Menstrual Myth Busting: The Case of the Hormonal Female - Hardcover

King, Sally

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1447371623 ISBN 13: 9781447371625

Publisher: Policy Press, 2025

Synopsis

In this book, Sally King interrogates the diagnostic label of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) to expose and challenge sexist assumptions within medical research and practice. She powerfully demonstrates how the concept of the ‘hormonal’ premenstrual woman is merely the latest iteration of the ‘hysterical’ female myth. By blaming the healthy reproductive body (first our wombs, now our hormones) for the female-prevalence of emotional distress and physical pain, gender myths appear to have trumped all empirical evidence to the contrary.

The book also provides a primer on menstrual physiology beyond hormones, and a short history of how hormonal metaphors came to dominate medical and popular discourses. The author calls for clinicians, researchers, educators and activists to help improve women’s health without unintentionally reproducing damaging stereotypes.

About this title

About the Author

Sally King is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Menstrual Physiology at King’s College London, who specialises in integrating biological and sociological research and data concerning menstrual health. She is the Founder of Menstrual Matters, the world’s first evidence-based information hub on this topic (www.menstrual-matters.com). Sally was awarded the prestigious Sociological Review Fellowship in 2022, and an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded postdoctoral research fellowship in 2023.

Edition details

• Publisher: Policy Press
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1447371623
• ISBN 13: 9781447371625
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 240