Fresh Take: Sara Hirsh Bordo on Autoimmunity and the Threat to Women's Health

Why are autoimmune conditions so much more common in women? And does that have anything to do with the fact that those same conditions are misunderstood, under-researched, and accepted as things we just have to live with?

Sara Hirsh Bordo, author of the new book AUTOIMMUNITY AND THE GOOD GIRLS, discusses the questions that led her to examine the connection between women’s health, caregiving, stress, and identity.

After receiving her own autoimmune diagnoses, Sara began noticing that her fellow sufferers shared similar life patterns: especially eldest daughters, caretakers, and women raised to prioritize everyone else’s needs. That observation led her to fund original research exploring the relationship between girlhood experiences, cultural expectations, and autoimmune disease.

Amy and Sara discuss:

• What autoimmune disease, means and why these conditions remain misunderstood
• Hypotheses on why autoimmune diagnoses disproportionately affect women
• The connection between caregiving roles, chronic stress, and the nervous system
• How our life experiences can shape our long-term health

• The difference between understanding mind-body connections and blaming ourselves when our bodies fail us
• Why learning to receive care can be just as important as giving it
• What it means to rewrite the stories that teach women to earn love through self-denial

This conversation explores a question many women may recognize: What happens when being “good” means becoming disconnected from your own needs?

Here's where you can find Sara:

• https://autoimmunityandthegoodgirls.com
• https://goodgirlsbook.com
• @sarahirshbordo on IG
• @sarahirshbordo on LinkedIn
• Buy AUTOIMMUNITY AND THE GOOD GIRLS: https://bookshop.org/a/12099/9780063450660

What Fresh Hell is co-hosted by Amy Wilson and Margaret Ables.

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