Harms Associated with the Divide Between Social and Medical Understandings of Women's Reproductive Health

Abstract

Epistemology and feminism have shown us many of the problems that exist within healthcare for women. What these two miss is the issue that the social communities and medical communities fail to inform each other when looking at women’s reproductive health. In other words, feminism and epistemology have missed that there is a disconnect, or divide, between these two groups which uniquely reinforces itself due to information not being completely transferred. Epistemology and feminism have proven that certain voices are not considered credible due to gender and racial biases (among others), and many individuals choose to minimize their interaction with the medical field. Medical research and clinical practice ignore key testimonies and (intentionally or unintentionally) gatekeep critical information about health from their patients through medical terminology or paywalls. Rather than interacting and building off of each other, a divide is formed about women and their reproductive health and is a reason why when it comes to women’s healthcare, medicine is not equal, science is behind, and women are left dismissed, misdiagnosed, and face inequitable health outcomes. This project includes case studies such as hormonal birth control (HBC) and menstrual blood colours to reinforce its position that lived experience is just as important as the biological experience to build a comprehensive overview of women’s health. This project will suggest a restructuring of the healthcare system to incorporate a more phenomenological approach that incorporates and validates both the personal and biological and which allows for a more fruitful collaboration between patient and physician. Without this collaboration, our system functions on differing levels of power dynamics, mistrust, misinformation, and isolation. The collaboration between the social and medical is imperative for medical advancement and social justice.