MenopauseTalk

𝐀𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐚. 𝐋𝐮𝐜𝐲. 𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐬𝐞𝐲.

Their names should echo in every hospital corridor. In every gynaecology textbook. In every conversation about women’s health.

We can’t see their faces.

We never heard their voices.

We never felt their pain.

They were not volunteers.

They were not patients with options.

They were three Black women—enslaved, voiceless, and brutalised in the name of science.

Their pain was not only endured.

It was exploited.

It was dismissed.

Used and abused.

Erased.

Denied.

“Dr” J. Marion Sims, saw—

No humanity.

No dignity.

No necessity, to administer anaesthesia to the Black women in his charge.

Because he believed, the surgeries he performed on Anarcha, Lucy and Betsey,

“Were not painful enough to justify the trouble, and risk.”

And because of ‘White privilege,’ 𝘩𝘦 is called the “Father of modern gynaecology.”

But the truth is…

Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsey were its Mothers—cut open, experimented on, without numbing the suffering, because it was believed Black women “didn’t feel pain.”

That lie? ——- Still lingers today.

Black women are:

▪️ More likely to have their pain ignored.

▪️ More likely to die during childbirth.

▪️ Less likely to be offered treatment options.

▪️ More likely to be dismissed, gaslit, and told “it’s all in your head.”

▪️ Menopausal? More of the same.

We are still fighting to be heard.

We are still bleeding in silence.

We are still paying the price of a system built on our suffering.

Restitution is not optional. That means;

✅ Representation in research.

✅ Culturally competent care.

✅ Listening to Black women without conditions.

✅ Accountability in medicine.

✅ Funding our healing, not just studying our trauma.

This post is for Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsey.

For every Black woman whose humanity was denied.

For every Black woman today still being told, “You’re exaggerating.”

We’re not.

We’re remembering.

We’re rising.

We’re reclaiming our voices.

Black women deserve more.

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