00:17.069 --> 00:21.239
I went to a gynecologist when I was 18.
It was the first time,

00:21.569 --> 00:24.680
and the only reason I went was because I
thought I had BD.

00:25.270 --> 00:30.360
Um, and so I walked into the little room, the
examining room with my white robe on.

00:30.610 --> 00:34.560
They told me to take the robe off, so I was
standing there in the middle of the floor naked,

00:35.009 --> 00:38.040
and he was staring at me, looking for any bruises
on my body,

00:38.650 --> 00:40.900
and I'm just standing there.
There was no nurse in the room.

00:40.970 --> 00:43.049
This was my first time, so I didn't know any
better.

00:43.720 --> 00:46.110
And, um, so I took the test.

00:46.529 --> 00:49.680
About two weeks later, I went back and found
out the test was negative.

00:49.720 --> 00:52.080
I didn't have it.
Thank God, because I've never,

00:52.119 --> 00:53.759
I could never have gone back there.

00:56.090 --> 00:58.680
At the time, I didn't know what a hysterectomy
meant.

00:59.680 --> 01:01.330
And I was very upset.

01:02.159 --> 01:06.160
He told me I had to go in the hos, he was gonna
admit me in the hospital the next day.

01:07.089 --> 01:11.209
I told him I couldn't go in the hospital
because I didn't have anybody to take care of

01:11.209 --> 01:12.889
my children.
I had three little kids.

01:13.889 --> 01:16.400
So I came home and I talked to my husband about
it.

01:17.230 --> 01:20.309
We were, he told me I should go to another
doctor.

01:20.389 --> 01:21.849
I was very upset about it.

01:22.230 --> 01:25.709
My next door neighbor also told me that I
should get another opinion.

01:26.550 --> 01:28.510
I went to Saint Vincent Hospital.

01:29.220 --> 01:31.160
I went through the same examination.

01:32.029 --> 01:33.889
And they, he told me that, uh.

01:34.830 --> 01:39.190
I was as sound as a dollar.
He didn't see anything that, uh, would lead to my

01:39.190 --> 01:40.510
having a hysterectomy.

01:41.459 --> 01:43.300
And after that, I had two children.

01:44.069 --> 01:46.529
Uh, the nurse took me up to the labor room.

01:47.519 --> 01:53.480
And they immediately gave me an injection of
something which sort of, uh,

01:53.489 --> 01:56.199
made me feel, uh, foggy. I.

01:56.930 --> 02:00.040
I could tell what was going on, and yet
everything seemed to have been in the

02:00.040 --> 02:03.599
background.
And then at one point I heard the nurse

02:03.599 --> 02:09.419
screaming to me to cross my legs, not to dare
give birth there in the labor room,

02:09.669 --> 02:12.070
and they whisked me up to the delivery room.

02:12.960 --> 02:16.369
And put, uh, the ether mask on my face.

02:17.139 --> 02:20.410
And that was the last thing I remembered
initially in talking,

02:20.490 --> 02:23.050
I had five kids and had never even seen the
speculum.

02:23.830 --> 02:27.649
You know, you lay down and it all happens down
there, and you don't even know what's happening.

02:33.250 --> 02:35.509
On the woman's body.

02:41.990 --> 02:42.990
Oh.

02:53.050 --> 02:57.449
Of, of.

03:02.699 --> 03:06.139
They came and wheeled me out in that bed,
and I was out in the hall.

03:06.160 --> 03:07.429
It was a matter of maybe.

03:09.580 --> 03:13.850
60 seconds and the baby started to come, and the
doctor was running down and said,

03:13.860 --> 03:16.850
have her cross her legs, have her cross her
legs, and I said,

03:16.860 --> 03:19.229
my baby's coming.
I won't cross my legs.

03:20.080 --> 03:24.460
I opened my legs and the baby came, and now I'm
screaming because it was 7 months and there was

03:24.460 --> 03:26.179
no incubator waiting for the baby.

03:27.149 --> 03:29.800
And I'm saying, where's the incubator? And blah
blah blah.

03:29.899 --> 03:33.270
So he said, get her on the table, take her into
the delivery room,

03:33.600 --> 03:36.720
and the nurse said, no way, you know, go fuck
yourself, you know,

03:36.960 --> 03:39.869
she had a baby in the hall just after birth and
came into the hall.

03:40.080 --> 03:41.229
She said, I'll clean it up.

03:46.020 --> 03:50.690
Our babies are born in hospitals designed to
give us the best medical science has to offer.

03:52.130 --> 03:53.360
Routine anesthesia.

03:54.389 --> 03:58.520
Episiotomy. Drugs to bring on labor.

03:58.850 --> 04:02.919
Artificially induced childbirth for the doctors
and hospital's convenience.

04:03.970 --> 04:09.809
With this technology, our infant mortality rate
remains the highest of 15 developed nations.

04:11.419 --> 04:17.059
By the 1940s, it was absolutely imperative that
a woman go to a doctor and go to a hospital and

04:17.059 --> 04:21.250
be subjected to what we call standard
obstetrical procedures,

04:21.619 --> 04:25.670
but these were all the kinds of ways that we
had been controlled.

04:27.019 --> 04:28.880
And looking back at it,

04:31.119 --> 04:34.700
the way we were made totally powerless and
helpless.

04:35.679 --> 04:40.720
Lolly Hirsch and her daughter Jean of Global
Gynecological Self-Help clinics lecture and

04:40.720 --> 04:44.070
raise questions about the quality of health
care women receive.

04:44.899 --> 04:49.929
It used to be, or the way I imagine it used to
be was that mothers and grandmothers would pass

04:49.929 --> 04:54.260
on the information to their daughters,
information which is necessary for our survival,

04:54.570 --> 04:58.049
such as what menstruation is all about, what
childbirth is all about,

04:58.250 --> 05:03.480
how the whole function occurs, how to avoid it,
but it's been totally lost,

05:03.589 --> 05:10.250
and this is why women were absolutely foiled
for the takeover of obstetrics and gynecology.

05:13.529 --> 05:17.850
Before the advent of modern medicine, it was
customary for women to provide their own

05:17.850 --> 05:21.779
medical care.
In colonial America, women were kitchen physics.

05:21.779 --> 05:26.640
And midwives.
Menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause were

05:26.640 --> 05:29.450
accepted as normal and healthy functions in any
woman's life.

05:31.049 --> 05:35.529
Childbirth was a natural procedure assisted by
the midwife and her birth stool.

05:37.790 --> 05:42.220
By the late 1700s, obstetrics had been invaded
by university-trained doctors.

05:43.820 --> 05:48.730
Armed with new technology, forceps, hooks,
and surgical tools,

05:48.940 --> 05:51.420
male doctors set after wealthy women clients.

05:52.399 --> 05:54.489
Childbirth became a surgical procedure.

05:55.500 --> 06:00.019
For simple menstrual disorders, leeches were
inserted into a woman's vagina through a conical

06:00.019 --> 06:02.339
speculum and attached to her cervix.

06:05.339 --> 06:09.769
All our biological functions had become dirty
and diseased.

06:11.859 --> 06:18.130
In 1847, these same university-trained doctors
banded together to form the American Medical

06:18.130 --> 06:23.029
Association.
The AMA worked to create a professional image

06:23.029 --> 06:24.670
and gain control over medicine.

06:27.079 --> 06:30.359
Lay people were denied access to medical
knowledge and technology.

06:33.220 --> 06:36.609
These doctors substantiated the attitudes that
exist today.

06:39.100 --> 06:45.690
With the male takeover of obstetrics and
gynecology, the men had designated us as sick,

06:46.140 --> 06:51.140
diseased, injured when we were actually just
performing the normal functions of a female.

06:52.450 --> 06:56.630
Menstruation?
Ovulation

06:59.369 --> 07:04.109
Child delivery, menopause, these are all the
functions of a normal,

07:04.170 --> 07:06.730
healthy female.
This is the way females have performed from the

07:06.730 --> 07:09.459
beginning of time.
Doctor Francis P.

07:09.549 --> 07:12.450
Rhodes, former president of the American
Geriatrics Society,

07:12.570 --> 07:18.049
declared menopause to be a chronic and
incapacitating deficiency disease that leaves

07:18.049 --> 07:22.170
women with flabby breasts, wrinkled skin,
fragile bones,

07:22.209 --> 07:24.980
and a loss of ability to have or enjoy sex.

07:27.380 --> 07:29.290
Doctors treat us as if we're sick.

07:30.339 --> 07:32.700
Drug companies supply the medication to prove
it.

07:34.230 --> 07:38.459
They picture us as neurotic, childlike,
irritable hypochondriacs.

07:40.040 --> 07:44.160
When we need to be treated, our doctors often
don't take us seriously.

07:47.549 --> 07:53.029
About three years ago I was raped, and when you're
raped, according to the law then, you had to

07:53.029 --> 07:56.290
go to the hospital in order to prove that you
had been actually raped.

07:56.790 --> 08:00.350
And so I was taken to Saint Luke's Hospital at
Saint Luke's Hospital.

08:01.769 --> 08:08.730
I had a doctor who did not believe that I was
raped and who, for a

08:08.730 --> 08:15.140
good 15 minutes maybe, tried to get me to say
that I wasn't raped and I actually was,

08:15.170 --> 08:17.679
I was just in there, I don't know, I guess
trying to get attention.

08:17.970 --> 08:21.239
Doctors would say to me that there is
absolutely nothing wrong with you.

08:22.250 --> 08:24.220
I don't feel anything inside.

08:24.750 --> 08:27.820
When they did a female examination, they would
not feel anything,

08:27.859 --> 08:30.660
and yet there was something there because I
could feel it.

08:30.790 --> 08:33.789
If you got a headache or a backache, they'll
feed you the Librium,

08:33.830 --> 08:35.179
the Valium, the whole thing.

08:36.729 --> 08:40.090
Women consume 50% more prescription drugs than
men.

08:41.979 --> 08:44.130
Three times as many antidepressants.

08:45.659 --> 08:48.049
Three times as many minor tranquilizers.

08:50.969 --> 08:55.260
And I eventually thought I was crazy too.

08:55.750 --> 09:01.590
They decided to open me up again to find out
exactly what was there because I wouldn't be

09:01.590 --> 09:05.659
complaining about pain for six months if there
wasn't anything there,

09:06.030 --> 09:12.869
and they found that I did have another ovarian
cyst and I had had adhesions from the

09:12.869 --> 09:17.630
operation before, which left my uterus stuck
together and my bladder and my bowel.

09:21.239 --> 09:25.479
Manufacturers began bombarding women with drugs
in the late 1800s.

09:26.210 --> 09:29.919
An onslaught of tonics and potions hit the
shops and streets.

09:30.710 --> 09:32.619
Patent medicine had arrived.

09:33.799 --> 09:40.179
Treatments to bring on periods, birth control
techniques, remedies to curb sexual desire.

09:40.630 --> 09:43.030
Anything and everything was available.

09:48.659 --> 09:51.500
Numerous patent medicines were addictive and
lethal.

09:52.599 --> 09:54.950
Drug manufacturers ignored the dangers.

09:55.239 --> 09:56.919
There was too much money to be made.

09:59.390 --> 10:02.770
Prescription drugs with unknown effects are
still being given to women.

10:03.739 --> 10:09.119
In the early 1950s, a drug called DES was given
to over 1 million pregnant women.

10:10.010 --> 10:14.559
A current issue of the Medical World News
reports incidents of irregular vaginal cell

10:14.559 --> 10:16.880
growth in 90% of their daughters.

10:18.150 --> 10:21.700
When my mother was pregnant with me, she went
to her obstetrician,

10:21.789 --> 10:27.309
and the doctor administered a drug called DES
which, in those days,

10:27.429 --> 10:29.150
which was about 1950.

10:30.070 --> 10:32.179
It was known to prevent miscarriages.

10:33.510 --> 10:39.059
When I was about 19, that was about 5 years ago,
I had a routine Pap smear,

10:39.349 --> 10:43.219
and they found an irregularity in the cells of
my vagina,

10:43.549 --> 10:47.580
and this irregularity in the cells was known to
lead to cancer.

10:47.830 --> 10:52.150
And what this entails for me now is that for
the rest of my life I have to go to the

10:52.150 --> 10:56.789
gynecologist every six months, have biopsies done
and Pap smears,

10:57.190 --> 11:03.890
and it's very, very, very frightening, and I
also have a lot of anger in me because

11:04.099 --> 11:07.190
this drug is still on the market.
It's in the morning after pill,

11:07.330 --> 11:11.979
and I think that it's very, very important that
a lot of women know what I'm going through so

11:11.979 --> 11:13.250
that they can get checked.

11:13.780 --> 11:17.739
it's like when talking about ecology, our
bodies are part of the ecology and we're being

11:17.739 --> 11:19.380
destroyed the same way as the air is.

11:19.580 --> 11:22.330
I feel desperate about it.
I feel for my own body,

11:22.659 --> 11:26.140
you know, my egg supply is already contaminated
for five years' worth of the pill.

11:26.219 --> 11:27.969
I don't know what that means.

11:29.210 --> 11:32.130
despite 46 known side effects of the pill.

11:33.049 --> 11:37.320
it is still marketed and prescribed as safe for
over 10 million women.

11:41.099 --> 11:44.140
He told me that I might have had an infection
and he said,

11:44.429 --> 11:50.669
well, you got an IUD, so what do you expect
perfection from contraception? And uh, here I was

11:50.669 --> 11:55.229
really concerned about the hemorrhaging and he
started going into this whole morals rap about

11:55.539 --> 12:00.630
women going in for contraception and then when
things go, when things go wrong they get really

12:00.630 --> 12:06.700
upset, and it turned out that I had a severe
case of pelvic inflammatory disease.

12:07.239 --> 12:10.190
And I started realizing, as far as
contraception goes,

12:10.270 --> 12:12.500
you're damned if you do and you're damned if
you don't.

12:14.559 --> 12:20.080
I remember during delivery the doctor had asked
me whether or not I was planning to breastfeed

12:20.380 --> 12:25.840
and I said no, so I, I think I guess they gave
me something to uh dry up the milk.

12:26.419 --> 12:28.500
Well anyway, my breast grew.

12:29.289 --> 12:33.289
it was like wall to wall titties that I
couldn't, I just didn't understand what had

12:33.289 --> 12:35.719
happened to me.
I went and looked in the mirror.

12:36.570 --> 12:40.580
And the milk, the milk was, was, was coming
from the breast,

12:41.190 --> 12:43.380
and I went over to New York Infirmary.

12:43.750 --> 12:47.590
when I got there, well, I spoke to someone at
the desk.

12:47.669 --> 12:52.710
She was like an informational intake person,
and I explained to her that I just left the

12:52.710 --> 12:57.710
hospital, you know, two days ago I had a little
boy and that my breast suddenly grew and I

12:57.710 --> 13:00.659
didn't know what was wrong.
I was in pain at that point.

13:00.830 --> 13:02.229
I was near tears.

13:02.919 --> 13:07.599
so she tried to explain to me if there was, if
I was given any medication during the time of

13:07.599 --> 13:11.039
delivery, and I explained that I didn't know
whether or not they gave me anything.

13:11.080 --> 13:13.429
I didn't know what's going on.
I just wanted some help.

13:14.809 --> 13:20.320
If we want better care for our bodies, we must
learn the benefits and risks of our medication.

13:21.200 --> 13:23.869
It is our right to know and question.

13:24.849 --> 13:27.640
It is also our right to refuse the treatment.

13:30.630 --> 13:35.780
Talking to the women, they recommended this
particular doctor because he was considered

13:36.109 --> 13:37.580
top of the profession.

13:38.260 --> 13:41.580
Their mothers had gone to him; some of them
said their grandmothers had gone to him.

13:41.590 --> 13:42.940
He was an elderly man.

13:43.650 --> 13:45.630
So I went up to see him.

13:45.919 --> 13:49.830
He examined me and he said, "Oh, you're in
trouble."

13:50.119 --> 13:51.340
You're very sick.

13:51.679 --> 13:52.780
I said, "Well, what's wrong?"

13:53.000 --> 13:56.200
What's wrong?
He said, "I can't tell you, but you have to go

13:56.200 --> 14:00.640
to the hospital right away," he said, "uh, call
your husband and tell him I'm taking you to the

14:00.640 --> 14:02.640
hospital."
I said, "I'm not going to the hospital."

14:02.719 --> 14:05.559
I don't want to go to the hospital." He said,
"you have to go to the hospital."

14:05.640 --> 14:08.349
I won't be responsible for what's going to
happen to you."

14:09.820 --> 14:15.659
Well, he's got me into my coat, and he started
bundling me up, and he took me outside and said

14:15.659 --> 14:18.890
we're going to go in a cab, and I'm taking you
right to the hospital.

14:18.979 --> 14:22.330
I said, "I'm not going to the hospital," and he
started to push me.

14:22.659 --> 14:25.830
Well, I actually struck him.
I actually hit him in the face.

14:26.140 --> 14:29.169
I got into the cab, and I ran home like hell.

14:30.109 --> 14:36.270
And sometime later, quite a while afterwards, a
newspaper article appeared that this particular

14:36.270 --> 14:41.530
doctor had been arrested; it was found that
he had performed 2,000 unnecessary

14:41.530 --> 14:43.010
hysterectomies.

14:43.929 --> 14:44.960
How is your blood pressure?

14:45.369 --> 14:50.890
In 1975, hysterectomies were the second highest
of all major operations performed.

14:52.159 --> 14:56.489
The recent findings in the New England Journal
of Medicine revealed that one-third of the

14:56.489 --> 14:59.150
hysterectomies performed are unnecessary.

15:01.369 --> 15:06.080
A current report of the Health Policy Advisory
Center throws this surgical procedure into

15:06.080 --> 15:10.359
greater question.
It states in most major teaching hospitals in

15:10.359 --> 15:15.919
New York City, it is the unwritten policy to do
elective hysterectomies on poor black and

15:15.919 --> 15:16.919
Puerto Rican women.

15:19.260 --> 15:23.440
In the 1840s, gynecological surgery was a newly
developed practice.

15:25.349 --> 15:28.469
Doctors operated on slave women to perfect the
procedure.

15:31.299 --> 15:36.280
By the 1860s, it had become routine, even
fashionable treatment for wealthy women.

15:37.799 --> 15:41.210
They supposedly suffered from a myriad of
symptoms and disease.

15:42.570 --> 15:46.969
Doctors were convinced that the source of all
women's ailments lay in her ovaries.

15:48.900 --> 15:53.770
Sexual surgery, clitorectomies, and ovariotomies
were the prescribed treatment.

15:55.200 --> 15:57.830
Doctor George Austin confirmed this practice.

15:58.599 --> 16:02.359
We see indigestion, spinal irritation, many
forms of neuralgia,

16:02.479 --> 16:08.919
headaches, mental irritability, hysteria, and
insanity, all largely attributable to some

16:08.919 --> 16:09.960
disease of the ovaries.

16:11.390 --> 16:13.940
Medical theory validated women's sickly role.

16:14.809 --> 16:16.809
Medical treatment perpetuated it.

16:17.929 --> 16:21.969
Doctors warned that too much development of the
brain would atrophy the uterus.

16:23.010 --> 16:27.770
Ovariotomies were recommended for everything
from suffragism to educational and professional

16:27.770 --> 16:32.830
desires.
With the threat of gynecological surgery,

16:33.119 --> 16:35.929
few women would challenge the existing sexual
roles.

16:38.109 --> 16:41.940
Doctor Mary Putnam Jacoby was one woman who
challenged these theories.

16:42.270 --> 16:47.750
I think it is in the increased attention paid
to women and especially to their new function

16:47.750 --> 16:53.500
as lucrative patients that we find explanation
of much ill health among women.

16:55.869 --> 16:59.489
The medical establishment remains unresponsive
to our needs.

16:59.820 --> 17:03.849
As recently as 1974, the AMA News asked.

17:04.499 --> 17:07.859
What is it that has caused many patients, even
the more docile,

17:07.938 --> 17:11.779
soft-spoken ones, to suddenly start questioning
every procedure,

17:11.859 --> 17:17.178
every prescription, to come out with shocking
position statements on premarital sex,

17:17.259 --> 17:22.178
lesbianism, and childless marriage, and to
insist on using natural childbirth,

17:22.259 --> 17:27.139
breastfeeding, and diaphragms when modern
medicine has provided them with much less

17:27.139 --> 17:29.178
bothersome and painless alternatives.

17:31.760 --> 17:34.150
Today women are questioning our medical care.

17:34.709 --> 17:39.400
Self-help groups, health fairs, and health
education are unclouding medical myths.

17:40.229 --> 17:44.959
As we're learning the truth about our bodies,
we're discovering what we want and need from

17:44.959 --> 17:47.709
the health care system.

17:52.160 --> 17:57.699
No one. Oh no, no. She's making her

18:02.839 --> 18:09.130
move. She's taking control

18:12.800 --> 18:14.400
of her life.

18:16.979 --> 18:18.699
of her life.

18:21.250 --> 18:27.439
At Riverside Church, a women's group
organized a health fair to teach women simple

18:27.439 --> 18:32.380
preventive care.
Rena is having a mammogram, a breast X-ray

18:32.380 --> 18:34.969
generally given to women over 35 years old.

18:36.349 --> 18:40.839
This, like the thermogram we see Deborah
receiving, is an X-ray that can detect any

18:40.839 --> 18:41.939
lumps in the breast.

18:45.319 --> 18:48.150
The Pap smear is a preventive test for cervical
cancer.

18:54.540 --> 18:59.479
The doctor takes some fluid from the walls of
Rina's vagina and from inside her cervical oss.

19:00.390 --> 19:02.469
This discharge is made into a smear.

19:05.290 --> 19:08.339
The doctor stresses that Rina should check her
breasts once a month.

19:10.260 --> 19:13.520
This way she can notice any change in their
size and shape.

19:16.310 --> 19:18.829
With the doctor's help, Rina feels her uterus.

19:19.869 --> 19:24.910
This procedure helps detect changes in the size
and shape of the uterus and surrounding organs.

19:29.800 --> 19:33.349
The Cancer Society has done a lot of publicity
about breast examination,

19:33.430 --> 19:38.180
teaching women, actually, you know, they've
given us permission to touch our breasts and

19:38.180 --> 19:43.150
that it was only the next step, the gynecological self-help, that why not then also
examine that inner part of us, our vagina.

19:43.150 --> 19:45.579
Examine that inner part of us, our vagina.

19:45.949 --> 19:48.109
There are many things that we can see.

19:49.229 --> 19:51.819
There are many kinds of things that we can
control.

19:52.510 --> 19:59.160
For instance, doing vaginal self-examination, a
woman can see impending vaginal infections,

19:59.189 --> 20:03.270
imbalance of yeast that would, maybe in a few
days, cause tremendous itching.

20:03.859 --> 20:09.479
A chancre for syphilis can appear any place
on the body wherever there's sexual contact,

20:09.729 --> 20:12.719
and if it should appear around the vaginal area,
even externally,

20:12.810 --> 20:17.209
a woman would tend to miss it since we've been
so socialized not to touch or look at ourselves,

20:17.290 --> 20:18.359
even externally.

20:18.569 --> 20:21.969
But were it to appear on the cervix, there
would be no way she could see it at all unless

20:21.969 --> 20:25.969
she had a speculum.
Lolly and Jean Hirsch teach women how to view

20:25.969 --> 20:27.250
their own cervixes.

20:28.030 --> 20:31.780
By examining ourselves, we can understand more
about our bodies.

20:33.739 --> 20:38.849
Well, for vaginal self-examination, you need a
mirror to view yourself.

20:38.900 --> 20:43.449
You need a high-intensity light to light up the
area, and you need this,

20:43.489 --> 20:45.589
the magic gadget, the plastic speculum.

20:45.900 --> 20:47.579
There is a wide area here.

20:51.270 --> 20:53.150
Practice before you insert it.

20:54.290 --> 20:59.630
It slides here in the position and stays open
so that your hands are free to use the mirror

20:59.630 --> 21:00.880
and the light.

21:01.239 --> 21:05.239
You turn it sideways to go the length of your
vaginal opening.

21:06.619 --> 21:08.400
And then after you get it in.

21:09.359 --> 21:10.619
Turn it up.

21:11.040 --> 21:15.280
You naturally are clean, but you don't have to
worry about sterilization because you're not

21:15.280 --> 21:18.599
going into the uterus, you're not going through
the cervix and into the cervical canal.

21:18.680 --> 21:22.800
You're only in the vagina, which is like the
mouth; you would be careful of

21:23.719 --> 21:25.650
cleanliness but not sterility.

21:27.030 --> 21:33.750
My hands are free then to hold a high-intensity
light to direct the light on the mirror.

21:34.760 --> 21:40.449
And I view my vaginal walls.

21:41.280 --> 21:44.640
At the end of the vaginal area, depending on
different women,

21:44.760 --> 21:51.760
the depth of the vagina, sometimes the cervix,
we're looking for the cervix is

21:51.760 --> 21:54.719
very close to the vaginal opening and sometimes
farther back.

21:54.770 --> 21:58.000
The first time I ever saw your cervix, um.

21:58.920 --> 22:02.760
There was a group of us and everybody said, "Oh,
look, this is where you came out from."

22:04.089 --> 22:07.439
I think that when women first get into
gynecological self-help,

22:07.479 --> 22:09.880
their inclination is that they want to look.
Some women,

22:09.959 --> 22:14.640
you know, just looking constantly, they're
absolutely fascinated with this whole view of

22:14.640 --> 22:16.439
themselves that has been completely denied.

22:16.910 --> 22:20.520
Time and time again, women will say, "Is that
all he's looking at?"

22:20.719 --> 22:26.000
you know, charged $25 and all that you go
through with getting an appointment with the

22:26.000 --> 22:29.199
gynecologist.
But after a certain period of time, it sort of

22:29.199 --> 22:32.599
levels off and it becomes a routine kind of
thing.

22:33.770 --> 22:38.660
Brushing your teeth, checking your breast,
doing breast examination after the directions

22:38.660 --> 22:44.770
of the cancer society, then checking your
vagina, and it becomes a normal part of your

22:44.770 --> 22:47.880
life.
Now you're just taking the speculum straight

22:47.880 --> 22:48.920
out without closing it.

22:50.650 --> 22:53.920
Because if you close at first, you might pinch
a pubic hair.

22:54.209 --> 23:00.569
The first time that I saw Carol Downer do this,
I was shocked because I have been socialized in

23:01.010 --> 23:04.959
totally traditional middle class values, but
sniff it.

23:06.050 --> 23:09.000
This is another clue to the possibility of
infection.

23:10.369 --> 23:12.119
Jermaine Greer says, "Taste it."

23:12.969 --> 23:14.760
I still have difficulties.

23:15.369 --> 23:19.410
We feel that it's a basic right that every
woman has the right to know how to control her

23:19.410 --> 23:23.160
body, and once we take it upon ourselves to
fulfill that right,

23:23.369 --> 23:26.800
we have a certain freedom that we gain from
knowing how to control our body.

23:27.050 --> 23:29.780
And then it's our responsibility to share that
information.

23:29.849 --> 23:32.209
We can't just keep it amongst ourselves.

23:33.579 --> 23:34.859
Well, with this self-knowledge,

23:35.969 --> 23:42.040
but also then when women do become ill, when we
are sick and there is a need to go to the

23:42.040 --> 23:43.920
medical profession, that we go.

23:44.750 --> 23:49.380
With a sense of dignity, a sense of
self-respect, knowledge about ourselves,

23:49.469 --> 23:53.660
and we can demand that the medical profession
treat us with respect.

23:57.280 --> 24:01.339
There's an old Chinese saying that women hold
up half the sky.

24:01.459 --> 24:06.439
And that's so true because you find that among
Chinese women there's just incredible strength.

24:07.760 --> 24:12.199
Most of the women in Chinatown work; they work
in garment factories under very harsh

24:12.199 --> 24:14.510
conditions, 10 and 12 hours a day.

24:14.839 --> 24:19.469
And yet, despite that, they're able to keep the
family together to take care of the children,

24:19.640 --> 24:21.630
to take care of the husband's needs.

24:24.339 --> 24:28.420
Women and men in Chinatown recognized that
their health care needs were not being met.

24:29.420 --> 24:32.900
They organized the Chinatown Health Clinic in
1971.

24:33.920 --> 24:38.520
Regina Lee, one of the founders, stresses the
importance of community health education.

24:40.280 --> 24:46.699
The health clinic was organized in an attempt to break
down some of the barriers that have prevented

24:46.699 --> 24:53.180
people in Chinatown from getting adequate
healthcare, and to try to work with existing

24:53.180 --> 24:58.180
health institutions and get them to be more
responsive to the community needs in Chinatown.

25:05.520 --> 25:09.520
No.
We don't think that you can talk about

25:09.890 --> 25:15.969
healthcare or talk about maintaining one's good
health without knowledge and understanding

25:16.400 --> 25:21.170
about diseases and about how to seek out
healthcare.

25:27.969 --> 25:33.520
Good health care means not waiting until people
become sick and come to you,

25:33.729 --> 25:40.170
but going out to them and directly bringing
these services to people before they become ill.

25:41.800 --> 25:46.369
We can play a role in terms of doing outreach
and doing education,

25:46.540 --> 25:52.260
but ultimately, we feel that the responsibility
would have to fall onto the local hospitals.

26:00.750 --> 26:02.770
And we knew that there was something wrong.

26:02.979 --> 26:06.369
All right, we're close to Harvard and we're
close to all these schools,

26:06.380 --> 26:09.900
and we live in Somerville, and you can't get
good health care.

26:13.069 --> 26:16.520
Anne Bossard is a counselor at the Somerville
Women's Health Project.

26:17.290 --> 26:21.599
This project is one of the growing number of
clinics offering alternative means of health

26:21.599 --> 26:27.589
care.
We heard about a group of young women

26:27.589 --> 26:29.189
professionals and non-professionals.

26:29.869 --> 26:33.660
In the health care field that we're talking
about alternatives.

26:35.119 --> 26:37.439
And we called them and we asked them to come
have supper.

26:37.550 --> 26:38.739
Well, it was instant love.

26:39.920 --> 26:43.510
Um, they recognized our needs, we recognized
their skills,

26:44.000 --> 26:45.790
and we said maybe we can put them together.

26:46.979 --> 26:49.770
These women were coming from a whole other
place.

26:50.020 --> 26:52.619
They cared.
They really cared.

26:53.680 --> 26:56.760
And that's how the health project started.

26:57.439 --> 27:01.339
The Some of a Woman's Health Project provides
good quality health care.

27:01.550 --> 27:03.819
And that means that it's free.

27:04.310 --> 27:06.390
It's a right, not a privilege.

27:06.670 --> 27:10.150
It's consumer controlled.
We should, we have little enough control over

27:10.150 --> 27:12.939
our own lives, and certainly health is goddamn
important.

27:13.469 --> 27:15.469
We know what we need.
We know what our kids need.

27:15.550 --> 27:18.380
We know what our sisters need, and so it's
consumer controlled.

27:18.670 --> 27:22.949
It's preventative because we can bring our kids
there to be checked so we know they're OK.

27:24.439 --> 27:28.630
Because we are community controlled, one of the
things that we recognized were that,

27:28.680 --> 27:35.130
women often don't know what to ask a doctor,
so we initiated the patient

27:35.130 --> 27:40.829
advocate, so the patient advocate will take the
history, find out what's wrong,

27:41.000 --> 27:43.770
show her the speculum, show her the instruments
that will be used,

27:43.880 --> 27:48.160
go in with the patient and sort of act exactly
as an advocate.

27:48.810 --> 27:54.310
With the community women who are patient
advocates, they can often make it easier

27:54.310 --> 28:00.319
for a patient to understand what I'm asking her
for instance, a lot of people have sort of

28:00.319 --> 28:06.839
their own words for what intercourse is, or for
what their periods are, or for menopause.

28:08.380 --> 28:12.609
Somerville does not recognize that young
women are sexual beings.

28:12.780 --> 28:19.030
They have feelings, they have emotions that,
that they even make love.

28:19.150 --> 28:23.339
You know, they'll come with their friends to
have their ears pierced initially.

28:23.589 --> 28:25.680
They go through the door, they see us, they're
not afraid.

28:25.709 --> 28:29.430
So then if they have a question about their
sexuality, about their body,

28:29.589 --> 28:32.949
about their health, they'll come
back before it's too late.

28:33.880 --> 28:35.589
Jackie works at the Health Project.

28:35.800 --> 28:39.400
I had to do urine test, spin blood.

28:40.380 --> 28:46.060
Blood pressure and pregnancy tests.
And I think women will be more comfortable

28:46.060 --> 28:47.219
having a baby at home.

28:48.290 --> 28:49.290
Very good.

28:59.250 --> 29:02.560
And at the end of a medical night, we sit down
and we evaluate the night.

29:02.670 --> 29:06.020
Everybody has input, and we decide what was done
right, what was done wrong,

29:06.189 --> 29:09.900
what we can do to make it better for our
consumers, for us.

29:10.189 --> 29:15.060
The best thing about the Health Project is it
recognizes a woman as a whole person.

29:15.310 --> 29:19.469
I feel whole when I'm there, and I hope that I
can share this with other people,

29:19.510 --> 29:21.699
that we can all share this with other people.

29:21.949 --> 29:23.880
You're a whole person.
You're not a pelvic.

29:24.680 --> 29:28.359
You, you're not an organ, you're a person, and
we have people,

29:28.530 --> 29:29.969
and we will be heard.

29:31.449 --> 29:34.500
We stand here free and stronger.

29:34.790 --> 29:37.660
We refuse to suffer any longer.

29:37.910 --> 29:40.079
We'll fight for dignity.

29:40.310 --> 29:42.359
We will be heard.

29:44.150 --> 29:45.150
We

30:01.040 --> 30:02.349
refuse to suffer any longer.

30:02.920 --> 30:04.479
We'll fight for dignity.

30:09.229 --> 30:10.660
We know that we will be heard.

30:33.810 --> 30:35.349
We will be heard.

30:36.109 --> 30:37.619
Now we don't.

30:40.709 --> 30:43.849
So our dignity
We will be heard.

30:46.050 --> 30:48.880
We can be freer and stronger.

30:49.130 --> 30:51.859
We refuse to suffer any longer.

30:52.160 --> 30:56.170
We'll fight for dignity, we women will be heard.

30:58.260 --> 31:00.660
We will be heard.

31:03.599 --> 31:05.239
Now when our day will be heard.

31:10.500 --> 31:13.239
We can be freer and stronger.

31:13.520 --> 31:16.209
We refuse to suffer any longer.

31:16.520 --> 31:18.630
We'll fight for dignity.

31:19.880 --> 31:24.229
We will be heard.
But we know that we are.

31:24.979 --> 31:31.959
Now we
And now we don't let women

31:31.959 --> 31:32.650
be heard.