Dr Elizabeth Comen | All In Her Head

For as long as medicine has been a practice, women's bodies have been treated like objects to be practiced on: examined and ignored, idealized and sexualized, shamed, subjugated, mutilated, and dismissed. The history of women’s healthcare is a story in which women themselves have too often been voiceless—a narrative instead written from the perspective of men who styled themselves as authorities on the female of the species, yet uninformed by women’s own voices, thoughts, fears, pain and experiences. The result is a cultural and societal legacy that continues to shape the (mis)treatment and care of women.

While the modern age has seen significant advancements in the medical field, the notion that female bodies are flawed inversions of the male ideal lingers on—as do the pervasive societal stigmas and lingering ignorance that shape women’s health and relationships with their own bodies.

Memorial Sloan Kettering oncologist and medical historian Dr. Elizabeth Comen draws back the curtain on the collective medical history of women to reintroduce us to our whole bodies—how they work, the actual doctors and patients whose perspectives and experiences laid the foundation for today’s medical thought, and the many oversights that still remain unaddressed. With a physician’s knowledge and empathy, Dr. Comen follows the road map of the eleven organ systems to share unique and untold stories, drawing upon medical texts and journals, interviews with expert physicians, as well as her own experience treating thousands of women.

Empowering women to better understand ourselves and advocate for care that prioritizes healthy and joyful lives— for us and generations to come—All in Her Head is written with humor, wisdom, and deep scientific and cultural insight. Eye-opening, sometimes enraging, yet always captivating, this shared memoir of women’s medical history is an essential contribution to a holistic understanding and much-needed reclaiming of women’s history and bodies.

Inside the Book
(and Inside YOU)

As a physician examines the body according to its eleven organ systems, All In Her Head uses these systems to tell the unique history of women’s health.

Chapter 1: Skin | Integumentary: It’s What’s Inside that Counts

Chapter 2: Bones | Skeletal: Skulls and Whalebones

Chapter 3: Muscle | Muscular: Who’s the Weakest of Them All?

Chapter 4: Blood | Circulatory: Matters of the Heart

Chapter 5: Breath | Respiratory: Perhaps Women Breathe Different Air

Chapter 6: Guts | Digestive: The Price of Going (and Not Going) with Your Gut

Chapter 7: Bladder | Urinary: A Thousand Years of Holding It In

Chapter 8: Defense | Immune: Self Sabotage

Chapter 9: Nerves | Nervous: The “Bitches Be Crazy” School of Medicine

Chapter 10: Hormones | Endocrine: The Hormone Hangover

Chapter 11: Sex | Reproductive: The Mother of All Moral Panics

“Dr. Elizabeth Comen has given a priceless gift to women and the medical world, sharing profound insights from her experiences as a physician with touching compassion, empathy, wit, and a fierce determination to improve women’s health and health care. Brava for a book that really matters, that empowers patients to take charge of their health, that challenges healthcare systems to change, and will improve the lives of all who read it!”

Joann E. Manson, MD, DRPH, MACP,
Chief of the Division of Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School

“This book exposes the shocking, infuriating, and heartbreaking medical myths and practices that have haunted the care and treatment of women for millennia—myths about the inherent inferiority and weakness of the female body that are still with us today. All in Her Head is not only personally empowering for women but it’s also a call to reimagine what medicine would look like if we valued what has been left out of our medical system: the high art and skill of caretaking.”

Elizabeth Lesser,
Cofounder of the Omega Institute and author of Marrow and Cassandra Speaks