From the vagina to the clitoris: Has the medical world finally stopped ignoring female bodies?
euronews.comRachel E Gross was prescribed a new treatment by her gynaecologist. The treatment was boric acid and it came with an unusual warning. "If you look it up on the internet, you’ll find that it’s used in rat poison, so I’m just going to tell you now," said Gross's doctor.In fact, boric acid is a very ineffective way to kill rats but it is an efficient insecticide against spiders, ticks, mites and other similar creepy crawlies.So, why on earth is it being used on vaginas?"We don't really know how this works.
It might not help you," the doctor added."That experience made me really think," Gross told Euronews Next during her interview for the latest episode of Rethink."About how little I knew about my body, how little medicine knew about the female body—that we were still using literal rat poison to solve very common vaginal infections - and it sent me on this journey to find out why we have these enormous knowledge gaps, about half the people on Earth".So, Gross set about researching and writing her book Vagina Obscura where she examines the history and research (or lack thereof) surrounding this part of the female anatomy, much of which stems from centuries of sexism and bias in science and medicine."These old anatomists were really invested in the differences between men and women," explained Gross.
