The science, medicine, and mythology of menstruation and menopause

Jen Gunter explains what's actually happening inside the body during menstruation and menopause, why so much of what we've been told is wrong, and why that information gap has been weaponized against half the population. I see patients in the office. I see a lot of communication issues.

I hear a lot from patients online about difficulties interacting with their health care provider, or people who have fallen down rabbit holes with disinformation and gone down routes that may not have been helpful to them. And I realized some time ago that medicine had a big communication gap, and so I really view everything that I'm doing as trying to close that communication gap, trying to give people information about their body so they can be informed, because you can't make an empowered, educated decision about your body if you don't have the right information on this subject. I want people to have the information so when they're in the office with a medical provider, they can advocate for good care, so they know what's harmful, what's normal.

And I also want people to have that information so when they encounter things they see online, they'll know what's factual and what's not. So I'm very interested in educating the public about science and medicine because there's huge gaps in communication. You can't be an empowered patient without accurate information.

So I view myself as someone trying to close those gaps by getting knowledge about your body out to people so they can advocate for themselves in the doctor's office, and so when they see health information online, they can sort through what's factual and what is likely snake oil. I'm a San Francisco Bay Area OB-GYN and author and health communicator, and my latest book is Blood: The Science, Medicine, and Mythology of Menstruation. For many years, thousands of years, maybe longer, society has viewed menstruation as something that is toxic or dirty or potentially dangerous to men, something that reflects a problem with the body.

So the ancient Greeks believed that men were perfectly in balance fluid-wise and women were not, and menstruation was evidence of that. They believed that every cell in our body was overly moist, and so if you can't handle your fluid appropriately, you need basically an overflow valve, and that was really what they thought menstruation was. So it was a physical sign of inferiority.

And that banner has long been carried by medicine, by many different societies, and also by many religions. It's been weaponized against women as a sign of inferiority when really it's simply a biological function. "It was a physical sign of inferiority.