‘Vagina Dialogues: Challenging Stigmas around Menstruation, Menopause and Female Sexuality’
Communication taboos surround many aspects of women’s health and wellbeing, from menstruation to menopause to sexual pleasure. This presentation will briefly discuss the historical and socio-cultural roots of such stigmas before outlining the latest research on how these taboos come to negatively impact girls’ and women’s health. Dr Weckesser will focus on her qualitative research on endometriosis as a case study for how cultural codes of silence around menstruation play a part in the delayed diagnosis of the condition. She will also discuss her STEAM-funded project, ‘The VQ: A Women’s Health, Sex and Pleasure Pop Up,’ which is an impact initiative that creates spaces and events for women to learn about, and purchase products related to, their (sexual) health.

Dr Annalise Weckesser is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Care and Health Related Research at Birmingham City University. She trained as a medical anthropologist at the University of Warwick and specialises in qualitative research on women’s sexual and reproductive health.
Date: 20 June 2018, 17:00
Venue: Ewert House, Summertown OX2 7DD
Speaker: Dr Annalise Weckesser (Birmingham City University)
Organising department: Department for Continuing Education
Organisers: Robin Beachy (University of Oxford, Department for Continuing Education), Evidence-Based Health Care Programme (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address: cpdhealth@conted.ox.ac.uk
Host: Evidence-Based Health Care Programme (University of Oxford)
Part of: Evidence-Based Health Care Programme
Topics:
Booking required?: Recommended
Booking url: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/vagina-dialogues-challenging-stigmas-around-menstruation-menopause-and-female-sexuality-tickets-46317992362
Cost: Free
Audience: Public
Editor: Robin Beachy