Dr. Jen Gunter is a Canadian gynecologist who is on a mission to save the world, and its vaginas, from misinformation and mistreatment. She has gained a platform through Twitter, NYT posts and a CBC show, Jensplaining, but I knew about her from her vehement refutations of disastrous ‘GOOP-approved’ recommendations (see: jade eggs and vagina steaming).
I read The Vagina Bible cover to cover and wasn’t disappointed, although like any reference book some chapters are sure to be more interesting when you have an immediate problem as opposed to trying to learn all the knowledge at once. The Vagina Bible is organized into a number of broad sections: anatomy; care and maintenance; menstruation; menopause; medications; STIs; medical issues; communication; research tips; and mythbusting.
Everything here was informative, and I would recommend this to all women regardless of age- its so empowering to know more about your own body. Moreover, some of the information will literally leave you thinking about it for days. My top trivia fact that I’ve been telling all my girlfriends (and my boyfriend, who I’m sure wishes I wasn’t sharing quite so many facts): there is no medical evidence that urinating after sex decreases the odds of a UTI. We’ve all been lied to!
I also really appreciated Dr. Gunter’s inclusive approach- she provides information for cysgender vaginas, but also for transgender vaginas. Not only is this approach inclusive, but it makes a lot of sense- if you have a vagina, you probably want a user’s manual too.