Rachel E. Gross

While this book undoubtedly contains interesting and important information I did not finish reading it. I was annoyed by the constant harping on the neglect and wrongness of male researchers. Yes, male scientists were willfully blind and rather deliberately ignorant. Say it once and move on. The other thing that annoyed me was bowing to current trends by including information about transwomen. I'm sorry--this is a book about female bodies, their structures, their problems, the history of research about them. Why does the book need to contain information about attempts to imitate the female body?… (mais)

Such a great book and amazingly informative but I had 2 problems : first : some chapters draaaged into not-so-relevant historical bits , and a lot of goddamn names that I just kept on forgetting , 2nd : we start with a certain scientist and then we go down the rabbit hole into more and more scientists then we go back to the original one which is probably forgotten given the big size of each chapter . Other than that , everyone must read that book including medical students to have a surface glimpse into the ocean that is female anatomy ❤️❤️… (mais)

I saw the cover and at first, because of the style, I somehow thought it was a metaphor and a book aimed at teenagers. It isn't; this is for adults. This examines scientific views over the years, social aspects over the years, and how medicine has changed or not, over the years, around vaginas and how people with them are treated. IT HAS A CHAPTER ON ENDOMETRIOSIS. ENDOMETRIOSIS IS TREATED WITH RESPECT. I have endo, so I was absolutely thrilled. I wanted to somehow hug the ebook edition I was reading. The book talks at length about gender-variant people, and has a whole chapter solely dedicated to trans women. They're mentioned throughout the book, too. I'm so glad I read this. I hope it's widely read and continues to be successful.… (mais)

With each chapter dedicated to an organ, from ovaries to clitoris and everything in between, Gross invites the reader aboard a mesmerizing anatomical voyage through the female reproductive system. The author discusses historical, often laughably inaccurate, theories about the organs' functions and purposes, and then provides fascinating, up-to-date information as the result of contemporary research and inquiry. The gorgeous and fanciful illustrations were top-notch. It was eye-opening for me to consciously connect the majority of physicians throughout history being male to the meager amount of knowledge about and research dedicated to women's reproductive health, to the point of dismissal of same. In hindsight, though unjust, it makes sense that men were focused primarily on their own issues, but it also illustrates how much catching up there is to do, and one cannot help but wonder what exciting breakthroughs remain to be unearthed.… (mais)