Vagina Obscura: An Anatomical Voyage

by Rachel E. Gross

Shortlisted for the 2023 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction and the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing AwardOne of Five Books Best Literary Science Writing titles in 2023A New York Times Editors' ChoiceA Science Friday Best Science Book to Read This SummerA myth-busting voyage into the female body.

A camera obscura reflects the world back but dimmer and inverted. Similarly, science has long viewed woman through a warped lens, one focused narrowly on her capacity for reproduction. As a result, there exists a vast knowledge gap when it comes to what we know about half of the bodies on the planet.

That is finally changing. Today, a new generation of researchers is turning its gaze to the organs traditionally bound up in baby-making—the uterus, ovaries, and vagina—and illuminating them as part of a dynamic, resilient, and ever-changing whole. Welcome to Vagina Obscura, an odyssey into a woman’s body from a fresh perspective, ushering in a whole new cast of characters.

In Boston, a pair of biologists are growing artificial ovaries to counter the cascading health effects of menopause. In Melbourne, a urologist remaps the clitoris to fill in crucial gaps in female sexual anatomy. Given unparalleled access to labs and the latest research, journalist Rachel E. Gross takes readers on a scientific journey to the center of a wonderous world where the uterus regrows itself, ovaries pump out fresh eggs, and the clitoris pulses beneath the surface like a shimmering pyramid of nerves.

This paradigm shift is made possible by the growing understanding that sex and gender are not binary; we all share the same universal body plan and origin in the womb. That’s why insights into the vaginal microbiome, ovarian stem cells, and the biology of menstruation don’t mean only a better understanding of female bodies, but a better understanding of male, non-binary, transgender, and intersex bodies—in other words, all bodies.

By turns funny, lyrical, incisive, and shocking, Vagina Obscura is a powerful testament to how the landscape of human knowledge can be rewritten to better serve everyone.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Feminism, History, Health, Audiobook, Medical

328 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 29, 2022

About the author

Rachel E. Gross is an award-winning science journalist based in Brooklyn, New York. A 2018—19 Knight Science Journalism Fellow and former digital science editor of Smithsonian magazine, she writes for the BBC Future, the New York Times, and Scientific American.

Reviews

[Krista · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the questions I found myself asking scientists most often as I reported on this book was: why has it taken until now for science to investigate [insert obvious thing]? For example: What makes a healthy vaginal ecosystem? How does the menstrual cycle actually work? What is the G-spot, really? . . . and the list goes on. In response, I always heard some version of the phrase: You can’t see what you aren’t looking for. Or: you see what you expect to see. In many ways, this book is about different ways of looking.

Vagina Obscura is a fascinating look at the history, science, and politics of female sexual and reproductive anatomy (as the terms may be used to describe a variety of cis-gendered, trans-gendered, and non-binary bodies), tracing what we have learned about these body parts from the time of Hippocrates (who called them “the shame parts”), through Darwin and Freud (who both dismissed the “passive” vagina as less important to reproduction than the “dynamic” penis), to modern researchers (whose work was most surprising to me by virtue of its very recentness). This is a highly readable book — author Rachel E. Gross writes about the maddeningly long history of the dismissal of female intimate health concerns without anger or stridency (or any of the other words used to dismiss women’s writing about “women’s issues”) — and whether or not one is looking to learn something about the science of female anatomy, the research, interviews, and history all make for a captivating reading experience. I learned much and thoroughly enjoyed the writing; I can’t ask for more. (Note: I read an ARC through NetGalley and passages quoted may not be in their final forms.)

There are parts of your own body less known than the bottom of the ocean, or the surface of Mars. Most researchers I talked to blamed this dearth of knowledge on the black-box problem: the female body is more complex, more obscure, with much of its plumbing tucked up inside. To get inside it, we’ve needed high-tech imaging tools, tools that have only come around in the past decade or so. When I heard these answers, I couldn’t help thinking of what science has done in the twenty-first century: put a rover on Mars, made a three-parent baby, built an artificial uterus. And we couldn’t figure out the composition of vaginal mucus?

I can’t go over everything I learned in Vagina Obscura, but I will note that women’s anatomy doesn’t seem to have become a priority to scientists until women themselves became scientists: From Princess Marie Bonaparte (a relative of Napoleon and an acolyte of Freud, she did important early research on the clitoris [in conflict with Freud’s theories on female psychosexual development]) to Linda Griffith (one of the genetic engineers behind the “earmouse”, she never wanted to be stuck in the “pink ghetto” of women’s health research until her own breast cancer scare prompted her to use her MacArthur “genius” grant to investigate endometriosis) and Dr. Marci Bowers (a transwoman who is currently one of the leading gender affirmation surgeons in the US), women lead the field in moving thie science forward. I was fascinated by the reconstructive work that is done for both transwomen and those who have been affected by FGM; I was interested to learn that endometriosis is pretty much the new “hysteria” (often dismissed as “all in a woman’s head” — and curable with pregnancy! — unless one is a woman of colour who can be branded a “drug-seeker” for showing up at an emergency room monthly with crippling pain); and I was stunned to consider that it used to be “normal” for a woman to have about forty periods in her lifetime (between pregnancies and nursing) compared to four hundred today. After a section on the long list of systems that ovulation supports throughout the female body, Gross writes about the researchers currently looking for a way to prevent menopause (in an effort to fend off the ensuing risk of heart disease, diabetes, dementia, etc.), but also asks if this is something women would actually sign on for. Dr. Jen Gunter (author of The Menopause Manifesto) is quoted as saying about this research, “If you’re looking at restoring ovarian function for women who are fifty-one, what’s the endgame? What’s the actual problem you’re trying to solve? And if you tell me the problem is menopause, I’m going to tell you you’re a misogynist.” And to those who would ask what’s so important about studying female anatomy, Gross would reply:

Our bodies can blind us. But they can also free us to see differently. They can help us bear witness to how a multitude of people, bodies, and perspectives have fallen through the cracks. Only by seeing connections instead of siloes, sameness instead of difference, and the universal inside the particular can we move the science of the female body forward and point the way to a truer, fuller understanding of all bodies.

From ducks with corkscrew-shaped penises (and the female ducks whose corkscrew-shaped vaginas twist in the opposite direction to prevent unwanted insemination from frequent duck rape) to a description of the human egg releasing granules of calcium to harden its “zona” after a sperm breaches it (leading to the sentence: On the fifth day following conception, the embryo hatches from its shell and implants into the tissues of the uterus. How had I never heard of this before??), Vagina Obscura contains a wealth of fascinating facts that support thought-provoking commentary on history and science and the history of science. Compelling, beginning to end.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Open any medical textbook not written in the last five years or so and you will likely see that the vulva, if it is mentioned at all, is referred to by the Latin word pudendum. If your textbook happens to be in German, you will probably see that the labia is labeled as Schamlippen. Do you know why? Do you know why the vulva is labeled “the part you should be ashamed of” and the labia is labeled “the shame lips?” It’s because the original medical texts were all written by dudes, dudes with varying levels of male bias. Even Hippocrates himself, that paragon of medical practice, based his knowledge of women’s anatomy mainly on descriptions from women who had performed self-examinations. Is this all a bit unsettling?

“The history of medicine was filled with “fathers”—the father of the C-section, the father of endocrinology, the father of ovariotomy—but, ironically, there were no mothers.”

Now I am not going to sit here at my keyboard and pretend to be this well-informed, feminist ally who knew all this pertinent information already. To be honest, before I read Rachel Gross and Natalie Angier (Woman: An Intimate Geography) I didn’t know my pudendum from my Schamlippen. For example, I had no idea that the average woman has as much (or more!) erectile tissue as the average man. (Seriously, the clitoris is like an iceberg!) The only drawback to reading this incredible book, from a strictly heterosexual male perspective, is that I am now incentivized to have sexual congress with the lights on (lab work reinforces coursework) and that, with my current physique, might be a dealbreaker for my lab partner.

[Baal Of · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could go back in time and give this book to my 18 year-old self, maybe I could have handled some of the complications in my relationships better. Having been raised in a restrictive, fundamentalist religious environment, my ignorance of women's bodies was even more vast than a typical male's, and that's already a massive amount of ignorance. In my early 30s I had a relationship with a woman who had endometriosis, but during that time I had no idea what that even was, and I don't think she knew until later what was going on. It made things enormously complicated and difficult and I had no way of helping or even understanding what was going on.

There are already some excellent and thorough reviews of this book detailing the material that is covered, so check those out and then read this book. It is impeccably researched, with detailed index and references.

A quick side-note - There are a handful of 1 and 2 star ratings for this book, none of which have actual reviews. I think that is revealing.

[Allison Sylviadotter · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. The author first talks about women, their unique FEMALE biology and how every cell in our body is FEMALE, the lack of research into FEMALE bodies due to scientific sexism against FEMALES, and the intricacies of our FEMALE reproductive system... THEN she inexplicably goes on to include trans-identified males in the book, >90% of whom keep their MALE genitals intact after "transition," and even if they don't, they'll will never be FEMALE. She has an entire chapter on the "neo-vagina" as if a surgically inverted penis or a length of colon tissue could ever be even close to the natural intricacy of the female vagina. The vagina is not just a dead-end hole, the vagina is self-cleaning and has its own well-curated biosystem of healthy bacteria to keep it healthy, the vaginal canal can expand and contract with arousal, the vagina is self-lubricating, the vaginal canal has its own specific musculature, the vagina connects to the cervix which then connects to the uterus. Again, the vagina is NOT a dead-end hole like a "neo-vagina," often filled with hair (from penile inversion) or fecal matter (from colon revision), and doesn't need to be dialated 24/7 because it is not a surgical wound that is trying to constantly heal itself. Absolutely not, the idea that they are in any way comparable is an insult to all women and our female bodies. Stop diluting important information for WOMEN by pandering to males.

[Scott Rhee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vaginas are cool. As a heterosexual cis-gender male, I’ve always kind of dug them, but until first seeing one up-close when I was a sophomore in college, I only ever read about them in books or looked at (air-brushed) photos of them in magazines. Those weren’t accurate depictions either, as they had been heavily shaven, waxed, and made to look pretty.

Don’t get me wrong: I love my penis, but I don’t have the relationship with my sex organ that some guys do. I have never named it. I also don’t refer to it with the pronoun “he/him”. (Some guys do.) I know some women name their vaginas. They even talk to them. If my wife names hers, or talks to it, she keeps that to herself. My penis and her vagina have met many times, and we get along really well. Her vagina has really taught my penis to open up a lot, as it has always been a bit shy.

I was just really unaware of the lush history and worlds that abound about the vagina. Thanks to Rachel E. Gross’s wonderful book “Vagina Obscura: An Anatomical Voyage”, I’ve learned a lot about my second-favorite sex organ. Actually, after reading the book, the vagina may be my first-favorite sex organ. No offense, penis.

I do have to say that I’m thankful that I’m living in the 21st century, as so much about what we know about the vagina has really been brought to light just within the past 50 years. This is because for almost the entirety of human history, the vagina has always been second fiddle to the penis. In many cases, vaginas weren’t even allowed to play in the back-up band to the penis.

Historically, the female reproductive system was never a priority in terms of study. Like everything else, healthcare was ruled by the patriarchy, and knowledge of reproductive health—-or even just basic health—-was overtly phallocentric. The vagina—-like women in general—-was viewed as only important as they related to men.

Indeed, women’s sex organs were often, if not always, looked at as something to be ashamed of. The Latin word given to the female genitalia, pudendum, literally translates as “part for which you should be ashamed.”

Vaginas have certainly come a long way since then, but there is still a lack of knowledge and, in some cultures, an unfortunate taboo regarding female sexuality. In one of the most heart-breaking chapters, Gross writes about the practice of clitorectomies, a.k.a. female genital mutilation, that is still performed in some countries.

These barbaric operations are meant to mitigate or completely eliminate female sexual arousal, stemming from a belief that a sexually aroused woman is an uncontrollable woman.

Gross’s book is an entertaining, fascinating, and occasionally humorous examination of all things vagina: from how Sigmund Freud’s theory of “penis envy” really kind of fucked things up for women to how vaginas have historically (and erroneously) been viewed as the “passive” actor in the sex act to how a strictly female disease such as endometriosis has been so dangerously misunderstood due to a lack of interest in a male-dominated health care system.

Also throughout the book are stories of the “hidden figures” in women’s health: women like Dr. Helen O’Connell, Dr. Patty Brennan, and Dr. Dori Woods. These women have revolutionized women’s health, but in many cases they are figuratively—-and literally—-still merely footnotes in a history that is still heavily populated and controlled by males.

I can’t recommend this book enough, especially to women who love their vaginas, but also to men who love and respect the vaginas in their lives.

[Camelia Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vagina Obscura is a necessary book. As a woman, by reading this book, I learned a lot about my own anatomy and physiology, as well as the history of the misunderstanding about them. The book is roughly organised by female organs–clitoris, vagina, ovaries and uterus. Rachel E. Gross is a science journalist. The book has a lot of historical anecdotes. I find it quite readable.

The last chapter is about transgender (transwomen) surgery and intersex, which I find very interesitng. While higly sympathetic to transgender folks, the author explains the gender-reassignment surgeries as changing the apperance of genitals and make them as similar to the typical appearance of the other sex while allowing the patients to maintain the ability to feel sexual pleasures. There is no ovary or uterus organ transplant/reconstruct, and even a “perfect” transgender surgery can't fool a gynacologist. The author says sex is not clear cut, ommiting the binary existence of gametes, but she also doesn't claim that sex is changable. What the author says in Afterword–that science hasn’t decided what a woman is–is strangely out-of-place or deliberately misleading. Does she refer to female/male or women/men? What is she talking about here, biology or social construct? In a book about women’s bodies, should a question as important as the definition of woman be answered first?

[Donna Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting observations, but not well written. Sometimes she seems to contradict herself. I found it disappointing compared to the lovely artwork on the cover and the cool title.

[Peter Baran · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a celebration of the vagina and everything its connected to and constructed and reconstructed vaginas and that whole - well it takes Gross a big chunk of her introduction to explain exactly what it is about because like a good science writer she does not want to be exclusionary (she often apologises for old terms in quotes, calls out bias in footnotes and the last two chapters are broadly about transgender people and vaginas). And as it is a history of our understanding of the female sexual organs it is crammed full of misunderstanding, misogyny (direct and non-direct), shame, pain and ignorance. A lot of ignorance. And certainly the early sections, when talking about what is understood - both ignorance and lack of interest crop up again and again, and the suggestion that women are just failed / deformed or mutations of men is remarkably common. Even here though, whilst Gross writes stridently for a women's history of the vagina, she generously notes that penises - by virtue of dangling outside the body, are way easier to study.

This is a good bit of popular science, story led into her various topics, logical in its decision on how to deal with topics.. History is well outlined, and often pretty tragic in this area, and pioneers questioned ethically as well as medically (slave owners who became gynaecological pioneers weren't doing it out of the goodness of their heart). There is also a solid selection of gee whiz science future stuff, the possibility of artificial ovaries, postponing menopause indefinitely and hopefully treatments for horrible conditions like endometriosis. But Gross keeps coming back to her central thesis that there just hasn't been anywhere near enough work done on women's bodies, and particularly this core region of difference. She calls out the historic sexism, and how slow science is to catch up (there is a great literature survey which should be called "Everybody's Talking About Penises").

In her introduction Gross specifically addresses this book to a female (and vagina having) audience, partially to identify those who will get the most out of it, but also as a rebuttal to all other science books which have been implicitly assuming a male readership. But I found it fascinating, the stories well drawn (albeit often pretty sad either medically or sociologically). I didn't know that the first case of IVF (in as much as fertilising an egg outside the womb) was in the forties, done by a female tab tech. I did know that Freud was an ass, and this doubles down on that.And the final couple of chapters on transgender and intersex issues around the vagina are full of some really quite sad stories (particularly decisions made at birth for intersex kids). Maybe I would have liked a slightly more universal conclusion, something a bit more celebratory of the vagina itself, but I rattled through this - it had an Emperor Of All Maladies feel of comprehensiveness whilst being at the tip of an ever changing and developing science. Like the clitoris, a lot is going on under the surface.

[Becky Spratford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Star Review in Booklist Online: https://www.booklistonline.com/Vagina...

Three Words That Describe This Book: authoritative but colloquial, inclusive, science communication

THIS BOOK IS NECESSARY!!!!!

After being prescribed rat poison for a persistent yeast infection, award-winning science journalist Gross began researching the history of what medicine refers to as “the female reproductive system.” Quickly realizing that this terminology was insufficient, she set out to define more accurately what it means to be a woman. Across eight topical chapters (“Desire,” “Protection,” “Power,” “Beauty”), each focusing on a specific part of the female sexual anatomy, this volume expertly balances authoritative sources, history, and scientific data with frank, colloquial, and honest discussions of vaginas by medical professionals, scientists, and women from all walks of life, including trans women. Gross presents discussions of the clitoris, vaginal microbiome, and neovagina as stories, first introducing a medical professional and a character for the reader to follow on that chapter’s journey, then crafting a compelling narrative about the anatomy in question, all grounded in medical history, those who studied it, and what has been left out of scientific knowledge. Without its provocative title, this long-overdue book would probably get lost, sent to the margins like so many other books about women’s bodies, like women themselves have been marginalized throughout human history. The crucial importance of this book is further underscored in the aftermath of the reversal of Roe v. Wade, with women’s right to have autonomy over their bodies in question. A stellar example of why effective scientific communication not only makes for an enjoyable read, but why it can also be vitally important to society as a whole.


I read this book as part of my work on the committee to choose the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction.

This title is a finalist.

More info about all of the titles via: https://raforall.blogspot.com/search?...

[books4chess · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Though the vaginal microbiome looks from afar like a dictatorship, it's more of a negotiation ... When Simone de Beauvoir wrote that 'the body is not a thing, it is a situation', she may as well have been talking about the vaginal microbiome".

Trigger warning: female genital mutilation.

Gross is the biology teacher I wish I had, the sexual educator everyone deserves and a superb communicator. My only complaint is genuinely that the book isn't longer. She covers the widest range of vagina-related topics in extensive detail, varying between FGM, BV, the menopause, endometriosis, 'neo vaginas' for transwomen and IVF.

Gross is a fan of the science, but is open to the limitations that exist in the minimal existing research - including the lack of representation in study subjects that leads to the idea that only certain groups of society have the 'right' microbiome. Her response? Let's do more, and make it intersectional, taking into account additional circumstances, because "like eating a Reese's Cup, there's no wrong way to have a vagina" and our research needs to reflect this.

Between the darker points, which emphasise how rat poison is still an accepted treatment (albeit antiquated) treatment for infections and the lack of recognition that endometriosis exists and lacks treatment despite its prevalence, were hilarious insights into studies which led to public outcries of "Was duck penis study an appropriate use of tax payers money?" I really never considered how much animal testing went into understanding the body, let alone how many women had organs removed in further testing.

The vagina is truly, in my opinion, the most fascinating organ and Gross delivered THE biological breakdown I've been waiting for. She explored every element, from the ovaries to the clit, from the born vagina to the neo-vagina and detailed the life-changing contributions from female scientists often forgotten in history, who sacrificed so much for the development of science. As Gross says in her poetic and descriptive prose, your vagina is a planet and there's so much more to discover.

Thank you Rachel for this book, and thank you NetGalley for sharing the Arc. 5*.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

The beginning was fascinating but then it just became a non stop drone about how hard it is to make a fake woman. Honestly that demeans us that are born with a vagina because we are more than a vagina and a clitoris. It would have been a much more meaningful book and worthy of 5 stars if you had instead of focusing on men transitioning and talked to women who have lost their vagina for medical reasons. It would be nice to hear how drs are trying to give lives back to those women, because those I know have been told that there is no surgery to fix it.

[Hannah]

If I wrote a book this good and important and then my publisher hired this audiobook narrator, I would be absolutely fucking livid and burn the producer's studio down.

Look, as a reader, and as a compassionate human, I know it's both a fun and true joke that you can tell a reader because they know big words but don't know how to pronounce them because they've only seen them in print. I have been that person plenty of times. I also know that people have different journeys coming to reading and some people have disabilities when it comes to that, and that is not a moral failing.

However.

If your literal job is to read books aloud, YOU SHOULD KNOW HOW THE FUCK TO READ WORDS PROPERLY. If you are unable or unwilling to do so, whether because of a disability or disadvantage or just, I dunno, laziness, it's not the job for you. That's all.

This narrator sounds like she just learned how to read yesterday, and I don't mean that in some sort of snide "born yesterday" kind of way but in a "she actually has classic miscues seen in children as they learn to read" way (and okay, also a "sorry but have you ever heard intelligent people speak before and actually listened to them" way too, I'm kind of a bitch and this audiobook just made me angrier and angrier as I went on, but I couldn't stop listening because the content was interesting and my library didn't have the print available): "Miss Fizzle" instead of "Miss Frizzle," for an easy example. With fucking EVERYTHING, both fancy science words and everyday words. Endocrinology? How about endocrinIology, just for fun? Anesthetize? Ansestetize. Literally no more than five minutes would go without an error, and I think I'm being pretty generous accounting for whatever the narrator's background is, since she clearly was raised either traveling between multiple Anglophone countries with different ways of using English or maybe had one American parent and one Australian one or something. I could not place her accent at all, but it reminded me of accents of kids who grow up with two English-speaking parents from different English-speaking countries. This is beyond simple regional and dialect differences. Just miscue after miscue and mispronunciation after mispronunciation, plus atrociously mispronounced foreign words while clearly being really pleased with herself for performing cartoonish foreign accents when quoting Freud and other non-Anglophone parties. Honestly either the producer and director were asleep or not present for the recording project or the entire thing was some sort of Make a Wish project where this lady just really wanted to record an audiobook and they just let her suck at it and then decided to sell it to the public anyway.

Absolute trash of an audio production. Everyone associated with it should hide.

But this book! I'm sorry to the author that her very good book was ruined by such a travesty of a production, because it's very interesting! Just...read the print, don't pick up the audio. It's a nice microhistory.

[Sophia Ciocca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I immediately felt so drawn to the cover and title of this book, I had to read it. Unfortunately, I found my actual experience of reading it didn’t live up to my excitement.

It’s very well-researched, and I’m grateful that Gross has taken on the task of updating us on the most cutting-edge findings and research on the female reproductive system — even most doctors aren’t up-to-date on this stuff. I was shocked to realize how many antiquated ideas about women and our bodies are still guiding medical decisions and research.

I learned some cool stuff — about how all internal orgasms are actually clitoral (just stimulating different internal parts of the clitoris!); about the players in the vaginal microbiome and how microbiome transplants might be able to cure BV (which I’ve struggled with for years now); how the female reproductive system actually plays such an active role and has a say in how and which sperm infiltrate the egg; about how the ovaries actually *regenerate* eggs?!? and are the grand orchestrators of women’s hormones and vitality. Really cool stuff.

I just found the stories to be a bit too long and meandering for me — I constantly found myself checking how many pages I had left in a chapter, like I was forcing myself to finish it for an assignment. I would have loved to get these golden nuggets, but with a much more trimmed-down backstory.

Gross also takes every opportunity to call attention to the politics around gender, racism, even COVID. And while I can appreciate that there has indeed been a lot of misogyny in the history of women’s health and medicine, I found it to give the book a sort of distracting “woke” energy, while I was really here to just learn about my body.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty incredible book about the history of scientific exploration of the female anatomy.

The author spends each chapter discussing a particular part and centers it around the scientists who pioneered its study and/or medical treatment, including a chapter on transgender treatment and neovaginas which was fascinating.

One thing in the chapter on the clitoris that surprised me--I had no idea that it goes much deeper than what you can see on the surface (and am happy for women who've undergone genital cutting that it can be reconstructed).

I shared in the author's amazement that so many other things about women's anatomy have been so poorly understood even up until the past ten or fifteen years. We are only just beginning to understand things like the vaginal microbiome, how a woman's body may make new egg cells, diseases like endometriosis that affect millions of women, etc.

Worth a read for anyone interested in medicine or reproductive health.

[sologdin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Effective science journalism, but with historical perspective. Attention to practitioners in the various relevant disciplines, their interventions in various debates, and resolutions, where applicable. Freud and Darwin, as expected, are subject to critique for arbitrary gendered conclusions on sex as a category and as ars amatoria. Some attention to transgender politics, where warranted. A useful corrective overall to a number of dumb ideas that have survived way too long.

[Sahitya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely a 4.5 and I’m rounding it up.

It feels like I’ve been on a roll this Women’s history month, reading nonfiction books about women’s issues - both social and health related - and definitely enjoying this trend. After finishing Pussypedia last week, picking up Vagina Obscura felt like an organic choice and both these books go really well together, even though they are poles apart in tone. I’m gonna try but I don’t think I can truly review this book.

So I’ll just talk about what I liked about this and what it means to me at this stage of my life. One of the major premises of this book is that vaginas and all its associated organs are some of the least researched topics in healthcare and this is something that has long term effects - which I found particularly true because even though I’m in my late 30s, there are many many things about my body that I still don’t know and it feels like even science doesn’t know it. With each chapter here titled based on a singular organ (like the vulva, clitoris, vagina etc), the author does a brilliant job giving us the historical research that has gone into learning more about that organ, as well as any contemporary cutting edge research that is going on now, which might lead to exciting developments in the future. While some of the scientific terminology went totally over my head, the author is really great at making the overarching points very accessible to normal readers like me. I really learnt a lot through this book, and while it is always disheartening to see how women’s healthcare has been sidelined and ignored and some serious issues pathologized as “hysteria” throughout history, it’s good to know that women and transwomen scientists are at the forefront of important research in today’s times.

I think I’m doing a really bad job of this review but don’t let it prevent you from picking up this very informative and well written book. I’m very glad this exists and is so approachable in its content - talking in detailing about each organ - and is also being inclusive and talking about things like genital mutilation, gender affirming surgeries, unnecessary invasive surgeries on intersex kids and more. I’m very impressed with what I’ve learnt here and maybe I will also get to checkout some of the books the author has mentioned here which helped in her research.

[Trisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The reality is, sometimes there's things there you don't see because you're not looking."

I loved this story just for the sheer amoumt of information it provided. There is so little relayed to women about their bodies. Even the information passed out in 5th grade health classes, when they are divided from the boys, barely covers the basics. As we age, we definitely don't learn or have any warning about menopause or perimenopause, something that up until just years ago was still "the great change" women went through.

But this book also flared up anger. Not by the subject or the author or the people who participated - for them all I can say is Thank You! No, it's because so many cases of new information or science breakthroughs happened in the last 10 to 20 years. How did no one think to learn about women's bodies until then?

It's because we didn't have a spot at the scientific and medical tables. Women weren't allwoed, thought to be too weak and sensitive. But here we are, making breakthroughs and teaching each other about our bodies. Warning of what's to come but also how to work through it. We're believing women's pain, understanding about struggles. We know because we know. This book was eye opening and I hope we have we flood the market with more.

Thank you to Kat for picking this one for our book group. I'm so glad I read this.

[Lili Kyurkchiyska · Rating 5 out of 5]

О, Боже! О, Боже, Боже, Боже!
Страхотна книга!

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Vagina Obscura" is the perfect title for this book, in so many ways.

In it, Gross covers how vaginas have been left unexplored, ignored, and swept under the rug by science and medicine - who's practitioners were far more interested in their own penises - how that eventually, if slow at first, started changing - mostly because women, interested in their own parts, were finally allowed to do science too, and the amazing rush of knowledge of the female reproductive system that we're still in the midst of.

It's an absolutely fascinating read - engrossing, if you will.

A small sampling of hings discussed along the way: "female testicles" (now correctly known as ovaries), the shape of the clitoris (and what to do with it, kinda), "picky" eggs, wanton medical experimentation on slaves, corkscrew (duck) vaginas (and duck rape), genital cutting, the vaginal microbiome, and various forms of vaginoplasty. And, throughout, past and present attitudes surrounding it all.

Highly recommended!

[Sam · Rating 1 out of 5]

A book on female anatomy has an entire chapter that refutes all of its points? Why would anyone spend 200 pages talking about how marvelously complex and unique the vagina is, and then toss that out the window?

[☮Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.
For a GR group I'm in, we chose to read this nonfiction about vaginas. What? Not easy to write a review of this other than to say I did learn a lot about many things! It's not ALL about vaginas, strictly speaking. Overall, pretty fascinating.

[RH Walters · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an ambitious book covering many of the shortcomings and crimes of science due to sexism and racism. It is truly galling to think of the harm we have done and continue to do to ourselves and other species -- I've just about had it with human beings. Gross covers many topics ranging from the early days of fertility science and gynecology to health trends, cancer, genital mutilation, menopause and gender affirmation surgery. I think I wanted this to be a more fun vagina book, so its lack of stars is due only to my reaction to this harsh anti-vagina world. Women scientists, we need more of you.

[Annika · Rating 5 out of 5]

EVERYONE should read this book!! I can guarantee you that you will learn things you never knew but that you should've been taught in school. I can also guarantee you that, at least as was the case for me, being a woman, it will make you angry.

[Marc Gonzalez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned so much in this book about the history, science, and politics of the vagina, clitoris, uterus, and entire female reproductive system. Even from the beginning where we are taught to first begin thinking about the words we are using was already so eye opening. It is amazing how little I learned about this before, even having gone to a medical high school in the late 2010s.

Gross so masterfully and engagingly takes us in a journey through different parts of the system, challenging assumptions and highlighting key characters whose stories are not well sung. She also dismantles a lot of beliefs introduced by Freud and the damage that man has done to how we discuss vaginas. Truly a masterclass of science journalism. Plus, the artwork in the book is just really amazing and always a welcome addition. Genius book.

[Hallie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and accessible to the non-scientific reader. Learned a lot about my own anatomy, endometriosis and regenerative cells, bacteria, trans and intersex folks, genital mutilation, and the people behind significant advancements. Interesting points made about how sexism and racism prevents the advancement of science. Some points I didn't always agree with, and the book is sorely missing scientific images/diagrams (there are some cool artsy photos, but the reading flow is interrupted if I have to keep jumping to google to see what she is describing), but still a well done book.

[peach · Rating 4 out of 5]

very educational!! provides a ton of information about a forgotten and ignored field of science. consistently inclusive. with the existence of intersex people, i knew that reproductive organs aren't so binary, but this author brilliantly illustrates that it's a spectrum made up of basically the same parts. my only gripe was that it was text heavy, so my eyes would glaze over often. graphs and illustrations could've made this book more engaging and accessible. otherwise, i truly love the contents of this book and the intentions of its author.

[Queralt✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book up because of the cover and the title and I don’t know what my expectations were, but I’m not sure it met them. The first 20% of the book was quite interesting - a recap of how ‘research’ on the vagina started and what men had believed it to be prior to that. But it just became a weird, disorganized potpourri of topics as the book went on.

My biggest ‘issue’ with the book is how the word asexual was sprinkled at two random times as the author said something like “this happens to lesbians, intersex people, and asexual people” but, in reality, nothing that was said was really relevant to asexuals? I thought it would have been interesting to bring it up in matters such as libido/pleasure in sex and so forth, but asexuality was brought up in the most irrelevant bits in my opinion. (And, of course, I’m not trying to say asexuality means low/no libido or lack of pleasure, but there are asexuals who go have this so it would have been nice to mention asexuality there rather than in random lists…?)

The things that I’ll remember about this will be that Gross really made a point of making fun of people who like missionary; the study where only 2% of married women said to have orgasms; that a bunch of men decided a baby became a ‘woman’ only when its body didn’t have enough testosterone to grow a penis; and that dude who thought the ‘head’ of one of his spermatozoids was the head of a little baby. The end.

[Kaitlyn'sLittleLibrary · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first life-changing read of 2022!

Vagina Obscura is an absolute delight to read. It does a deep-dive into each part of the female reproductive system, exploring its understanding throughout history up to the modern day.

This book takes a topic of much frustration for many women — that is, the lack of medical knowledge about the female reproductive system — and gives it the thorough exploration it deserves. The author delivers science, history, and personal anecdotes with life and good humor. I learned something on every page, laughed in every chapter, and finished the book with a much greater appreciation of the knowledge we have — and don’t have! — about the wonderful vagina and her neighbors. My curiosity about female anatomy has been completely reinvigorated.

I could not recommend this more highly!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Stacey · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was fascinating (vaginas come in different shapes! Also the whole section about mammal vaginas!), but also very frustrating and it pissed me off. Women have suffered so much! Especially WOC. So it wasn't an easy read. And then she went into gender and intersex issues. And that wasn’t what I was expecting. Or wanted to read. So I skipped to the end. Maybe I’ll try again one day.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am nearly 60 years old and was fascinated by this book. Who knew?