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+--- Thread: The Forgotten Woman Who Shaped Modern Gynecology (/thread-31303.html)
The Forgotten Woman Who Shaped Modern Gynecology - Henlus - 11-06-2025
Her name was Anarcha Westcott. You will not find her in most history books, yet her pain became the foundation of modern women’s medicine.
Anarcha was only 17 years old and enslaved on a plantation in Alabama when she gave birth to a stillborn child. The difficult labor left her with a condition known as a vesicovaginal fistula. It caused constant pain, bleeding, and leaking of urine. She needed compassion and medical care. Instead, she became an experiment.
Dr. J. Marion Sims, a white physician, took notice. He was ambitious and wanted to find a surgical cure for fistulas, but at a horrifying cost. Between 1845 and 1849, Sims performed more than 30 experimental surgeries on Anarcha. He used no anesthesia and claimed that Black women felt less pain. Each time he cut, stitched, and reopened her wounds. She screamed. He kept going.
Anarcha was not the only one. Two other enslaved women, Lucy and Betsey, were also experimented on. Lucy nearly died from infection after one of Sims’s early procedures. Betsey endured repeated examinations and surgeries as Sims refined his technique.
When his methods finally succeeded, thanks to Anarcha’s endurance, Sims presented the operation as his own medical triumph. He published his results, moved to New York, and opened the first hospital for women’s health. He became known as the father of modern gynecology.
But here is the truth.
He built his fame on the bodies of women who had no choice. Women who could not say no. Women whose pain was ignored because of the color of their skin.
Later in life, Sims did use anesthesia, but only when operating on white women. His procedures became the foundation for surgical tools like the speculum, which he designed during his experiments on Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsey.
For more than a century, Sims was celebrated. Hospitals bore his name. Statues were built in his honor, including one in New York’s Central Park. It was not until 2018 that the city removed that statue after protests and public outcry.
Today, historians and advocates are working to restore the names of the women who made those medical advances possible.
Anarcha Westcott,
Lucy, and
Betsey.
Their resilience changed the world. Their suffering gave rise to knowledge that still saves lives. But their stories were buried beneath someone else’s glory.
They were not assistants. They were not volunteers. They were victims.
Modern medicine owes them recognition, not silence.
Say their names: Anarcha. Lucy. Betsey.
They deserve to be remembered not as subjects but as the true mothers of gynecology.
RE: The Forgotten Woman Who Shaped Modern Gynecology - MamaGreens - 11-06-2025
This story broke my heart. Imagine the amount of pain those women went through just so that others could live comfortably today. Anarcha should be honored in every medical school. It is sad that the man who caused her pain was celebrated while she was erased from history.
RE: The Forgotten Woman Who Shaped Modern Gynecology - FarmLady - 11-06-2025
This post made me emotional. I am a mother and I cannot imagine that kind of pain. Yet she endured it again and again. If anyone deserves a statue, it is Anarcha Westcott and co. May their story live forever.
RE: The Forgotten Woman Who Shaped Modern Gynecology - The Farmer - 11-06-2025
It is shocking how the world can glorify cruelty if it comes with results. Sims became famous, yet he would not have achieved anything without those women. Medicine must learn to balance discovery with humanity.
RE: The Forgotten Woman Who Shaped Modern Gynecology - Hilux - 11-06-2025
It is painful to know that hospitals and universities honored Sims for decades, but almost no one knew the names of the women he experimented on. History owes them justice and visibility.
RE: The Forgotten Woman Who Shaped Modern Gynecology - Farmqueen - 11-06-2025
Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsey are heroes in every sense. They deserve to be called pioneers. The sad part is that their names were erased just because they were enslaved. History must be rewritten to reflect the truth. And a lot have to be rewritten.!
RE: The Forgotten Woman Who Shaped Modern Gynecology - Manihot - 11-06-2025
Anarcha’s story is the kind that should be turned into a movie or documentary. It would educate millions and give her the recognition she was denied for centuries.
RE: The Forgotten Woman Who Shaped Modern Gynecology - EcoFarm - 11-06-2025
I cannot imagine how many other medical discoveries were made through the suffering of people who never gave consent. It makes you question the real cost of progress. Thank you for sharing this story. It opened my eyes.
RE: The Forgotten Woman Who Shaped Modern Gynecology - Donk - 11-06-2025
Statues were built for Sims, but not for the women who endured the pain. So cruel.
RE: The Forgotten Woman Who Shaped Modern Gynecology - Farm-ninja - 11-06-2025
I think this story teaches an important lesson. Science without ethics is dangerous. You cannot separate morality from progress. Those women were not experiments; they were human beings.
RE: The Forgotten Woman Who Shaped Modern Gynecology - AgMan - 11-06-2025
The fact that Sims refused to use anesthesia on Black women but used it on white women later tells you everything about how racism shaped early medicine. That mindset still has echoes today.
RE: The Forgotten Woman Who Shaped Modern Gynecology - FarmKing - 11-07-2025
I remember reading that Sims even created the speculum during one of those experiments. That tool is still used today in gynecology. Every doctor who uses it should know where it came from.