Everything Below the Waist

Why Health Care Needs a Feminist Revolution

By: Jennifer Block

Narrated by: Suehyla El-Attar, Jennifer Block

Length: 12 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

Elle's 30 BEST BOOKS OF THE SUMMER

"A jaw-dropping investigation into the women's health industry." —Shelf-Awareness

"A fascinating examination of the past and present of women's healthcare" —Delfina V Barbiero, USA TODAY

An eye-opening, investigative account of the dismal state of women's healthcare in the U.S.

American women visit more doctors, have more surgery, and fill more prescriptions than men. In Everything Below the Waist, Jennifer Block asks: Why is the life expectancy of women today declining relative to women in other high-income countries, and even relative to the generation before them? Block examines several staples of modern women's health care, from fertility technology to contraception to pelvic surgery to miscarriage treatment, and finds that while overdiagnosis and overtreatment persist in medicine writ large, they are particularly acute for women. One third of mothers give birth by major surgery; roughly half of women lose their uterus to hysterectomy.

Feminism turned the world upside down, yet to a large extent the doctors' office has remained stuck in time. Block returns to the 1970s women's health movement to understand how in today's supposed age of empowerment, women's bodies are still so vulnerable to medical control—particularly their sex organs, and as result, their sex lives.

In this urgent book, Block tells the stories of patients, clinicians, and reformers, uncovering history and science that could revolutionize the standard of care, and change the way women think about their health. Everything Below the Waist challenges all people to take back control of their bodies.

©2019 Jennifer Block (P)2019 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"With extensive historical research and personal interviews, Block...demonstrates that women are more vulnerable to overtesting, overdiagnosing, overtreatment, and mistreatment than men...packed with important information, highly recommended for health professionals, classes in women's studies, and any woman who seeks guidance in these issues." —Kirkus Reviews (Starred)

"With extensive historical research and personal interviews, Block...demonstrates that women are more vulnerable to overtesting, overdiagnosing, overtreatment, and mistreatment than men...packed with important information, highly recommended for health professionals, classes in women's studies, and any woman who seeks guidance in these issues." —Kirkus Reviews, starred

"Block’s journalistic standards are impeccable. From the first sentence, she draws you in, evoking every emotion, with the book often reading more like a novel than an exposé on the complicated world of women’s medicine." —Toni Weschler, author of Taking Charge of Your Fertility and Cycle Savvy

"Amazing. This book is full of information new to me even as a long-time activist. Block shows how what we don't know is making us sick, even if we are healthy. A challenge to feminist orthodoxy and, in some cases, feminist naivete, at its center is a critique of the use of technological fixes to solve social injustices." —Loretta Ross, cofounder of SisterSong and coauthor of Reproductive Justice

Bravo!

The writing was excellent. The narration was excellent. Bravo to Jennifer Block!

My favorite thing about this book is the reexamination of classic liberal feminism. I consider myself a feminist through and through but there are some old tropes that need redefinition, namely that as women, equality hinges on our ability to compete with men in their spaces and within the framework of capitalism.
This book makes some great points about how the healthcare system, patriarchal in nature, seems to be able to offer only one-size-fits-all approach and is failing us as a result.
I could go on for a while but, basically, this book is a great and refreshing take on feminism and women’s health.

Everyone MUST read this book!

My women’s group is diving into the book chapter by chapter. It is so rich. It has given me language and resources for thoughts and ideas I have had as a birthworker and mother. Thank you so much for this work. It is invaluable!

Mind Blowing and Eye Openning

A broad look at how patriarchy has destroyed our relationships with our bodies. A call to reimagine women's health from a feminist perspective that centers the woman.

An interesting perspective on feminist healthcare

Some strange mispronunciations " 20 oh x" instead of "two thousand and x" drove me up the wall in addition to some medical words that should be researched if you're going to produce a jargon heavy book. A very interesting read though!

Educational, left-leaning, and very useful for all

I found this book to be very educational, and, despite some leftist arguments (that I really don’t agree with fundamentally), I thought the book was unbiased for the most part.

I found it to be really eye-opening and helpful to explain some of the things that I have experienced in my life. Some of the information I was presented with, broke my heart because it made me realize how badly I was treated when I was younger. This is a book that I think all women, regardless of political persuasion, should read.

Too often we blindly accept what we were told about our bodies by doctors, who, turns out, don’t know nearly as much as they should. I wish I had this book 25 years ago.

Listen to this book!

What an infinitely important book. Jennifer Block does it again. Read or listen to this book of everyone you know. If you have not read her other book entitled, “Pushed”, read that one as well!

Vital Education

This should be part of every woman’s educational curriculum. It’s an imperative read for women who are ready to understand how their healthcare must be taken into their own hands.

Necessary considerations for any born female

No sacred cows. Much needed critical thought applied to the juggernaut of "normal" and "routine" medical care and even to some of the progress made by waves of feminism itself. An up-to-date discussion on the realities of remaining autonomous in your own health care and the reforms needed within the systems which convolute and prevent that.

Mind-blowing!!

This book covers a variety of topics related to women's health care and it is absolutely fascinating! I now need to order a hard copy to go over again with a fine tooth comb and highlight and re-read. As a midwifery student this book is really helping me evaluate how to approach health care for my clients and myself! I can't stop thinking about it or talking about it. I HIGHLY recommend it!!

I learned so much from this book.

As an advocate of the self-care movement for more independence in women’s health care, I found that there were many facts and anecdotes with which I was already familiar in this book. And yet I learned so much. For example, I had never heard of the history of self-administered menstrual extraction, or the parts of the history of abortion that are left out of its representation in our history. Wow.