Good Girl Gone Geek

Vaginal Thrush

Menorrhagia

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Fibroids

Add in fibromylgia, which affects 8x as many women as men, as well as lupus (and almost any other autoimmune condition), systemic exertion intolerance disorder (SEID), iron deficiency anæmia (all of which affect more women than men), and you have well over 25% of childbearing-age women globally living with chronic pain and tiredness.

Chronic pain is overwhelmingly experienced by women, and women are less likely to be taken seriously or given treatment by medical professionals. I went through two years of diagnostics to finally find out I had occipital neuralgia; I felt doubted when I described my pain at every step of the way, but was lucky to have a partner who was persistent in helping me get treatment.

This is why if you get pregnant your doctor will take you off basically any and all medication you’re taking (including mental health medication, can’t imagine any implications/dire consequences there), not because they know it will have an adverse affect on the foetus but because they have no idea. How wonderfully kind of them to prioritise the health and life of an unborn foetus over that of a living person, let’s just hope they don’t become ill whilst pregnant. How charmingly logical it is that they wouldn’t even bother to test drugs in people with a uterus because it’s all too difficult and gosh, darn what an ethical conundrum we’ve been faced with, let’s just not! Which is so in the spirit of capital S, Science!  

Take menstrual cramps, for example. Everybody knows that cramps are a normal part of menstruation, and that virtually all people who menstruate experience them throughout their lives, right?

Except that’s not right at all.

Yes, it’s true that about two-thirds of individuals who menstruate begin to experience menstrual pain during adolescence, but it’s basically a side effect of puberty, and normally subsides by your late teens. Only about 20-40% of menstruating adults experience menstrual pain on a regular basis - and according to some estimates, as much as 80% of that figure is due to undiagnosed endometriosis or some other underlying medical condition.

Yeah, roll those numbers around in your head: if you’re an adult who experiences menstrual cramps, it’s overwhelmingly likely that your pain is a symptom of some potentially serious medical condition.

When I was diagnosed I was only told it was “very common” (1 in 10 women) and I was handed a prescription for hormonal birth control pills. The rest of the symptoms I had to figure out on my own, doing my own research.

Likewise, pelvic floor dysfunction and vaginal pain is widely ignored by most people (and sometimes general physicians) because not only is women’s pain not usually taken seriously, but people underestimate how much conditions such as vaginismus and hypo/hypertonic pelvic floors can affect a woman’s personal life as well as her sexual gratification and her relationship with her partner. Because PEOPLE DONT CARE if women enjoy sex! It’s always the male’s pleasure that matters more, and that in general infuriates me.

Smarter people than I probably already figured this out, but I just realized why Deke calls Fitz “Bobo.” Jemma said, “That’s what you wanted to be called.” That’s what older time loop Fitz, grandpa to actual baby Deke, wanted to be called. We never saw this version of Fitz, but they said that Mack was one of the first to die in that time loop timeline. So Fitz was missing Mack, who always called him “Turbo,” so he asked for his grandson to call him that. Bobo = Grandpa Turbo. *cries*

I think that Mack and Yoyo reconciling in this episode was not a coincidence in timing. It was done on purpose to be just after Fitzsimmons (and right before that, Daisy) got home. Mack didn’t feel that he could be vulnerable until all his ducklings were home safe. *cries*