TY - JOUR T1 - Books: <em>Unwell Women: a Journey Through Medicine and Myth in a Man-Made World</em> JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 416 LP - 416 DO - 10.3399/bjgp21X716969 VL - 71 IS - 710 AU - Judith Dawson Y1 - 2021/09/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/71/710/416.abstract N2 - Elinor Cleghorn Weidenfeld &amp; Nicolson Ltd, 2021, HB, 496pp, £12.44, 978-1474616850About 8 years ago, a close friend of mine died of breast cancer. At diagnosis, after a referral delay when she was advised that the lump she felt was benign, she was given a 25% chance of living for 5 years.Following her difficult and distressing death, her husband told me of the consultation with the surgical team at her 12-month follow-up, after enduring mastectomy, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. The (male) surgeon had turned to him, ignoring his wife completely, and said, ‘Now, how about a delayed breast reconstruction? You would like that, wouldn’t you?’ He spoke of his overwhelming anger at this assumption and the exclusion of his wife from the discussion, saying that he wanted to shout back, ‘All I want is for her to LIVE.’Cleghorn examines and discusses the way in which such patriarchal attitudes have become embedded in medical practice and how they influence … ER -