really appreciated, too, having a clear timeline of events that provide much-needed context regarding various issues in women's health. It was by no means an easy read, and there were times where I was so disgusted by the things women have gone through that I wanted to put the book away, but it was certainly an immensely helpful one. Cleghorn has clearly gone to great lengths to write a text of such great importance on the subject of medical misogyny, and everything in her book is backed up by a massive amount of citations, none of which are pointlessly crammed in there either. I truly look forward to reading her upcoming book in 2024 - MOTHERS: An Intimate History - and I fully expect it to be just as crucial a read as this was.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Chronic illness, Infertility, Sexual assault, Abortion, and Gaslighting

Minor: Eating disorder, Miscarriage, and Rape

nialiversuch's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Body horror, Body shaming, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Suicidal thoughts

gentle_garbage_baby's review

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.25

Very interesting history of the trouble that women (in the West) have had regarding illness, medicine, and doctors. There's a consistent theme of women not being listened to when describing their own pain, with doctors deciding it is 'hysteria' or other sexist interpretations. Unfortunately, some of these attitudes still exist today, and I'm sure there are many women who have read this book who can relate to aspects of it, including myself. Some sections can be quite distressing, so I wouldn't recommend this to people who get particularly upset by the subject matter.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Death, Infertility, and Abortion

Minor: Cancer, Miscarriage, Rape, and Forced institutionalization

bookswithgeorgia's review

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, Medical content, and Medical trauma

burdasnest's review against another edition

informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

 This book made me feel seen and connected to all of the women in our time and the past who suffered medically because of their sex. Cleghorn acknowledges intersectionality and inequity well, but keep in mind that this is focused on western medical history and knowledge and cisgender women. She also emphasizes the absolute importance of the myriad issues we have before us as unwell women. I feel called to advocate and act by this book, and think that it should be required in health curriculum in higher education from physiology to public health. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Abortion, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

marybsimp's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Incest, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Abortion, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

allisonwonderlandreads's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

Unwell Women is a sweeping historical look at how women have suffered as patients at the hands of Western medicine, from ancient Greece to present. Peppered with historical case studies and the author's own heart-wrenching journey to a lupus diagnosis, the voices of women rise up through the narrative to be heard where they are so frequently suppressed.

Cleghorn's dry humor was much appreciated throughout this journey to balance the horrific nature of the trends and stories she shares. I found the ancient history amusing, with the Greek concept of "the wandering womb" especially hilarious. But the lived realities of these experiences are far from funny. Seeing medical knowledge peeled back to reveal the insidious tentacles of patriarchy creeping through everything was somehow both liberating and disheartening. Women have survived some horrible shit, sometimes with no help from doctors, and others in spite of the very medical attention meant to cure their ills.

Of the many topics covered, here are just a few that will stay with me:

 • hysteria, hormones, and the other excuses to dismiss women's pain altogether or root it in psychology
 • abortion, forced sterilization, birth control, eugenics, and all the ways women's reproduction is more valued than her own well-being and decided by the medical apparatus
 • the way medical knowledge has been accrued without female input or consent in so many cases -- I was especially horrified by accounts of research done on enslaved Black American women and the more recent trials of The Pill on Puerto Rican women without knowledge of the risks
 • the lack of knowledge, empathy, and support for women with chronic pain conditions

This is far from a complete history, but I don't think that's feasible for one book, anyway. It's largely focused on the US and UK, but I was relieved that the author addresses race, class, and gender identity as intersectional factors in women's health. I will carry these thoughts into my own experiences as a patient, and I want to learn even more about this topic and advocacy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Chronic illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Cancer, Infertility, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Terminal illness, Torture, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

sebrittainclark's review against another edition

challenging informative slow-paced

4.0

This books starts with Hippocrates and the ancient Greeks and works its way through history to lay out the misinformation and bias against women in Western medicine has and continues to affect the way women are treated and diagnosed with disease. At lot of this history is brutal. Terrible things have been done particularly to BIPOC, disabled, and poor women throughout history, and this book does not shy away from that truth.

This book isn't an easy read, but it's an important one to understand the biases that exist in medicine today, like how many women don't know the signs of a heart attack because popular media focuses on the signs that appear in men. Or the multi-year process it takes to get a diagnosis of a chronic, or autoimmune disease, both of which disproportionately affect women. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Misogyny, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Cancer, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Abortion, and Pregnancy

Minor: Eating disorder