Guardian Australia's Book Club: Why Does Medicine Care So Little About Women's Bodies? (17 September 2020)

For Guardian Australia's next book club, we're focusing on a huge topic: women's health, chronic pain, and the gendered – or, let's just call it sexist – medical system they have been struggling with throughout history. When Katerina Bryant suddenly began experiencing chronic seizures, she was plunged into a foreign world of doctors and psychiatrists who understood her condition as little as she did. Her new book Hysteria blends memoir with literary and historical analysis to explore women's medical treatment through a history that has silenced them. Kylie Maslen, meanwhile, has been living with invisible illness for twenty years. Show Me Where It Hurts is a powerful collection of essays that speak to those who have encountered the brush-off from doctors, faced endless tests and treatments, and endured chronic pain and suffering. Katerina and Kylie will be in conversation with Guardian Australia's associate news editor Gabrielle Jackson, whose own book, Pain and Prejudice: A Call to Arms for Women and Their Bodies, came out last year.