LGBTQ+ Gynae Stories
Why LGBTQ+ gynae stories?
One of the most common stories that struck a chord in my Whose Menopause? project was the unequal and inequitable experiences of my LGBTQ+ group when accessing our healthcare system with gynaecological complaints. We didn’t have time to explore this in detail given the scope of the workshops, but it was something that came up in our work - and we all wanted to go back to.
Just as I was coming to the end of the Whose Menopause? project and sorting all the zine and exhibitions out, my Mum got poorly very quickly, and died within eight weeks from cancer. They couldn’t work out where her primary was before she died, but they suspected it was vulvar cancer. Conversations with my Mum in the hospice showed me her lack of knowledge about how to check herself and she didn’t even know where her vulva was. Being unable to label our own anatomy and the stigma that exists around using proper language for things like vaginas and vulvas is a real issue. It’s become increasingly more important for me to look into where this problem came from historically, given what happened to Mum.
I also met Sarah-Jane at the Whitworth Art Gallery on World Menopause Day last October. It was just after my Mum died and we hit it off straight away. After getting to know each other, she kindly agreed for me to take a series of portraits whilst I was researching whether this project had scope. In her writing she describes herself as a 4’7-year-old unapologetically queer, fat woman’. She told me that in October 2019 she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and womb cancer. She’d been suffering for more than two years with pain, and various symptoms like fatigue, bloating, sickness, changes to her bowel habits, irregular bleeding, she wasn’t to eat more than a couple of mouthfuls of food, had shortness of breath and weight loss. But despite her body telling her that something was wrong, every time she went to see a doctor, she was given pain medication or anti-sickness tablets to help with her symptoms. I’ve learnt a lot from Sarah-Jane through our conversations about the inequities and inequalities that she faced, not only because she was fat, but also because of her sexuality.
project aims
‘LGBTQ+ Gynae Stories’, is the working title for a new participatory research and socially engaged creative project, directly developed with and for LGBTQ+ participants in Bolton and beyond.
We’ve got three aims:
to give the LGBTQ+ community a platform to voice inequities with gynaecological healthcare
to support wellbeing by positively enabling LGBTQ+ community members to share their lived experience of gynaecological healthcare through photography
to raise public awareness of gynaecological issues (so for example, self-checks).
I’m delighted that we’ll be working with Wellcome Collection team and their fantastic team to do this. We’ll be exploring which themes resonate, and comparing historical and contemporary experiences with gynae healthcare. We’ll be having online sessions with the Wellcome Collection team, as well as an in-person trip. Then we’ll create some work in response to our findings, if the group wants to.
I’ve spent some time this spring and summer researching the collection, which includes some brilliant source material to inspire our conversations across gynae including the historical context, stigma and shame, trans gynae healthcare, pleasure and intimacy and the impact of life interruptions such as endometriosis, hysterectomy or cancer.
I’ll be posting regular updates on this page, and blogging about the materials we find, the conversations we have and the work we create.
This participatory research and socially engaged project is being delivered in collaboration with the Wellcome Collection.
