Everything below the waist : why health care needs a feminist revolution

Everything below the waist Why health care needs a feminist revolution

Jennifer Block

Book - 2019

"American women visit more doctors, have more surgery, and fill more prescriptions than men. In Everything Below the Waist, Jennifer Block asks: Why is the life expectancy of women today declining relative to women in other high-income countries, and even relative to the generation before them? Block examines several staples of modern women's health care, from fertility technology to contraception to pelvic surgery to miscarriage treatment, and finds that while overdiagnosis and overtreatment persist in medicine writ large, they are particularly acute for women. One third of mothers give birth by major surgery; roughly half of women lose their uterus to hysterectomy. Feminism turned the world upside down, yet to a large extent th...e doctors' office has remained stuck in time. Block returns to the 1970s women's health movement to understand how in today's supposed age of empowerment, women's bodies are still so vulnerable to medical control--particularly their sex organs, and as result, their sex lives. In this urgent book, Block tells the stories of patients, clinicians, and reformers, uncovering history and science that could revolutionize the standard of care, and change the way women think about their health. Everything Below the Waist challenges all people to take back control of their bodies"--Amazon.com.

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Subjects
Women's health services > United States.
Women > Health and hygiene > United States.
Published
New York : St. Martin's Press 2019.
Language
English
Main Author
Jennifer Block (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
x, 324 pages ; 25 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages [285]-314) and index.
ISBN
9781250110053
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction: The Problem with Medicine as Empowerment
  • 1. The Church of the Magic Bullet
  • Midcentury science on ovulation progressed parallel to the Pill, but fertility awareness-based methods of contraception have been dismissed as unscientific.
  • 2. Fertility Insurance
  • Most infertility is "unexplained," while most assisted reproductive technology is applied to women's bodies: the injustices of snoozing the biological clock
  • 3. Pelvic Tension
  • The womb still "wanders"-and is often surgically removed: the Dark Ages persist for pelvic relief
  • 4. GYN Exceptionalism
  • Gynecology was a foundational branch of surgery, but it has drifted toward general practice-and that means less surgical training
  • 5. Birth Trauma
  • In response to the crisis in maternal mortality, leaders are trying to disrupt hospital culture, but there's a bigger problem: entitlement over women's bodies.
  • 8. Women's Health, Inc.
  • Women's health advocacy organizations fought for more representation and research; today they also push pharma-funded campaigns.
  • 7. The Case for Home Abortion
  • Abortion clinics have become so inaccessible and undesirable that a new abortion underground is rising, calling for an expanded role for midwives.
  • Conclusion: The Case for Physiological Justice
  • Notes
  • Index
Review by Booklist Review

Block, award-winning journalist and author of the groundbreaking maternity-care exposé, Pushed (2007), here dissects the crisis surrounding women's health care in the U.S. This investigative account will shatter worldviews and everything you think you know about contraceptives, hysterectomies, and childbirth, to name a few essential topics. Block traces the history of women's health issues, discussing feminism in the 1960s and '70s, and looking to the combining of obstetrics and gynecology into one medical discipline and the resulting consequences. As Block's narrative develops, it becomes clear that the data is increasingly grim, and women's health outcomes are dire. Why is this such a problem in one of the world's most powerful nations? One reason is that physicians are undertrained and unprepared to treat common issues in women's health. But women also routinely face violence and infringement of their constitutional right to autonomy in the health care setting, suggesting that the problem runs much deeper. Readers will gain a new and thorough understanding of the major issues facing women in the U.S., and why a revolution in women's health care is urgently needed.--Patricia Smith Copyright 2019 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review

Even though American women visit physicians more frequently and fill more prescriptions than men, their life expectancy rates are declining compared to women in other developed countries. Health journalist Block (Pushed) finds that modern medical interventions play a vital role in this development. Contraception, treatment for infertility, unnecessary Cesarean sections and hysterectomies, and ineffective treatment of pelvic disorders are major factors. Until recently, female subjects were not used in medical research, so it's not surprising that physicians do not completely understand hormonal cycles and the delicate interplay involved in them. That mainstream feminist movements and related organizations such as Planned Parenthood embrace the use of contraceptives with known harmful side effects because they offer women choices is also a problem. They ignore effective older birth control methods and therapies for pelvic pain such as massage and physical therapy because they require more time and effort. Block advocates for access to information about all forms of treatment so that women can make fully informed decisions and take control of their health care. -VERDICT Thought-provoking, empowering information that all women should have; essential for public and consumer health -libraries.-Barbara Bibel, formerly Oakland P.L. © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

A feminist journalist's well-documented broadside against a medical system that is still shaped by its patriarchal origins.With extensive historical research and personal interviews, Block (Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care, 2007), a former editor at Ms. and editor of the revised Our Bodies, Our Selves, demonstrates that women are more vulnerable to overtesting, overdiagnosing, overtreatment, and mistreatment than men. The three horror stories that open her introduction give a taste of what is to come. "You may already be familiar," she writes, "with a version of this story: Woman needs medical care. Woman is ignored. Woman has to fight." The personal stories are stirring, even anger-arousing, but the author also offers a solid, well-researched history of mistreatment in the medical field as well as countless statistics and a wealth of expert testimony that lend credibility to her story. Calling the present cesarean rate a national health crisis, Block also looks at hysterectomies, annual pelvic exams, Pap tests, and mammograms. She delves into fertility interventions, the close ties between the pharmaceutical industry and the women's health advocacy community, and the growth of underground abortions. This book is a call for "reproductive justice," which Block explains means not just a right to contraception and abortion, but to fertility and sexualityan area where she faults mainstream organizations such as Planned Parenthood and the National Organization for Women for falling short. After pointing out the many ways in which the health care system is failing women, the author proposes that the solution lies in a new feminist health movement, less focused, as it once was, on self-exam. According to Block, we must take a broader, collaborative view, acknowledging that the issues are ideological and cultural rather than just political or economic.Despite the catchy title, this is a dense and serious work packed with important information, highly recommended for health professionals, classes in women's studies, and any woman who seeks guidance in these issues. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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