When medicine fails us, women's voices offer us a way to fight back

What do you do when the medical world and the doctors who took an oath to do no harm fail you?
What do you do when they don't tell you everything or are forced not to tell you things?

Many people probably never even think that this can happen to them. It happens to other people and when it does those people did something wrong. They didn't ask the right questions. They didn't follow the doctor's instructions.

But if you look at the histories of medicine and procedures, it does happen even when you follow the rules.

It happened with the IUD, and with thalidomide in Europe and countless other times that have been pushed under the rug. In The Global Biopolitics of the IUD, Chikako Takeshita talks about how women were the ones who took back their power from the doctors and Neo-mathlusians by saying that they wanted the IUD taken out because it didn't fit their lifestyles. Women also were the ones who got the Dalkon shield recalled. They all told their doctors and voiced their problems with the Dalkon shield and got loud enough that they couldn't be ignored. Thalidomide was prevented from coming to the US by a woman using her voice as well. Frances Oldham Kelsey worked at the FDA and refused to approve thalidomide because the researchers didn't have enough research into the side effects. Because of this many babies were saved from having severe birth defects and even potentially die from this medicine(https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/woman-who-stood-between-america-and-epidemic-birth-defects-180963165/).

Medicine is seen as intangible. Its unaffected by politics and by the doctor's personal biases. But medicine is a very political thing. What gets funding to be research is effected by whose in control of the government and/or money.  

There's are international gag rule that prevents doctors from telling patients about abortion and preforming them. This was just reinstated under the Trump presidency(https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/02/14/trumps-mexico-city-policy-or-global-gag-rule). This means that its even harder for women to talk about abortion and issues they face about birth control.

But women's voice are the one thing that we can and have used to stand up against the failings of the medical world. Women started talking about the issues they faced using the Dalkon shield and then the doctors said something. Women started saying that medicine need to be safe and effective for pregnant women and that a drug like thalidomide can never happen again. Women's voice are so powerful, just look at the #MeToo movement, and our biggest asset against medical failures.

If your medicine is going wrong or making you feel bad, tell people. Tweet about it, post on Instagram and Facebook. Because history shows your probably not alone. And when we all say something at once, we get stuff done.

Picture 1: https://www.piac.asn.au/legal-help/public-interest-cases/dalkon-shield/
Picture 2: http://www.dailytexanonline.com/2018/01/18/students-must-harness-momentum-from-metoo-movement