Elizabeth Comen, MD: Truth and Lies of Women’s Health

 Did you know that much of what we know about women’s bodies comes from the viewpoint of men? Our pain, strength, intellect, and much more have been based on an overwhelmingly male narrative. The result is a culture and society that continues to shape our healthcare. Today’s guest, Dr. Elizabeth Comen, is a breast oncologist, physician/scientist, and medical historian. She discusses her new book “All in Her Head: The Truth and Lies Early Medicine Taught Us About Women's Bodies and Why It Matters Today.”

She talks about how women throughout the ages, and even now, have been invalidated for their pain, and felt shamed and blamed. We’ve inherited this legacy and a culture of women apologizing for being sick, apologizing for taking up space, and apologizing for taking up time.

Dr. Comen has dedicated her medical career to saving the lives of women. An award-winning, internationally sought-af­ter clinician and physician-scientist, Dr. Comen works as a medical oncologist with a specialty in breast cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and is an assistant professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. She earned her BA in the history of science from Harvard College and her MD from Harvard Medical School, then completed her resi­dency in Internal Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital.

As a Memorial Sloan Kettering oncologist, she sees thousands of patients and talks about the vital importance of seeing each woman as an individual. So many of these women express how they feel misunderstood and how their breasts matter. She talks about our difficult medical system and how it’s influenced so much from a cultural, religious, and historical perspective.

Throughout history, there’s never been a narrative that women’s bodies are as strong and as powerful as a male body. Landmark studies have always been for men, then modified for women. There’s no racial or ethnic diversity either as the studies typically focus on middle-aged white men. Her book talks about the stories of our deeply flawed system and offers suggestions for moving forward.

Dr. Comen also discusses hormones, fluctuations, hormone replacement therapy, and how to balance. There is a long story of misunderstanding hormones. Testosterone was touted as being amazing and important for men, while estrogen causes women to have crazy mood swings. She further discusses symptoms of menopause, premature aging, and the distorted idea that women should “always look perfect.”

She talks about the importance of lifting weights and stimulating strong bone density as we need strong bones, especially as we age. It improves our overall health. The gym can be intimidating, especially when women see many men lifting weights.

Dr. Comen talks about hysterectomies and the history of “hysteria” as it comes from the Greek word for womb. People thought women were prone to being hysterical and mentally unbalanced because of their “wandering wombs.”

She also talks about the long, horrible history of removing organs from women who were “not behaving” because maybe they were political or outspoken or overly sexual. She also talks about the Tuskegee experiments and Black men not being treated for syphilis. During this time, women too, could be forcibly arrested and treated with experimental means – if women looked promiscuous; if they were riding a bus alone; if they were outspoken. This occurred to thousands of women at the turn of the century. Many women were considered “dirty” and the innocent, clean men were being infected. Women felt shamed and blamed from contracting a disease from a man who was dishonest about their health.

Dr. Comen discusses the generational traumas of women and how it directly and indirectly affects women today. She talks about how bicycles were the symbols of the Suffragists movement because they represented freedom. Male doctors threatened that if women rode bikes, they would develop bulky muscles and not be able to reproduce.

She talks about men operating on women and the duality of plastic surgery. Plastic surgery was originally used on battle wounds when weapons caused so much destruction. Today there’s a duality as it can be either empowering or punishing.

She further discusses the history of early advertising and marketing campaigns and talks about how the tobacco companies encouraged women to smoke. Advertisers called cigarettes “torches of freedom.”  

She also discusses the effects of stress, including “good” stress and anxiety which can help us move forward in our lives. She invites us to think about the stories we’ve been told and to realize it doesn’t have to be as shameful as it has been historically. We can truly be empowered and change the narrative about women’s health. It must be a movement aligned with all genders and the realization that we are all in this together. Info: drelizabethcomen.com.