All posts of Mia Pohlman

from the editor Fall 2024: Body

Our bodies are vessels that are very good. They mediate our experiences with the world and are truly awe-inspiring in what they can do — so nuanced, so detailed, so intentionally relational. But too often, this wonder and awe isn’t what women experience in relation to our bodies, and especially in regards to the most […]
2 months ago

A Look at Period Poverty

A Lifetime of Bleeding: How much do women spend on period products? We calculated the cost of having a period at approximately $7,500, spent on organic pads, tampons and pantyliners, over a lifetime of menstruating — not adjusted for price inflation throughout the 30 to 40 years a woman will spend menstruating; estimates from other […]
2 months ago

How We Work: The menstrual cycle

Fact-checked by Kimberly Luedecke, RN, BSN, CFCP As women — and as men — we’re not always taught the intricacies of how the female body works and what each signal the body gives to us means. Here, we want to rectify that, so you can be empowered to understand and advocate for your body. Let’s […]
2 months ago

The Female Reproductive System: Let’s learn about our bodies

In a 2016 U.K. survey, fewer than one-third of women were able to correctly name and identify six parts of their own reproductive system, according to the book “Pain and Prejudice: How the Medical System Ignores Women — And What We Can Do About It,” by Gabrielle Jackson, published in 2021. If you’re wondering if […]
2 months ago

Lack of Women in Medical Studies Creates Barriers to Healing

Often throughout history, women’s pain has either been dismissed, found to have an unknown cause, or labeled by the medical system as hysteria or mental illness. This is in part due to cultural taboos that surround talking about women’s bodies and in part due to our health care system’s historical bias against women. Historically, male […]
2 months ago

Medical Journeys: Dr. Rina Patel-Jerls, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)

Dr. Rina Patel-Jerls ate a lot of sugar. She often had cravings for carbohydrates and felt tired. She gained a lot of weight, and her face was swollen and puffy from insulin resistance. A doctor diagnosed Rina with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) in 2021. Rina, who is a pediatric and prenatal chiropractor, wondered how she […]
2 months ago

Medical Journeys: Jessica Kruger, endometriosis

When Jessica Kruger started menstruating in fifth grade, her periods weren’t regular, and she experienced heavy cramping, often missing school when she was on her period because of pain and bleeding through her clothes. Her primary care doctor told her it was normal and put her on birth control, which masked the problem. “I didn’t […]
2 months ago

Medical Journeys: Angie Runnels, menopause

Approximately 10 years ago when Angie Runnels was 45, a gynecologist found a polyp on Angie’s right ovary. During surgery, the doc- tor diagnosed Angie with endometriosis, and removed the ovary because the polyp and ovary were intertwined. After the surgery, Angie found out her right ovary had been the one ovulating each month; without […]
2 months ago

From the Editor Summer 2024: Wonder

I think we can get used to it, being alive. We go through our day-to-day and hardly notice it, the smell of the coffee as we pour water over ground-up beans, the touching of our feet to concrete, to grass, to floor, the singing of the bird in the tree while we taste the sweet […]
5 months ago