A crit­i­cal explo­ration into why male investors are afraid of the v‑word, what that means for women’s health and sex­u­al well­ness, and how we can over­come it.

Women make over 80% of health­care deci­sions in the U.S. yet have been exclud­ed from design­ing the health sys­tem. It was only 1993 when women and POC were includ­ed in clin­i­cal tri­als. Heart attacks are the num­ber-one killer of women, but women are 50% more like­ly to be giv­en a wrong diag­no­sis. Only 4% of all health­care research is focused on women’s health issues. From peri­ods and child­birth to menopause, female pain has been nor­mal­ized, as soci­ety shrugs and says ​“Wel­come to being a woman” instead of com­ing up with bet­ter solu­tions.

In The Vagi­na Busi­ness, award-win­ning jour­nal­ist Mari­na Gern­er Ph.D. takes an eye-open­ing — and often times shock­ing — look at the inequities when it comes to sci­en­tif­ic research and the fund­ing of female-focused health com­pa­nies. She expos­es the obsta­cles entre­pre­neurs around the world face. Most of all, she shows us that it doesn’t have to be this way.