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1,194 results
  • Article
  • Article

Jim, the horse of death

| Chris Baker

Horses’ blood was used to produce an antitoxin that saved thousands of children from dying from diphtheria, but contamination was a deadly problem. Find out how a horse called Jim was the catalyst for the beginnings of medical regulation.

  • Comic
  • Comic

Crisis meeting

| Clarice Tudor

I’m sorry, but wtf are “hip dips”?

  • In pictures
  • In pictures

Neuroqueering comics

| Lilith (Lea) Cooper

Researcher and zine-maker Lea Cooper considers how comic-zines use the distinctive qualities of zines to explore some of the complex connections between memory, autobiography, disability, neurodivergence and queer identity.

  • Article
  • Article

Womb milk and the puzzle of the placenta

| Joanna Wolfarth

A human baby needs milk to survive – and this holds true even before it’s born. Joanna Wolfarth explores “womb milk”, as well as ancient and modern ideas about the placenta.

  • Photo story
  • Photo story

‘My Hair Is Not…’

| Inés Yearwood-Sanchez

Eight Black people talk about their relationship with their hair – their hairstyle history, their experiences, and how they decided to have natural hair.

  • Article
  • Article

Hyperfocus and hobbies

| Alex ChanSteven Pocock

Alex Chan talks about the power of ADHD-associated hyperfocus and how they’ve become wary of feeding it too often.

  • In pictures
  • In pictures

A nasty history of the vaginal speculum

| Lalita Kaplish

The vaginal speculum carries the weight of generations of preconceptions about morality, blame and attitudes to pain. Lalita Kaplish explores the history of the implement and how societies shaped its use.

  • Article
  • Article

Crones

| Helen FosterEast Midlands Oral History ArchiveAsma Istwani

Menopause can be tough when nobody talks about it and all the stereotypes are negative, but it can also be transformative, marking the start of a new stage of life - cronehood.

  • Article
  • Article

Are you still nursing?

| Julia Martins

Julia Martins might get the side-eye for breastfeeding a three-year-old in the UK but, as she explains, examples from history, as well as the cultural norms of Brazil, where she grew up, are firmly on the side of extended nursing.

  • Comic
  • Comic

A shared experience

| Andrew Field

Having a simple conversation with another person brings such pleasure.

  • Article
  • Article

Witches

| Helen FosterEast Midlands Oral History ArchiveAsma Istwani

Many of the women persecuted as witches in the 16th-century “witch craze” were over 50 and exhibited signs of menopause. Helen Foster suggests that the stigma of the wicked witch still affects older women and how they deal with menopause.

  • Book extract
  • Book extract

Why the NHS is worth saving

| Gavin FrancisJames Glossop

In this extract from his latest book, ‘Free For All’, Dr Gavin Francis poses challenging questions to be addressed if a health service that’s free for all at the point of use is to remain possible.

  • Comic
  • Comic

Reclaiming reality

| Andrew Field

While hospital routine and meds get to work on the psychosis, you can start to draw the threads of your life back together.

  • Article
  • Article

Invisibility

| Helen FosterEast Midlands Oral History ArchiveAsma Istwani

Why do menopausal women feel invisible? Because nobody talks about menopause or because society doesn't value older women?

  • Article
  • Article

Intertwined with air

| Siwakorn OdochaoJennifer Katanyoutanant

Siwakorn Odochao details his people’s way of perceiving trees and humans as intimately connected, and draws on the air as the element that weaves between them. Through the co-dependency of humans and trees to prepare the air for each other, he elaborates on the relationship between air, health and environment.

  • Article
  • Article

Heating up and drying out

| Helen FosterEast Midlands Oral History ArchiveAsma Istwani

Menopause doesn’t have to signify old age, but when your body feels like it’s letting you down, it’s hard not to believe that your useful life may be over.

  • Comic
  • Comic

From psychotic to patient

| Andrew Field

And as the outside world seeps into your delusion, you experience a new reality and you gain a new identity.

  • Comic
  • Comic

A glimpse of reality

| Andrew Field

As reality starts to break through your delusion you question everything you're hearing.

  • Article
  • Article

Hysteria

| Helen FosterEast Midlands Oral History ArchiveAsma Istwani

Mental health and emotional symptoms are common during menopause, but a long history of dismissing sufferers as 'hysterical women', at the mercy of their emotions has made it much harder to discuss these issues and to get support.

  • Comic
  • Comic

I was hallucinating

| Andrew Field

That moment when you realise that no one else sees what you see is when the dissonance becomes unbearable.

  • Article
  • Article

Blood

| Helen FosterEast Midlands Oral History ArchiveAsma Istwani

Discover the history, mythology and taboos around blood and menopause, and hear from some contemporary voices about their experiences of periods and the onset of menopause.

  • Book extract
  • Book extract

Renaissance women and their killer cosmetics

| Jill BurkeSteven Pocock

In this extract from ‘How to be a Renaissance Woman’, Jill Burke delves into a complex world of beauty products, poison and patriarchy – and reveals the impossible contradictions of femininity faced by 16th-century women.

  • Comic
  • Comic

Disembodied and alone

| Andrew Field

Psychosis cuts you off from yourself. You become separated from both your body and your identity.

  • Article
  • Article

Milk trails round Euston

| Esther LesliePeople’s MuseumBenjamin Gilbert

Where cows once grazed near Wellcome Collection in London, baristas now froth their milk. Esther Leslie uncovers Euston’s dairy-based urban history.

  • In pictures
  • In pictures

An appreciation of bees

| Louisa McKenzie

Discover some un-bee-lievable stories about bees, their history and their uncertain future.