Packed with character studies and case histories of women who have suffered, challenged, and rewritten medical orthodoxy-and the men who controlled their fate-this is a revolutionary examination of the relationship between women, illness, and medicine.

The result is an authoritative and groundbreaking exploration of the relationship between women and medical practice, from the wandering womb of Ancient Greece to the rise of witch trials across Europe, and from the dawn of hysteria as a catchall for difficult-to-diagnose disorders to the first forays into autoimmunity and the shifting understanding of hormones, menstruation, menopause, and conditions like endometriosis. In Unwell Women, Elinor Cleghorn traces the almost unbelievable history of how medicine has failed women by treating their bodies as alien and other, often to perilous effect. As Elinor learned to live with her unpredictable disease she turned to history for answers, and found an enraging legacy of suffering, mystification, and misdiagnosis. She was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease after a long period of being told her symptoms were anything from psychosomatic to a possible pregnancy. She now works as a freelance writer and researcher and lives in Sussex.A trailblazing, conversation-starting history of women's health-from the earliest medical ideas about women's illnesses to hormones and autoimmune diseases-brought together in a fascinating sweeping narrative.Įlinor Cleghorn became an unwell woman ten years ago. In 2017, she was shortlisted for the Fitzcarraldo Editions Essay Prize, and she has since written creatively about her experience of chronic illness for publications including Ache (UK) and Westerly (AUS). She has given talks and lectures at the British Film Institute, where she has been a regular contributor to the education program, Tate Modern, and ICA London, and she has appeared on the BBC Radio 4 discussion show The Forum. After receiving her PhD in humanities and cultural studies in 2012, She worked for three years as a postdoctoral researcher at the Ruskin School of Art at the University of Oxford on an interdisciplinary arts and medical humanities project. In her book UNWELL WOMEN: Misdiagnosis and Myth in a Man-Made World, Cleghorn traces the almost unbelievable history of how medicine has failed women by treating their bodies as alien and other, often to perilous effect.Įlinor Cleghorn has a background in feminist culture and history, and her critical writing has been published in several academic journals, including Screen. As she learned to live with her unpredictable disease she turned to history for answers, and found an enraging legacy of suffering, mystification, and misdiagnosis.

Elinor Cleghorn became an unwell woman ten years ago.

Elinor cleghorn book