"100 Effed Facts" About Women's Health in the U.S.

Something's been silently screwing your sexual wellness routine: the gender health gap. Did you know that women weren't required in clinical research until 1993? This means that much of what we know about women's health and wellness is actually just for men. Eager to get to the bottom of this sh-t system, co-founder of Evvy vaginal health company, Laine Bruzek, introduces the book that highlights it all, "100 Effed Facts About the Gender Health Gap."

At first glance, you're probably wondering: Who the f-ck would make a book with a huge dot in the center of the page? To which Evvy would probably respond: Who the f-ck would create an entire medical industry without considering women? For those curious, the dot on the front and each subsequent page is intentional and "visually represents the gaps in scientific and medical understanding of the female body," the brand shared.

Released on Equal Research Day, "100 Effed Facts..." is an informative book sharing insight into the gender health gap. So, what's the gender health gap, you ask? It refers to the differences in "healthcare access and outcomes between genders," Evvy shared. Specifically, "a complex interplay of biological, social and environmental factors." The biggest contributor to the gender health gap is the historical lack of research on the female body, leading to holes in our understanding."
"The female body shouldn't be a medical mystery."

As Bruzek shared in her interview with us, this lack of research has fueled a medical system that not only ignores women -- no seriously, there are stats on this too -- but gaslights us. The term is medical gaslighting, and it's when doctors ignore your concerns. Approximately 72% of female patients have reported experiencing this. Case and point? Effed stat No. 72. According to the book, Samulowitz and Anke's study found that "Doctors often view men with chronic pain as 'brave' or 'stoic.'" At the same time, women with chronic pain are referred to as "emotional" or "hysterical."

Is the name "100 Effed Facts..." starting to make sense now?

Keep reading for more with Evvy's co-founder, Bruzek.

What's the most effed fact you discovered while creating this book?

There are so many. Women are 32% more likely to die if their surgeon is a man. If you look at the reverse, men are not more likely to die if their surgeon is a woman. Women in pain are more likely to be given sedatives instead of painkillers -- that's one that drives me crazy.

But I think the one that speaks to the book as a whole is that women are diagnosed on average four years later than men with the same disease. Which at first glance, is not as shocking as dying in surgery. But when you think about four years of your life struggling with something like cancer or diabetes or Alzheimer's... when you think about four years, it's not four years of you just sitting in your house. It's four years of mystery symptoms, of missing work, of being able to hang out with your family, being unable to enjoy life, because you have symptoms that you don't know the root of and you are not getting treatment.

"What could we all do with four years of our life back?"

I just think about how those four years are related to women getting promoted, or generally being able to advance in their career or family life in the way that they want to. When in all reality, our health is holding us back. And our health is holding us back because we haven't properly studied the female body. I think that's the most secretly sinister one. It's something I think about a lot like: "What could we all do with four years of our life back?"

What inspired the creation of "100 Effed Facts About the Gender Health Gap?" How does this relate to Evvy’s mission?

Evvy is a vaginal microbiome company and our bread and butter is vaginal health. So this is really the one time of year that we step back and say, "Let's look at female health more broadly. How are we overlooking women and people with vaginas in these larger ways?"

 

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We wanted to start conversations using a physical artifact. Something a doctor could put in their waiting room, or maybe someone could leave it on a subway for people to find. It catalyzes an interaction between 2 people and sparks change that makes people feel alone.

How did you source these effed facts?

Well, at the highest level, we wanted them to be about the gender health gap. We wanted to make sure that every fact expresses a difference between how people of different genders experience healthcare. We also made sure that it was from a reputable source and somewhat recent as it's difficult to find research that's been published in the last 10 years.

"Throughout history, the female body has been a lot of things. Painted, sculpted, sacred, scandalous, celebrated, commodified, empowered, loved, and so much more. What it hasn’t been is properly studied.."

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Given the politics surrounding women's health, how on Earth did you condense the book to just 100 facts?

We're a science company. So, we had an amazing team of researchers and science writers who helped us source the best facts. It made it easier once we started to come up with categories. It sounds funny now because while we were doing it we were like, "We need one more chapter on cancer." And so you're looking up what bad things are happening to women when it comes to cancer. But we have a database of about 300 facts and finally cut it down to 100. So maybe there'll be a volume two...

Shop "100 Effed Facts About the Gender Health Gap" now on Evvy's website, with 100% of the proceeds being donated to Women’s Health Access Matters (WHAM) to help accelerate women’s research and funding.

This interview has been condensed for clarity.

In other news, Erika Lust unveils the future of porn.

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