Summary of Eve By Cat Bohannon: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution

By Willie M. Joseph

DISCLAIMER

 

This book does not in any capacity mean to replace the original book but to serve as a vast summary of the original book.

Summary of Eve By Cat Bohannon: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution

IN THIS SUMMARIZED BOOK, YOU WILL GET:

• Chapter astute outline of the main contents.
• Fast & simple understanding of the content analysis.
• Exceptionally summarized content that you may skip in the original book

 

Eve is a groundbreaking account of human evolution, focusing on the female body and its impact on human life. The book, published by The New York Times, offers a paradigm shift in our understanding of the female body, its evolution, and its impact on our lives today. Cat Bohannon, a renowned author, provides a detailed and engaging tour of mammalian development, highlighting the reasons behind women's longevity, Alzheimer's, and academic performance. The book also explores the role of sexism in evolution and the importance of considering the female body in modern medicine, neurobiology, paleoanthropology, and evolutionary biology. Eve is an urgent corrective for a world that has primarily focused on the male body for too long.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Willie M. Joseph
• Release date: Oct 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223435013

Willie M. Joseph

Willie M. Joseph summaries get straight to the point and provide essential tools to help you be an informed reader in a busy world, whether you’re browsing for new discoveries, managing your to-read list for work or school, or simply deepening your knowledge. Available for nonfiction titles, these are the book summaries that are worth your time.  

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INTRODUCTION

Elizabeth Shaw, a scientist on the spaceship Prometheus, faces a dilemma when she is asked to perform a C-section using a medpod calibrated for male patients. The medpod is not suitable for women, and the surgeon fails to recognize that the medpod is designed for male patients only. This issue is not only a societal problem but also an intellectual one. The study of the biologically female body has lagged behind the study of the male body, as it is often overlooked due to the male norm in the biological sciences.

The male body, from mouse to human, is what gets studied in the lab, and unless specifically researching ovaries, uteri, estrogens, or breasts, the girls aren't there. This blind spot concerning female bodies is not just a matter of sexism, but also an intellectual problem that became a societal problem. Many researchers default to male subjects for practical reasons, such as controlling for the effects of female fertility cycles, which can be difficult and expensive.

Using male subjects makes it easier to do clean science, making the data more interpretable with less work and the results more meaningful. This is especially true for complex systems involved in behavioral research, but can even be a problem with basic things like metabolism. Taking the time to control for the female reproductive cycle is considered difficult and expensive, and the ovary itself is thought of as a confounding factor.

In conclusion, the scientific community needs to address the issue of gender bias and the male norm in the biological sciences. By doing so, we can better understand and address the complex issues surrounding gender identity and the role of women in our lives.

The assumption that being sexed is simply a matter of sex organs is a lie. Female bodies are not just male bodies with extra features, and being sex permeates every major feature of our mammalian bodies and the lives we live inside them. When scientists study only the male norm, they often miss what we're missing by ignoring sex differences.

Regulations established in the 1970s strongly advised against using female subjects in clinical trials in the United States. As of 2000, one in five NIH clinical drug trials still didn't use any female subjects, and nearly two-thirds didn't analyze their data for sex differences. Even if everyone followed the new rules, drugs that were released before the new regulations would have been tested on significant numbers of women.

Women are more likely to be prescribed pain medications and psychotropic drugs than men, which haven't been tested on nearly enough female bodies. Dosage is usually based on body weight and age, so doctors have to rely on anecdotal knowledge to figure out whether a prescription needs to be jimmied for a female patient. This is particularly problematic for painkillers, as official guidelines are generally based on the results of a drug's clinical trials.

Most clinical studies show that women metabolize drugs more quickly than men, but this finding is usually shrugged off when it comes time for medical guidance. Addiction to pain medication becomes more likely the greater and more consistent one's dosage. If drugs like OxyContin had been properly tested on women during clinical trials, doctors would have better guidelines for dealing with these patients' pain, and fewer newborns would begin their lives as drug addicts.

The study of sex differences in general anesthesia in 1999 found that women wake up faster than men, regardless of their age, weight, or dosage. The researchers used patients who were already scheduled for surgery and involved four different research hospitals, so there were loads of subjects—both women and men. The EEG monitor did prove useful, but it turned out to be far less interesting than the results in women.

At the same time, new research into the female body was not getting nearly enough attention. Women's fat isn't the same as men's, and their gluteofemoral fat, or gluteofemoral fat, is filled with unusual lipids called long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFAs). Our livers are bad at making these kinds of fats from scratch, so we need most of them from our diet. Women's gluteofemoral fat stores are specialized to provide the building blocks for human babies' big brains, and they start storing them from childhood forward.

Human girls' hip fat may be one of the best predictors for when they'll get their first period, as it is crucial for reproduction. Our ovaries won't kick in until we've stored up enough of this fat to form a decent baseline. When we lose too much weight, our periods stop.

In conclusion, the question of what changes when we ask about the female body is important, as it has evolved ways

Reviews for Summary of Eve By Cat Bohannon

[bisforbetsy · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

What a joke. Everand, get the real deal — post Cat Bohannon’s book!!

[Mary Kate Martin · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Not only did this "Summary" omit an entire chapter (Chapter 3, Perception), but it is more a paraphrased retelling of sections of the book without grasping the overall themes of each section and with no concluding thoughts.