EmpowHERed Health

When experiencing health issues, going to the doctor should make you feel better. What happens when it makes you feel worse? In EmpowHERed Health: Reforming a Dismissive Health Care System, author S. Mayumi "Umi" Grigsby discusses the potential link between negative interactions with health professionals and health inequity with a focus on Black women in the US. Spurred by her own experience with doctors who, for years, dismissed her pain, Grigsby was finally vindicated by a doctor who was a woman of color. Confirming her suspicion with a diagnosis of a shocking number of uterine fibroids, Grigsby wondered if other women were being treated similarly. Following interviews with numerous women, she was horrified to discover her mistrust was justified. Grigsby shares her story as well as theirs in the hope of helping others navigate through a health care system that seems to shrug them off.