Summary of All in Her Head by Elizabeth Comen: The Truth and Lies Early Medicine Taught Us About Women's Bodies and Why It Matters Today

By Justin Reese

DISCLAIMER

This book does not in any capacity mean to replace the original book but to serve as a vast summary of the original book.

Summary of All in Her Head by Elizabeth Comen: The Truth and Lies Early Medicine Taught Us About Women's Bodies and Why It Matters Today

IN THIS SUMMARIZED BOOK, YOU WILL GET:

• Chapter provides an astute outline of the main contents.
• Fast & simple understanding of the content analysis.
• Exceptionally summarized content that you may skip in the original book

 

The history of women's healthcare has often been dominated by men, leading to mistreatment and ignorance. Dr. Elizabeth Comen, a medical historian and oncologist, aims to reintroduce women to their whole bodies and the experiences of doctors and patients who laid the foundation for modern medical thought. She shares unique stories from the eleven organ systems, using medical texts, journals, interviews, and her own experience. All in Her Head is a shared memoir that empowers women to advocate for care that prioritizes healthy lives and a holistic understanding of women's history and bodies.

• Language: English
• Publisher: jUSTIN REESE
• Release date: Feb 15, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224835089

Book preview

NOTE TO READERS

This is an unofficial summary & analysis of Elizabeth Comen’s All in Her Head: The Truth and Lies Early Medicine Taught Us About Women's Bodies and Why It Matters Today designed to enrich your reading experience.

DISCLAIMER

The contents of the summary are not intended to replace the original book. It is meant as a supplement to enhance the reader's understanding. The contents within can neither be stored electronically, transferred, nor kept in a database. Neither part nor full can the document be copied, scanned, faxed, or retained without the approval from the publisher or creator.

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Copyright 2024. All rights reserved.

Introduction

The oncologist walks and works in the shadow of death, a constant presence in the background of every conversation and exam rooms. The rooms are designed to be sterile but serene, with cream linoleum floors and a peaceful nature scene. The medical gowns are made of seersucker in shades of pink and white, engendering a sense of calm. However, on this August morning in 2018, the shadow of death was darker and closer than ever. The hospital's breast cancer ward was busy and noisy, with machines and doctors and nurses. The oncologist offered a series of promises: she would not leave, manage her pain and ease her suffering, help her and her family face what's coming, and be with her until the end.

Ellen, a metastatic, incurable breast cancer patient, had been in the office for six years. Her downturn came just four weeks earlier, six years after she first walked into the office with a metastatic, incurable breast cancer that had spread to her bones, liver, and lungs. The room felt like a liminal space, where her life was at an end. The oncologist held her hand, asking questions about her death and the unspoken. She hugged her goodbye, feeling the dampness of her skin and fragile bones.

Ellen, an oncologist specializing in breast cancer care, has observed that many women express shame during the initial moments of diagnosis. This shame is more potent than fear, as it often stems from the emotional response of the patient to the diagnosis. Women often apologize for their physical discomfort and the need for treatment, but they also blame themselves for missed appointments, failing to see symptoms, and not accurately diagnosing themselves with cancer.

The medical legacy of women who apologize for being sick is a story that has been passed down over centuries and still visible today. The authors of this story are men, but the problem lies in the fact that the physicians who shaped the world of medicine and women's experiences were like any of us, subject to influence by their own emotional and social experiences with women and the expectations of society.

Western medical storytelling has largely eschewed the discussion of women's bodies and elevated them as powerful, capable, or of equal worth to men's. The voices of women themselves are notably absent in the medical history that defines women's normal bodily functions, pain, pleasure, strength, and intellectual capacity. This past is present in every doctor's office and research institution, haunting our footsteps as we navigate the medical maze of women's health built by men whose ideas about women were limited at best, paranoid, misogynist, and abusive at worst.

The book aims to raise awareness about the hidden information and legacy of women in medicine, focusing on the importance of seeing the full humanity of patients. The author discusses the history of witch hunts and the misogyny that led to the murder of thousands of women accused of practicing witchcraft. The scientific revolution buttressed advances in medical knowledge, but women were increasingly sidelined from not just the practice of medicine but the study of it. American medical schools created a path to a prominent societal status for physicians and explicitly forbid female applicants. By the turn of the twentieth century, women had been systematically shut out, including from fields in which they had once been traditional knowledge bearers.

Today's medical schools do not exclude women, but the elevation of a masculine ethos in medicine persists even as the gender parity of those practicing it has improved. Academic medicine still celebrates authorship of scientific papers as the pinnacle of achievement, while merely caring for patients conveys neither glory nor glamour. Women remain underrepresented and overlooked in medical research, even though many treatments interact differently in a female body than in a male one.

The book also explores the female body, dividing it into eleven discrete organ systems: Integumentary, Skeletal, Muscular, Circulatory, Respiratory, Digestive, Urinary, Immune, Nervous, Endocrine, and Reproductive. The author argues that the literature often overlooks the matter of sexuality and the sexual health of women as they exist apart from having a baby.

The book explores the medicalized body and the myths and blind spots inherited through generations, focusing on the female medicalized body. It explores the history of women's medicine,