Hilda Hutcherson on womens health and stigma

I grew up in a place in small town Alabama in a time when talking about women's bodies and Women's Health was taboo. Even your first menstrual cycle. There were many young girls who had their first menstrual cycle and thought they were dying because it wasn't something that we could talk about. There's a lot of shame surrounding the menstrual period. I remember that and I wanted to do something about that when I got older.

I became a physician but in addition to that even pregnancy carried some sense of shame because it was proof that you had engaged in some sexual activity and talking about sex was definitely taboo for for women. Guilt and shame surrounding it made it something that we just didn't talk about and even something as normal as menopause, the menopausal transition, women didn't talk about it. It was something I remember hearing my mother whispered to her girlfriends when I was when I was younger, but it wasn't something that you could just openly discuss.

So Women's Health was taboo, and I remember in medical school my advisor telling me, "The bottom 17% of the class goes into Women's Health. you're too smart for that."

The stigma even among the medical profession was that Women's Health was not important.