A Terrible Strength

Black women are facing a systemic gynecological health crisis. This book gives them the tools needed to unlearn the medical normalization of their suffering and offers a path forward to healing—by a foremost physician, surgeon, researcher, and gynecological cancer expert.

When Dr. Kemi Doll first began training to be a gynecologic cancer surgeon, she quickly noticed that the level of care being offered to women was rarely equal. She started to ask herself: Whose pain was believed? Who was “high maintenance” vs. “angry and non-compliant”? Who died? White women’s pain was doubted, but Black women’s pain was often outright denied. And the locus of this crisis was the womb. Day by day, fibroids, bleeding, inflammation, and cancer struck Black women the hardest, yet the medical field cared very little about their fate. When student physicians would explicitly bring up these alarming disparities, Dr. Doll's teachers would reply: “Black women just don’t do well with this,” followed by, “We don’t really know why.”

Since then, Dr. Doll has made it her goal to give Black women the tools they need to unlearn what she calls “womb suffering.” For all women navigating gynecologic care, and the medical professionals who care for them, this comprehensive, authoritative book of science-backed information and lived experience covers:

• The mechanisms behind the four primary conditions that affect the womb—often with fatal consequences—including Endometriosis, Fibroids, Heavy Bleeding, and Endometrial cancer.
• An overview of the research conducted on reproductive health outside pregnancy—the lack of which has caused healthcare inequity and obstructed access to care
• Gripping stories of smart, successful women struggling with and overcoming Womb Suffering
• What good gynecologic health looks like and why it is vital to reclaiming a full, healthy life; how to feel and respond to your body’s signals; and the tools and vocabulary needed to help advocate and prepare for medical visits.

A Terrible Strength links women’s health care to timely conversations on racial justice and healthcare inequity, arming women with the power to secure vibrant health and well-being for the rest of their lives.“Unflinching. In a world where we’ve been forced to interpret our own health through the darkest veils, Dr. Kemi Doll peels them back with courage and clarity. Not only is this book the necessary indictment against white-dominated medical systems that have used, discarded, and neglected Black bodies across time, but it also delivers an invitation—to reclaim and reimagine truer methods of protection and care for the Black womb. Dr. Doll is sounding an alarm. We can’t afford not to hear it.”—Cole Arthur Riley, New York Times bestselling author of Black LiturgiesDr. Kemi Doll is a physician, surgeon, advocate, career coach, and a double-board certified gynecologic oncologist and uterine cancer scientist. She is a professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Washington School of Medicine and an adjunct professor in the department of health systems and population health at the University of Washington School of Public Health.Gynecologic Oncologist