Thread by @DrJessTaylor

I’ve been wanting to write this for months & I’m just going to bite the bullet and do it.

I have had so many ‘mystery’ health problems over the last 2 decades. I’ve had no menstrual cycle for 17 years for no reason. Two kids but no periods. I have had chest pains, back pain,

I’ve had issues with pretty much everything actually, and there has never been a medical cause. I had a TIA when I was 19 and lost peripheral vision. I was undo cardiologist for years for abnormal heart rhythm issues. No one ever got to the bottom of any of these issues.

I developed allergies and sensitivities, I had loads of issues with anxiety, panic, palpitations, nose bleeds, I’ve been having dizzy spells that nearly knock me over for about a decade.

Everyone would tell me ‘it’s your work’ or ‘it’s Cos you’re always stressed because of the degree/kids/job/PhD/social media’

Since being able to leave my miserable het marriage and come out as lesbian, all of my health issues that have plagued me for two fucking decades have suddenly disappeared.

I have periods now! Actual 28 day fucking cycles. I was told I was infertile and broken basically.

3 years I’ve been going to my amazing physio every week who has helped me with my chest and back pains - but we always thought it was stress and work - well it’s not. Cos I’m still working and still busy as fuck but all the pain I was carrying every day of my life has gone

Health problems I was told I would have for the rest of my life have started to disappear and repair.

I’m as shocked as can be.

I always knew the power of psychosomatic responses to trauma and repression, but never did I think it could be this powerful on the human body

I’m writing this because so many abused, oppressed, miserable, bullied women are out there with physical health issues that keep being put down to ‘exaggeration’, ‘hormones’ or ‘stress’ or ‘women’s issues’

I beg you, look at your life. Look at your relationships. Your families.

Is there a chance that your health issues are caused by severe trauma, repressing who you are or coping with an abuser in your life?

The brain and body are so intricately linked. So many health problems in women will he linked to oppression, abuse and trauma.

But we are likely to be told it is in our heads, or it is something else.

For me, it was that I was in a horrible marriage with a misogynist who hated everything about me whilst I was trying to bring up children, do a PhD, run a business and wrestle with the fact I was lesbian.

Being able to live as a lesbian, in a relationship with a woman who truly loves me for who I am and what I am, and being able to leave an oppressive relationship where I was told I was shit at everything and no one really liked me - it’s changed my whole life. Physically.

It was so easy to keep putting it down to the childhood trauma stuff. Oh it’s because I was raped as a kid and had a baby. It was Cos I was exploited and abused. It was Cos I was in prostitution.

Nah. I had worked thru all that & I knew it. It was the marriage and my sexuality.

Those were the final hurdles in liberating myself from misogyny.

Get out of these heteronormative relationships I was coerced into by society, by men - and create a life with a woman who I loved dearly.

Your story will likely be so different to mine - but my point stands

Are your health problems caused by your relationship? Your environment? The abuser? The system?

Are you being told they are in your head?

Mighty convenient to tell abused and traumatised women and girls that it’s all in their heads, eh.