In the 17th century, the ovaries received their modern name, which essentially means “place for eggs”. Previously, they were known only as female testicles, which were thought to be rudimentary versions of male gonads that may or may not produce “female sperm.” The young Dutch anatomist Rainier de Graaf was the first to show that they actually made eggs by dissecting freshly mated rabbits. “Nature turned to work when it generated the female, as well as when it generated the male,” he wrote.
But in the 19th century, the tendency for surgeons to remove healthy ovaries to treat “diseases” such as hysteria clearly showed that they were doing much more than acting like baskets of eggs. These unpretentious bodies have, in fact, maintained the well-being of women in a much more fundamental way. Ultimately, the discovery of estrogen has helped scientists unite the fact that the ovaries are powerful centers of women’s health, nodes in a complex feedback mechanism between the brain and the body. They organize the production of hormones that support almost every physical system, from bones to brain development.
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The concept of the “egg basket” is typical of the way scientists have for centuries viewed women primarily in one dimension: as babies. However, even when it comes to the organs directly involved in reproduction, this can lead to bad science and missed opportunities.
For example, menopause is often described as the end of a woman’s “reproductive years” and the point at which her ovaries “fall off” or “run out.” In fact, we now know that the ovaries continue to produce important hormones even after this transition. And surprisingly, scientists have identified ovarian stem cells with the potential to grow into new eggs, including in postmenopausal women. This raises the prospect of new treatments for infertility or hormonal disorders and calls into question how much we actually know about the mechanisms behind menopause.
The roots of this reproductive bias go back thousands of years. In ancient Greece, it was believed that women were controlled by their rebellious wombs – with the disobedience often caused by the failure to have children on time. It was believed that if she remained unmarried too long after puberty, a woman’s uterus would tread around her body like a cheeky little child, causing all sorts of unpleasant symptoms. This idea will eventually develop into the concept of hysteria, with its roots in the Greek word for womb, hysteria.
Women’s health is not its own planet separate from men’s health. We all share the same universal plan of the body
This deep-seated prejudice has again led to gaps in our knowledge and great suffering. Consider endometriosis, a condition that occurs when tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows elsewhere on the body. Medical textbooks have described it as a “career women’s disease” since the 1990s, describing it as suffering women who have given up marriage and children to pursue a career. Some doctors have even suggested pregnancy as a “cure” (and still do today, despite the fact that the idea has long been refuted).
This kind of thinking has made it difficult for us to understand an incredibly common, painful disease – one that affects women who have already given birth, premenstrual girls, as well as trans men and non-binary people. Today, researchers are finally beginning to see endometriosis as it really is: a chronic inflammatory disease that affects the whole body. This new understanding opens the door to potential treatments that do not rely on manipulation of hormone levels or complete cessation of the menstrual cycle.
Centering reproduction has also removed parts of the body that, although nominally considered part of the “reproductive system,” are actually more about sex and pleasure. In particular, the clitoris, once known by the father of modern anatomy, Andreas Vesalius, as “this new and useless part.” In his eyes, the female body was an inversion of the male: the uterus was the penis from the inside out, and the ovaries were the internal testicles. According to this framework, women already had all the body parts they needed, no clitoris was required.
It is no coincidence that the clitoris will continue to be lost and rediscovered by scientists throughout anatomical history. In the 1990s, it was often overlooked or minimized in medical textbooks, with charts showing the head of the clitoris – the equivalent of the head of the penis – as the whole thing. Even today, this organ is neglected in medical education, its role in healthy sexual function and therefore human health in general is declining. The resulting lack of understanding can lead to clitoral injury for women who go under the knife for things like pelvic mesh removal, urethral procedures, vulvar biopsies and even hip surgery. Because gynecologists rarely examine the clitoris, problems such as clitoral adhesions or vulvar cancer can also be missed or diagnosed late.
In a sense, the consequences of all this distorted science over the centuries are obvious: we now face a huge gap in knowledge when it comes to half the bodies of the Earth. The fact that science still doesn’t know exactly how these important organs work when they’re not contributing to the birth of a baby is embarrassing to say the least.
But the effects are wider. Women’s health is not its own planet separate from men’s health. We all share the same universal plan of the body, the same origin in the womb, the same hormones and basic bodily processes. Therefore, almost all of these problems have parallels in men’s bodies. Researchers studying endometriosis, for example, have found that the patterns of inflammation that underlie the disease also affect men’s health. The study of the vaginal microbiome sheds light on the microbiome of the penis. The study of menstruation teaches us about universal biological processes such as regeneration and healing of wounds without scars.
For centuries, science has treated women as walking wombs, baby machines and incubators of new life. This narrow view has prevented us from asking questions and making progress that can help us all live longer and healthier lives. It is time to change the paradigm. We must finally see the female body as it really is: a powerful constellation of interconnected elements, each part inseparable from the whole, working together to maintain our health from the cradle to the grave. As we fill in the missing parts of this picture, we will undoubtedly expand our understanding of all bodies.
Rachel & Gross is the author of Vagina Obscura: Anatomical Journey (WW Norton).
More information
Sexing the Body by Anne Fausto-Sterling (Basic, £ 18.99)
The Seeds of Life by Edward Dolnik (Basic, £ 18.99)
Inferior by Angela Saini (4th Estate, £ 9.99)
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