Track 01 Ongoing
Gem-fem
Gender · Embodiment · Medicine
Rethinking how research names, measures, and represents the female body — from clinical object to embodied subject.
The body’s most common troubles are also its least spoken. Genital Trouble is an interdisciplinary research collective that breaks the silence around the physiology, flows, and function of the genitals — weaving together medicine, sexology, and the humanities to rewrite the terms of genital agency and health.
The Manifesto
01 / 04Under-studied, under-funded, and too often unspeakable. We work to change all three.
Conditions of the genitals, the pelvis, and the reproductive system are diagnosed slowly, on thin evidence, and amid a stigma that keeps patients quiet and questions unasked.
Genital Trouble braids together medicine, sexology, and the humanities — producing peer-reviewed research, mentoring the next generation of clinician-scientists, and translating findings into care, culture, and policy.
We named ourselves plainly on purpose. Naming the trouble is the first condition for studying it well.
Projects in motion
02 / 04Track 02 In development
Race & the reproductive body
Maja & Elin
How race and racism shape diagnosis, treatment, and trust across reproductive and sexual healthcare.
Track 03 Ongoing
The Science of Squirting
Female ejaculation
A physiological and cultural study of female ejaculation — separating evidence from myth, and centring the bodies too long left out of the literature.
Track 04 Open call
Your track here
Genitalia & the body
New tracks on the body, its flows, and its politics are joining the collective. Have one in mind?
The Collective
03 / 04Six researchers across medicine, sexology, and the humanities. We asked each the same question: which myth in your field do you want to crush this year?
Maja Bodin
Reproductive health · Gender
The myth I’ll crushThat fertility and family planning are a woman’s concern alone.
Midwife and reproductive-health researcher working on family planning, men’s role in fertility, intimate partner violence, and equitable maternity care.
National Centre for Knowledge on Men’s Violence Against Women, Uppsala University
Malin Jordal
Sexual health · Migration
The myth I’ll crushThat nothing can be done after female genital cutting.
Nurse-scientist studying female genital cutting and reconstructive care, centred on the experiences of the women who live it.
University of Gävle · NCK, Uppsala University
Jessica Påfs
Sexology · Sexual pleasure
The myth I’ll crushThat female ejaculation is too fringe — or too crude — to study.
Sexologist and SRHR researcher working on sexual pleasure and female ejaculation, alongside research on maternal survival and female genital cutting.
Dept of Social Work, University of Gothenburg · Women’s & Children’s Health, Uppsala University
Elin Ternström
Midwifery · Fear of birth
The myth I’ll crushThat fear of birth is just nerves — not something care can treat.
Midwife and researcher on childbirth-related fear — how it differs across women, including those born abroad, and how internet-based therapy can ease it.
Dept of Women’s & Children’s Health, Uppsala University · Dalarna University
Anna Wahlberg
Reproductive health · Rights
The myth I’ll crushThat sexual and reproductive rights are a luxury for some bodies.
Researcher in sexual and reproductive health and rights, focused on female genital cutting and care for migrant communities in Sweden.
National Centre for Knowledge on Men’s Violence Against Women, Uppsala University
Shirin Ziaei
Global health · Nutrition
The myth I’ll crushThat a child’s nutrition can be studied apart from a woman’s power.
Global-health researcher connecting women’s empowerment and gender-based violence to the nutrition of mothers and children.
Dept of Women’s & Children’s Health, Uppsala University
Impact & Media
04 / 04Break a taboo with us — commission a study, invite a talk, or collaborate.
We work with researchers, clinicians, funders, journalists, and students who want to take the body’s troubles seriously.