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Reviews tagging 'Medical content'
The Pain Gap: How Sexism and Racism in Healthcare Kill Women by Anushay Hossain
10 reviews
tender_onion's review
3.5
This was a bit of a let down for a book that was otherwise intersectional, as it failed to share/reflect on how many of the topics discussed also impact trans people, and not just people who were assigned female at birth (including trans men, trans women, nonbinary folks, two-spirit people, agender people, gender nonconforming folks, and everyone else whose gender resides outside of the gender binary).
Moderate: Classism, Violence, Medical content, Miscarriage, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Chronic illness, Gaslighting, Grief, Child death, Medical trauma, Rape, Suicide attempt, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Body shaming, Racism, Sexual violence, Infertility, Mental illness, Police brutality, Fatphobia, Gun violence, and Pandemic/Epidemic
sisakat's review
2.5
Moderate: Miscarriage, Pandemic/Epidemic, Child death, Sexism, Sexual assault, Medical trauma, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Blood, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Sexual violence, Slavery, Racism, Medical content, Abortion, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Islamophobia, Misogyny, Police brutality, Pregnancy, and Rape
The subject matter of the entire book is quite heavy reading. The book mostly doesn't go too graphic description on most of these, but it does cover a lot of stories involving women facing sexism and/or racism in a medical context (especially maternal/child birth situations), and the outcomes related to that. There is significant discussions of hospitals, pain, injuries, illness, and death, with both broad statistics and individuals' personal stories. There's at least a few instances it describes sexual assault, but it's written in a more informational tone, and not extended detail. There's some discussion of historical (long ago to near -present) medical experimentation. It also discusses the events of the pandemic and George Floyd protests in relating them to women's health.tmchopra's review
4.5
Graphic: Medical trauma, Child death, Pregnancy, Murder, Gaslighting, Medical content, Death, Death of parent, Sexism, and Racism
Moderate: Chronic illness, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Terminal illness, and Sexual violence
thesapphiccelticbookworm's review against another edition
4.25
Graphic: Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Medical content, Child death, and Medical trauma
Minor: Transphobia and Homophobia
bxtskr's review
3.75
Graphic: Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Racial slurs, Ableism, Sexual assault, Rape, Fatphobia, Infertility, Sexual violence, Sexism, Medical content, Classism, and Chronic illness
misssleepless's review against another edition
3.0
Moderate: Misogyny, Rape, Blood, Child death, Racism, Gun violence, Medical content, Abortion, Death, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual violence, and Xenophobia
meltingpages's review against another edition
3.5
The writing is also a bit weird, a few times I thought that my audiobook was repeating sentences but the author would just repeat herself pretty frequently. I also couldn't quite grasp who exactly this was for, if it was meant to educate people not familiar with the topic or to give additional information to people who know already about reproductive justice. It also skipped around from the author's personal life, to anecdotes from other women, to quoting legislature that was passed or is being lobbied for.
Overall, it's an extremely important topic and the book is definitely worth it for that alone, but it just wasn't what I was expecting it to be.
Moderate: Pregnancy, Sexism, and Racism
Minor: Medical trauma and Medical content
atramental's review
4.0
Graphic: Ableism, Chronic illness, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Sexism
Minor: Abortion
mondovertigo's review
2.0
Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racism, Abortion, Sexism, and Death
Moderate: Sexual violence
mmrohbock's review against another edition
4.5
Content warnings: Pregnancy, maternal mortality, racism, death
Remember when the J&J vaccine was paused in the US because 6 in 6,000,000 women vaccinated experienced blood clots? As a white American woman, I am more likely to die in childbirth than to experience vaccine-related complications and that's honestly wild given that our health care systems is one of the best in the world.
Anushay Hossain dives into the reasons why women are not believed for the medical pain they experience and how this directly correlates with the maternal mortality rate. She goes beyond the important statistics to share stories of the people who make up those numbers.
I learned:
+The root of the word "hysteria" is the Greek word for uterus so women are termed as hysteric because of our anatomy 🙄
+Due to hormonal cycles screwing with research trial data, women were largely excluded from medical research trials and it wasnt until 2016(!!!) that the NIH recognized this bias and mandated that studies receiving research grant money must include women
+Because many research trials do not include women, it makes doctors less likely to diagnose women with medical issues because women can (and often do) experience different symptoms than men for the same medical issue
+Doulas are extremely important for women especially women of color because their advocacy for women during birth results in better recognition of medical issues occuring during or after birth
+Women of color have much higher maternal mortality rates because they are even less listened to by their doctors and nurses so midwife and birth centers prioritize mothers of color to help ensure they receive the advocacy they need
+Covid made so many of these issues even worse as less people were allowed to attend doctors appointments or be in birthing rooms resulting in less advocacy for women, particularly women of color
I read the ARC of this book and I do hope this book continues to be edited. There were several long chapters where it felt like the focus of the book became lost. I loved the focus of race in this book but wish there had been more trans representation or other minority issues.
Even so, I think this book is incredibly important for all women and men to read, especially anyone who plans to have kids and especially for people of color and their allies. There are so many challenges that surround the care we give to expecting and new mothers in this country that many aren't exposed to until having children. This book taught me so much and I plan to continue learning and thinking about how I can use this book to make change.
Graphic: Pregnancy, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Medical trauma, and Medical content