Unwell Women

THE NEW BOOK FROM ELINOR CLEGHORN: A WOMANS WORK IS OUT NOW An essential history - Leah Hazard

PowerfulNEW YORK TIMES
A passionate and indignant historyTHE TIMES
UnputdownableTELEGRAPH

Medicine carries the burden of its own troubling history. Over centuries, womens bodies have been demonised and demeaned until we feared them, felt ashamed of them, were humiliated by them. But as doctors, researchers, campaigners and most of all as patients, women have continuously challenged medical orthodoxy. Medicines history has always been, and is still being, rewritten by womens resistance, strength and incredible courage.

In this ground-breaking history Elinor Cleghorn unpacks the roots of the perpetual misunderstanding, mystification and misdiagnosis of womens bodies, illness and pain. From the wandering womb of ancient Greece to todays shifting understanding of hormones, menstruation and menopause, Unwell Women is the revolutionary story of women who have suffered, challenged and rewritten medical misogyny. Drawing on Elinors own experience as an unwell woman, this is a powerful and timely exposé of the medical world and womans place within it.