The first question my mother and I received upon arrival at the ticket booth for the bus ride to the Pura Lempuyang Temple in Bali, Indonesia, was whether or not either of us was menstruating. If our answer was “yes,” we would not be permitted to enter. I was unsurprised and even prepared for the question, having done prior research before visiting the temple. As a woman, I am well-versed in the stigmas regarding women’s health. Since middle school, I have been met by the flustered reaction of male authority figures when I have asked to visit the nurse for “personal health reasons.” This discomfort, as well as long-lasting sexism, has led to intolerable deficiencies in the scientific knowledge on women’s health.
Across eras of human history, spanning multiple cultures and religions, the suppression and stigma of women’s health information have been normalized and accepted. The stigma is historic, with ideas such as the wandering womb — theorizing the connection between the uterus and many ailments — and hysteria — the Victorian era’s diagnosis to explain women’s health issues — leading to misdiagnosis and improper treatments. But this stigma’s prevalence does not make it right.
Today, the stigma persists. In many religions menstruation is erroneously considered impure and even dirty. As a result, women in these cultures are not permitted to participate in society during one quarter of their lives between puberty and menopause. But to the contrary, recent research has shown that menstrual blood-derived stem cells are highly valuable to medicine and can be used to treat myriad diseases. It is wrong that so many benefits have been stifled by what is essentially superstition.
In the scientific world, feminine healthcare is still stifled, understudied and underrepresented in comparison to men’s health. Historically, medical research has used predominantly male test subjects, presenting prominent issues due to the differences between male and female anatomy. For instance, signs of heart attacks in men, like pain in the left arm, have been well-known. However, common signs in women, like jaw pain and shortness of breath, were not recognized until relatively recently.
Currently, systemic and political decisions that stymie women’s health persist. The new form of birth control for men, ADAM, a painless procedure utilizing a hydrogel to block sperm flow, uses local anesthesia, while the women’s painful IUD insertion procedure does not. Further, a new executive order from the Trump administration has federal agencies combing research grants for words such as “women”.
Women’s health is crucial not just for their own lives, but for the human race, which cannot persist without women. These examples are just a few indicators that women’s healthcare is not adequately valued. Society needs to dismantle this stigma that is hindering women’s health research and shake off the dust that has been covering it after centuries of societal oppression.
