68. How Jessica Pin Fought to Protect Women From Medical Ignorance

Brace yourself! This week we are discussing female anatomy, the pressures that women face to change their bodies, personal trauma, and what it takes to change the culture surrounding women’s reproductive care. In one of my more blush-worthy conversations to date, activist Jessica Pin fills us in on how she learned the hard way that medical professionals are woefully uneducated on female anatomy. In a quest to solve this problem, she began sending emails that would one day turn into a nonprofit. 

Jessica Pin is the CEO of Sexual Health Equity Project, a nonprofit to address medical neglect of female genital anatomy. She advocates for inclusion of detailed clitoral anatomy in medical literature and curricula, training standards for vulvar procedures, and correction of medical misinformation about vulvas. She has gotten 12 major medical textbooks, 2 top anatomy apps, and multiple online resources to update their content, and more to promise future updates. She has also published a cadaveric study with plastic surgeons, convinced OB/GYNs to publish a cadaveric study, and effected changes in OB/GYN and plastic surgery board certification, standardized consent forms, and residency curricula. She holds a degree in Biomedical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis. She has been featured in The New York Times, in Scientific American, in The New Scientist, and on The Daily Show.

You can follow Jessica on Twitter or Instagram

In this episode I mention previous episodes of Some Kind of Therapist:

66. James Lindsay on Psychological Warfare

54. Simon Esler on Cut: Daughters of the West

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Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI.

Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission.

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