What do you know about the Apgar score? Dr. Virginia Apgar, a trailblazing figure in medicine, was a game-changer in neonatal care. From her early days growing up in New Jersey to becoming a leading obstetric anesthesiologist, Virginia’s life was nothing short of impactful. Her innovative approach during deliveries led to the development of the Apgar Score, transforming how newborn health is assessed worldwide. Join us as we explore the life and legacy of this remarkable woman who revolutionized modern healthcare! 

Check out our Feminist Corner discussion questions and send us your thoughts! 

• What is one pearl you can take away from Virginia Apgar’s story? 

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From a cute little cartoon uterus to the intricate details of surgical techniques, let's embark on a journey through the captivating world of hysterectomies! Learn about the various types of hysterectomy procedures and their historical significance. Discover how pioneering physicians like Soranus of Ephesus and Charles Clay paved the way for modern gynecological surgeries, overcoming challenges and refining techniques along the way. Join us as we unravel the rich tapestry of hysterectomy history, shedding light on its vital role in women's health care! 

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In our fifth season kickoff, we're reflecting on our podcast journey and revamping our format with shorter episodes and more frequent Feminist Corner discussions. We're starting with a dive into the history of feminism, from its origins in the 1880s to the waves that shaped its evolution. We'll explore key moments like the Seneca Falls Convention, the rise of womanism, and the emergence of intersectionality in third-wave feminism. Join us as we unpack the diverse subtypes of feminism and challenge stereotypes, inviting listeners to explore where they fit within this dynamic movement.

Check out our Feminist Corner discussion questions and send us your thoughts! 

• What do you think would be qualms people have with the concept of waves of feminism Char? 
• With the word feminist being a kind of loaded word, what would you say to someone who doesn’t want to call themselves a feminist?

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Asylums always bring up images of horror. Whether in pop culture or fall haunted attractions, the stories around asylums are never good. Asylums were created as places to care for the mentally ill, but eventually turned into institutions that took advantage of a vulnerable population AND found ways to punish women for being too ambitious or independent. Join us this week to explore the history of asylums, the good and the bad, and how women were impacted by these psychiatric hospitals from their creation to now. 

Feminist Corner:

• How does the treatment of psychiatric patients today differ or is similar to this history?
• How can we protect women but also advocate for them to get the appropriate help they need? 

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Imagine a little kid at school sitting on a rug playing with wooden building blocks to learn math, reading during "circle time" with their friends, sharing with their parents all the things they learned in school that day. That was the vision that Maria Montessori had when she started teaching young children through her education program. But did you know that before she was a teacher, Maria Montessori was a physician? Join us this episode as we follow Maria from the Italian countryside to the asylums of Rome to the cities of Spain, India, and beyond. Her surprisingly star-studded and captivating life story is completely worth the listen!

Check out our Feminist Corner discussion questions after listening and send us your thoughts! 

• Do we value the clinician-educator in medicine, why or why not? 

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Cervical cancer is not like other cancers. This cancer is special because it is caused by the virus HPV. Not only that but there are multiple prevention methods in place to help lower women’s risk of developing this cancer!! But despite that, cervical cancer is the third most common cancer in women today. Join us this week to learn about the history of cervical cancer, the discovery of the pap smear, and how we are fighting HPV today!

Feminist Corner:

• How can we change the conversation around sexual activity and screening/prevention of sexually transmitted diseases?  

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Is shaving a regular part of your shower routine? Or maybe you wax, pluck, sugar, laser or just let it grow out! Regardless of what your relationship is with body hair, we’ve all got it and that means you’ve likely thought about whether or not you want to do something about it. This episode, we delve into the history of body hair removal, covering pre-historic humans using shells to cut their hair to the invention of the women’s razor and beyond. Then we explore implications in our world today! 

Check out our Feminist Corner discussion questions after listening and send us your thoughts! 

• What does our societal relationship with body hair reflect about western culture? 

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TikTok is full of trends, including eating your placenta or having a lotus birth. But is this a trend that has existed throughout human history? The placenta is a highly unique organ that humans have been fascinated with for centuries. From Pharaohs carrying their placentas into battle to hanging placentae in trees, there is a wide range of cultural beliefs and traditions surrounding this organ. Join us in this episode to discover the world of the placenta and talk about the health risks of these placental trends for women today.  

Feminist Corner:

●  How do you approach conversations with patients about health trends? What is some advice to give to listeners if they are interested in various health trends?

●  What does a story like this teach us about cultural competency?

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You’ve probably heard of seizures, maybe even seen or experienced them in real life. But have you heard of PNES? Psychogenic Nonepileptic Seizures (PNES) are seizure-like events that occur due to psychological triggers. They are very distressing, especially for the folks experiencing them, and are sometimes elusive for medical providers to uncover. Join us this episode as we unpack the mystery of these seizure lookalikes and how they impact the lives of women, in particular! 

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A pain that is constant, burning, stabbing, aching, crawling. You name it and it might describe it. The pain is mysterious to both the patient and the provider. Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain condition characterized by specific tender areas in the body and is WAY more common in women than men. Join us in this episode to learn more about this disorder and what this means for people with this disorder today!

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Our personalities make us who we are, but in personality disorders like Borderline Personality Disorder, personalities can keep people from living their lives comfortably in our society. In BPD, a disorder commonly diagnosed in young adult and adolescent girls, words like dramatic, emotional and erratic get thrown around. But is this disorder really more common in women? And what implications does BPD have on the lives of people living with it? Listen to find out on this week’s episode! 

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Does your bowel function haunt you? Do you use the bathroom way too much or simply not enough? Well, then this episode is probably about you! In this mini-episode, we are talking about irritable bowel syndrome! This is one of the most common gastroenterology disorders primarily affecting women. Not only that, but it has an uncanny tie to psychological stress and anxiety, which makes it hard to diagnose when patients are often thought just to have hysterical bowels. 

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If you haven't already, you should absolutely check out the episode before this in which we interview Dr. Dee Fenner, Chair of Michigan Medicine's Department of OB/GYN about her experiences as a women during her early training. That episode was inspired by this one! So we only thought it would be fitting to bring back, especially since we wrote it when we were coming into our first years of medical school and are now entering our last! Happy listening!

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Think about the first time you heard about a woman being a doctor? Maybe you were 4 years old and your doctor mom came home with a stethoscope around her neck or maybe you were 12 and heard about your brother’s best friend’s sister getting into medical school. Regardless, women in your life and around the world have been training to become physicians for centuries. But how has medical education for women evolved over time? In this episode, we dive into the history of women as medical students in the U.S. Along the way, we cover what 19th century medical education even involved (we’re talkin curriculum, pre-reqs, cost and more), the rise and fall of all-female medical colleges, and what social conditions finally led women to say enough is enough. Something changed to make women the majority of medical students in our country today...join us as we try to figure out what!

In this episode, we chat with Dr. Dee Fenner, Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Michigan Medicine in Ann Arbor. She walks us through her journey to medicine, Ob/Gyn and ultimately, Urogynecology. She shares insight into her past as a trainee during a time at which there were very few female medical students and even fewer female physician mentors to turn to. And we round out the episode with Dr. Fenner offering her advice to any women pursuing leadership positions, giving actionable guidance on how to navigate doing it well but also authentically. Not only is Dr. Fenner a force of nature in pioneer in the field of Ob/Gyn, but she is also an incredible mentor and teacher. We are so excited to share this episode with you and will be thinking about her advice for years to come!

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Is it a rash or a wolf bite? Apparently ancient physicians couldn’t tell…or at least they thought that the classic rash across the faces of patients with the commonly known condition Lupus, looked close enough to a wolf’s bite to name it after the Latin word for wolf! We’ll be discussing Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, or Lupus, on this episode, including some history and common symptoms that feel a little random and are what make Lupus so hard to diagnose. Then we’ll talk about its prevalence in women and some interesting theories on why its so common in women over men! 

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To clarify, we are talking about postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. Not the disease, and certainly not pottery. hehe. POTS is a condition that millions of Americans today face, and 80% of those with POTS are women!! An absolutely crazy number because we aren’t even really sure why it affects so many women in comparison to men. Join us this week to learn a little more about POTS and hear us share some personal POTS stories!

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In this miniseries, we will be exploring conditions that many women experience. Something that ties all these conditions together is that they are more common in women, but not necessarily because of anatomy or biology. We will discuss what the condition is, how common it is, and how we treat the condition now. We'll also sprinkle in some history and fun tidbits along the way!

Sperm meets egg makes baby, should be simple right? Well if it were, infertility would not be a common struggle for millions of people around the world. But through incredible technology and research, assisted reproductive techniques have been created like in-vitro fertilization (IVF) have been created to help people get pregnant. And they work! Join us this episode as we explain the basics of the science of IVF, dive into the history (with a sprinkle of funny stories of course) and end with a discussion about modern implications. It’s an EGG-cellent episode! Ok I’ll see myself out now…

Check out our Feminist Corner discussion questions after listening and send us your thoughts! 

• What role does the medicalization of reproduction play in the IVF industry? 
• Are women's bodies being treated as vessels in the pursuit of reproductive success, and if so, how can this be mitigated?

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Some people say that women ~ glow ~ when they are pregnant. Or that having a baby is one of the best memories they have. But did you know 80% of women have depressive symptoms in the week following childbirth? Or that ⅛ women develop a condition called postpartum depression? Some women are even at risk for manic or psychotic episodes in the postpartum period. These conditions are so prevalent that there is a whole field of psychiatry dedicated to caring for women’s mental health during pregnancy and in the postpartum period! Join us in this episode to learn about how the field of peripartum psychiatry developed from ancient Greece, through medical times, and into the 1800s! Then we will spend some time exploring current theories behind the most common peripartum mental illnesses and discussing how obstetrics takes part in this field today.

Feminist Corner: 

• Obstetrics as a field is often viewed as very different from other medical and surgical specialties. In reality, it is very closely linked to other fields of medicine, especially psychiatry in this case. What are some ways that obstetricians can take part in multidisciplinary practices?

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Do you know how the wickedest woman in New York got her name? Ann Trow, or as she was better known, Madame Restell, was a prominent abortion provider in the late 1800s. She had no medical training, and yet started a business from the ground up, making medication abortion pills and doing surgical abortions. Her work was wildly successful, but also led to her making many enemies in New York society and even at the national governmental level. Join us this week as we unpack the life of this incredible woman, and learn more about the evolution of abortion at that time!

Check out our Feminist Corner discussion questions after listening and send us your thoughts! 

• Do we have a figure in our society now who we could try to compare to Madame Restell? Doesn’t have to be in abortion/reproductive spaces!
• What does Madame Restell’s business success say about her impact on the women of her time? What is your biggest takeaway from her story?

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