"I didn’t learn about the clitoris until after my residency.”
When Dr. Somi Javaid, a board-certified OB-GYN and founder of HerMD, delivered this jaw-dropping revelation during a recent Flow Space panel hosted in honor of Tamsen Fadal’s documentary The M Factor: Shredding the Silence on Menopause, the room fell completely silent. For a male doctor, it likely would not have been so surprising—but for a woman with years of OB-GYN experience? It left the room in shock.
And Javaid didn’t stop there. “Only 31% of OB-GYNs receive training on menopause, and even less on sexual health unless it involves STIs, contraception or fertility,” she explained, as the audience gasped in disbelief.
Her words were eye-opening, highlighting the egregious disparities in women’s health care that we’ve all been forced to tolerate for far too long.
While women’s health, as a whole, has been overlooked in both fundamental and clinical research, it’s astonishing how little focus medical training puts on sexual health, especially midlife sexual health.
Even seasoned health professionals, like Javaid, have found themselves left in the dark. However, her transparency has helped spark a much-needed conversation about the ongoing gaps in care that women, particularly during menopause, continue to face.
As of now, there are more than 25 FDA-approved drugs for male sexual dysfunction but only two for women. This gender gap isn’t just an inconvenience—it’s a serious issue that impacts quality of life, relationships and overall well-being of countless women. Low sexual desire and hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) affect a substantial number of women, with 26.7% of premenopausal women and a staggering 52.4% of postmenopausal women experiencing these challenges.
What’s more, a recent study in the scientific journal Sexual Medicine found that only 32% of women reported having an orgasm during their most recent sexual encounter, compared to 82% of men. The “orgasm gap” is real, and it’s not just about a lack of education—it’s about our healthcare system failing women, especially as we enter midlife and menopause.
As if that weren’t infuriating enough, women weren’t even included in clinical trials until 1993. While that’s a sobering fact, it’s encouraging to see the medical community finally raising awareness and pushing for change.
In fact, it’s conversations like these that inspired the creation of Flow Space in the first place. The more we learn, the more empowered we become to demand better care. With experts like Javaid speaking out, we’re steadily moving toward the change we deserve.
Knowledge is power, after all—and it’s time we put that power into action. | 
