Menstrual Myth Busting

Auteur

Sally King is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Menstrual Physiology at King's College London and the Founder and Research Director for Menstrual Matters, the world's first evidence-based information hub regarding menstrual health (www.menstrual-matters.com). She was also awarded the Sociological Review Fellowship in 2022.

Texte du rabat

In this book, Sally King interrogates the diagnostic label of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) to expose and challenge sexist assumptions within medical research and practice. She powerfully demonstrates how the concept of the 'hormonal' premenstrual woman is merely the latest iteration of the 'hysterical' female myth. By blaming the healthy reproductive body (first our wombs, now our hormones) for the female-prevalence of emotional distress and physical pain, gender myths appear to have trumped all empirical evidence to the contrary.

The book also provides a primer on menstrual physiology beyond hormones, and a short history of how hormonal metaphors came to dominate medical and popular discourses. The author calls for clinicians, researchers, educators, and activists to help improve women's health without unintentionally reproducing damaging stereotypes.