I move uteruses

Sometimes when I'm asked what it is that I do for work, I say “I move uteruses.” I know ‘uteri’ is more grammatically correct, but I think that would elicit about as many blank stares as “I’m a women’s health bodywork therapist.” WOMEN’S HEALTH is a phrase that still doesn’t turn many heads. In my years of study and practice, my enthusiasm for women’s healthcare has often been met with neutrality, or even aversion. It took me several years to understand why; women’s health means how to be most vibrant and alive in a female body, right? Actually, not according to popular thought in the 21st century.

Women’s health is a topic that has over the decades been made decidedly not beautiful, not sexy, and not spiritual. Even in an environment of feminist thought, the new age movement, and the healthy living movement, it seems that the words ‘Women’s Health’ primarily conjure thoughts of visits to the gynecologist in both women and men alike. What is called ‘routine care’ is all of what many women know of women’s health: pelvic exam, PAP smear, breast exam. No wonder it’s not interesting! These diagnostics are valuable and certainly have their place, but ladies, how many of you have left the gynecologist's office saying one of the following?  

“That felt amazing.” 

“That was exactly what I needed.” 

“I wish I could come here more often.” 

“I feel like myself again.”

I hesitate to define what routine care provides as women’s healthcare. More accurate is to say it is a set of medical assessments to determine the presence or absence of pathology. This system is based on labels: you have this; you do not have this.

There is a huge deficit in the spectrum of care for women’s bodies. We need care that honors the emotionality and spirituality of the feminine, and invites us into greater health. Care that asks, “How can this woman be supported in finding and sustaining radiant well-being?”

True health in a female body and spirit is beautiful, vibrant, sexy, alive. I think that more and more we are able identify health when we witness or experience it, and we need more road maps on how to arrive there, and keep finding our way back. The natural birth movement and the women’s spiritual movement have taken great steps towards a new model of care, but as long as people think of PAP smears when they hear 'Women's Health', there’s more work to be done.

 I’m here to help inspire this revolution.

What has WOMEN'S HEALTH meant to you thus far?

What do you want it to mean?