I adore Lena Dunham and she covered a lot of ground in this book, but I was especially moved by her account of her lifelong chronic pelvic pain journey which eventually led to a hysterectomy at 31 years old.
The amount of medical gaslighting she received for years, even up until the very moment of the hysterectomy itself (which she had to push way too hard for) is all too common with women. When you learn that women were not even included in medical studies until the 90s because they were considered to just be "smaller version of men" its no wonder that we still know so little about women's health, and why doctors default to "are you sure you're not just imagining it?"
These issues are way more common than people realize and unfortunately rarely see the light of day because they are so private that few people want to discuss them publicly. If you head over to certain subreddits you can find teenage girls who are suicidal because they've been dealing with chronic pelvic pain for years and nobody will help them.
Anyway, I loved this book for many many reasons but this particular aspect of it was really impactful. Curious to hear what you all thought of the book as a whole and/or this topic in particular.
Edit: The fact that this post is getting downvoted and already being flooded with hateful comments is the only explanation you need for why issues like this continue to exist. Shame on you, truly.
by Vast-Percentage-7312
7 Comments
i haven’t read it yet, but your take on the medical gaslighting is huge. it’s wild how often women’s pain gets dismissed, and it’s crucial that these stories get out there. definitely gonna check this book out now.
Definitely gonna be part of my next book purchase, Dunham is slightly insufferable and not a reliable narrator when talking about her interpersonal relationships but she has a very interesting voice and is a very funny person. Her slightly lack of sanity is definitely part of what makes her voice so interesting.
Her first book was subject to nonsense controversy, and I am so glad we have a second one from her. She is the voice of a generation, and I’m glad she is also calling out Adam Driver’s behavior. I hope she continues to write more.
While the subject you bring up is very important and still impactful in 2926, Dunham is not a reliable voice. I am not going to bother with the second book after everything that went on with the first. Her personality is also not for me abs don’t want to suffer through another book of it.
Lena Dunham admitted to molesting her younger brother over the course of his childhood. According to her, she was age 7-17 and he was age 1-11.
I’m torn, isn’t Lena Dunham the one who defended a rapist by claiming she had insider knowledge that the accuser was lying, only to later admit she was lying and the accusation was legitamite after it came out that that she was lying?
I get that good people can make mistakes, or bad people can still also have some good messages, but it feels pretty egregious what she’s done.
She’s a fairly abhorrent human.