Emma Barnett interviews Endometriosis South Coast Steph Richards and Trustee Jodie Hughes

There’s a video featuring a female gynaecologist (their ambassador) talking about endo, I watched the whole 13.53 mins and it was all “people, people, people. Some people this, some people that.” She talked about menstruation, the menopause, pregnancy, painful intercourse, birth control, the pelvic floor, and still no mention of “women”. People throughout.

Utterly enraging. Because of course she knows perfectly that only women experience menstruation, menopause, pregnancy etc. But she's decided to pretend that men can experience these things too - I can only assume because she wants an easy life. She's been told that this is the way it's done these days and is going along with it because it requires too much effort and/or bravery to insist on speaking the truth.

Tinkly, if you care to read the rest of this thread you’ll find an article EB wrote in the Times before her second pregnancy, (there’s a share token and it’s on that archive site) where she writes about her battle against infertility and to have a second child. So ashamed she’d leave the country eh? No chance. Anyway work to do, I’ll leave you to it.

I get what you're saying here, but don't forget that there are 'small fry' like this in every community, every group, every school yard, in every town and city. They spout their nonsense and everyone nods along because they are loud and opinionated and seen to be progressive.

Calling them out here took the wind out of their sails and if that takes the wind out of other small fry sails then I'm grateful.

Yes, and also calling her Emma Bartlett!😳

Somewhere up thread someone wrote that endometriosis is a cancer. Could they provide links for this please? As far I'm aware, it isn't.

It's mostly that I think it's a non-story. If Steph had been appointed CEO of Endometriosis UK, then that would have been a story - and fine to invite Steph on the programme, along with the trustees who made the appointment. But who cares, really, that an utterly insignificant local charity has made a silly appointment?

I agree with this, the segment seemed trivial.

It really isn't, but keep telling yourself that if it helps your narrative.

No she said if she couldn't have kids she would move abroad as she would be ashamed.

Imagine being childless and reading that?! Shocking

Dear me Tinkly, I realise you don’t like her, but that’s a bit of a desperate reach. Ignore the haters Emma (as I know you will).

Yes, it's a phenomenon that keeps happening. And I was first alerted to by tinsel of the transwidows.

That in issues affecting women only, it seems to be men who get all the air time.

However, in this case, I think it was very beneficial.

This sort of incursion and take over is happening absolutely everywhere. And you're quite right it's fucking nuts and steph was easy pickings.

But that's the whole point. That the ideology has absolutely nothing to it, whatsoever. It's merely a men's rights ideology. And Emma's questions made that very clear in a couple of seconds flat.

And she stayed on track about that very point.

Personally, I think she finally gets it 100%. And maybe it was endometriosis that did it, because she's a sufferer and knows what she's talking about.

You could tell that when Steph started to talk about men and transmen, Emma immediately recognised that as 'tra speak'. There was no part of her that was to be potentially guilt tripped, or turned away from her point. She instantly identified it as not only whataboutery, but an attempt to push Steph's personal interest, which was clearly neither women nor endometriosis.

Also the endometriosis charity might be small fry, but Steph is a very active activist against women's rights. So the more that particular person's motives are exposed, the better.

I have been chuckling. I just came across this post from Steph on Twitter, from after the interview:

"Did Emma Bartlett want to talk about #endo or the word "woman"?

A missed chance I suspect, to raise awareness of this truly awful disease."

Demonstrating absolute CLUELESSNESS. No one thought the interview was about endometriosis. Emma even makes that point and suggests that coming back to talk about the disease itself is something that could happen.

I sort of agree with a PP who said that getting these two on WH seems a bit ridiculous when there are so many intelligent, coherent women they could interview. But on the other hand, this was such a great opportunity to highlight some of the ridiculousness of the way in which women are being erased.

Did she expand and say that was what she meant? Because without any further context, I'd interpret that as, 'If I can't have children then I'll go and have another, completely different adventure'

Are you sure you've got that right? Seems unlikely someone as intelligent as Emma would adopt such a bonkers position.

Might it have been that she felt the UK was a particularly hostile environment for childless women? And that society imposes the view they should be 'embarrassed' for being childless? And that if you're suffering extreme grief because of infertility, as many women do, then being in that environment can feel quite hard and it might feel better to be elsewhere? I can imagine this might feel doubly so if you're in the public eye to some extent as she is. I can totally see how starting again elsewhere would feel an attractive way to - to some small extent - relieve the grief and escape constant reminders of your failed fertility journey.

I do know what it's like to be struggle with fertility and have several failed IVFs and moving away from the location those failed IVFs happened did provide me with some relief at the time, and a new focus.

Re “we don’t take it seriously unless it affects men”

Heres a little experiment to try at home.

(Bear in mind that endometriosis affects, it is believed 1 in 10 women . That’s a lot of women globally. Billions of us.
Also remember that identified cases of endometriosis in men barely reaches 50 . Out of all the billions of men in the world.)

google endometriosis in women. Check how many results there are.

google endometriosis in men. Check how many results there are.

so whose endometriosis is seen as most worthy of google entries? Hmmmm.

For those who don’t want to google my results were as follows

women : 41,000,000 entries

men : 106,000,000 entries

It wasn't working abroad, it's the fact she felt childless women should feel so embarrassed about being so that they should leave the country. It's shocking

I left my country while I was a childless woman, not because I was embarrassed, but because I easily could leave having no responsibilities other than for myself.

It wasn't working abroad, it's the fact she felt childless women should feel so embarrassed about being so that they should leave the country. It's shocking

Why?

Evidently these idiots hadn't bothered to learn anything about Emma Barnett before they went on air. If they had read her book - or even just googled her - they would have found that she suffers with endometriosis herself and so knows just a little bit about it....

Why is that? If you have kids you’re dedicating two decades of your life, where you ideally need to be prioritising with stability for your kids in mind. I can remember devising a Plan B if I couldn’t have kids (luckily for me, I did). Why is working/living abroad as a consolation unacceptable to your judgy pants?

That was the 'We're Still Here' Conference.

I lost respect for Emma Barnett when she said she would move abroad if she couldn't have kids.

It's more the female health experts that do it in my experience, I can't tell if they are actually genderists or just trying to be "inclusive".

Is this a recurring pattern? I've seen discussions before that it's not unusual for a (say) father to declare to a child, "Never darken my doors again". But, left to themselves, they'd rarely faff with the organisation to manage this in a family but it's policed and enforced by the women (a range of motives).

Because women somehow achieve status through purity, this can overlap with the phenomenon of purity spirals? I'm so much more inclusive than you that I'm prepared to harm my own sex by working againsts effective communication on vital matters of healthcare?

I'm not having a day that's overflowing with optimism in case that hasn't come across. I recognise this language so much that it's one of those emotional pains that feels like a physical one.

There’s a video featuring a female gynaecologist (their ambassador) talking about endo, I watched the whole 13.53 mins and it was all “people, people, people. Some people this, some people that.” She talked about menstruation, the menopause, pregnancy, painful intercourse, birth control, the pelvic floor, and still no mention of “women”. People throughout.

I've been listening to a variety of health podcasts on these topics recently, and I find it so jarring. It's more the female health experts that do it in my experience, I can't tell if they are actually genderists or just trying to be "inclusive".

Jodie sounded very fragile in the interview and I seriously worry about her mental health going forward.

You are right that this charity is small-fry, but hopefully the interview will have peaked many WH listeners who previously might not have realised that women are being erased from their own healthcare. In an ideal world, of course I’d love to see Helen Joyce invited on to WH, but all credit to Emma, she did a great job of shining sunlight on the batshittery.

Meanwhile, Steph and Jodie are not alone in erasing women. I took a look at the Endometriosis Foundation website too and you’ll be hard-pressed to find any reference to “women”.

There’s a video featuring a female gynaecologist (their ambassador) talking about endo, I watched the whole 13.53 mins and it was all “people, people, people. Some people this, some people that.” She talked about menstruation, the menopause, pregnancy, painful intercourse, birth control, the pelvic floor, and still no mention of “women”. People throughout.

If an NHS gynaecologist can’t bring herself to say “women”, then we’re in more trouble than I thought.