Medical gaslighting is what happens when a woman names her pain and is told it is probably nothing. In this episode of The Hole Shebang, pelvic health physiotherapist Kristen Parise sits down with writer and TEDx speaker Kayla Branstetter, whose new book Don't Be an Athena: Women's Stories of Surviving Medical Misogyny collects true stories of abortion, birth and infertility, three of the most policed and silenced experiences a body can have. Kayla is finishing a doctorate in healthcare focused on narrative medicine, the idea that a patient's story is clinical data and not background noise. Together they unpack medical misogyny, self advocacy and the small, doable shifts that help women feel heard in the exam room.
What you will learn
You will learn why women are trained to be Athenas, the good patient who endures in silence and asks for nothing, and what that posture costs. You will hear the gentle practices that change an appointment, from journals in waiting rooms to the one question a provider can ask before looking at the screen. And you will learn the rights every patient has and rarely uses, including the right to a second opinion and to your own medical records.
In this episode
- [00:46] The first conversations that became the book, and why women carry secrets for decades
- [03:46] The Athena and Medusa myth, and how women are made into monsters
- [08:38] Why feeling unheard is universal, across red states and blue states
- [11:08] Tony's story, generational trauma and human resilience
- [18:17] Medical gaslighting, narrative medicine and journals in waiting rooms
- [24:07] The dentist who ended the shame, and why the feel of a clinic matters
- [31:40] What to do today if you walked out feeling dismissed
- [37:26] Feeling visible, sex education and the case for telling the stories
About Kayla Branstetter
Kayla Branstetter holds a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from the University of Denver and is a doctoral candidate in healthcare education focused on narrative medicine. She is a TEDx speaker, an award winning artist and a professor of English at Crowder College, and her writing has appeared in more than forty journals. Her book Don't Be an Athena releases July 20 2026.
Theme Song: I Can Do It With a Broken Heart by Taylor Swift
Key topics covered: medical gaslighting, medical misogyny, narrative medicine, self advocacy, reproductive health stories, ending the shame.
Resources and references mentioned
Listen to more episodes like this
Working through pain, dismissal or symptoms you have been told to ignore? Learn more about pelvic health physiotherapy at blueberrytherapy.ca.
Connect with Kayla
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