What’s Up Down There?

Most of you know that I write for a website called Owning Pink (technically I should have a button here, but I’m just not that computer savvy and couldn’t get it on the page).  I met Lissa Rankin M.D. in May of 09 about a week or so after she launched her website/blog on Twitter.  I was immediately hooked on Owning Pink and in awe of Lissa.  I must admit that in the past year and a  half she has been my biggest inspiration.  Every milestone I have watched her achieve has somehow felt like it also belonged to me.  I am so emotionally invested in her mission and success!!  All that being said, her book What’s Up Down There: Questions You Would Only Ask Your Gynecologist if She was Your Best Friend was released on September 28th and I pre-ordered 3 copies (one for me and two to give away).

The weekend my books arrived I was out of town.  My daughters informed me I had a package while we were catching a ride with a friend.  Knowing I’d ordered extras, I turned to my friend and asked it she wanted a book about vaginas.  She answered with a resounding NO!  I wanted to defend the book and insist my friend take a copy, but honestly in that moment I thought what if it is just a book about vaginas?  What if it’s boring or worse what if it’s full of embarrassing tidbits that would make my conservative friends squirm?

I’d been advertising the book and telling everyone on FB to pre-order it and I had promised myself that I would write a review once I read it.  Now that I had the book, my big fear was that I wouldn’t like it. If I didn’t like it I decided I’d stick to the old rule: if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.

After only a few pages I quickly discovered all my fears were unfounded.  This was Lissa at her finest.  I’d been reading her words for over a year and this book was just an extended version of the beautiful posts she writes on Owning Pink.  I could hardly believe that I found myself unable to put down a book that can be found in the women’s health section of the bookstore.  The book is almost 400 pages and I read it in about 3 days.

What’s Up Down There is full of valuable information.  It answers so many of the questions you had/have and are too embarrassed to ask and answers some that you may never think of.  Almost every answer given includes a story from Lissa’s personal experience as a woman or a doctor.  You really feel like you are having a conversation with Lissa.  There were several times where I had the urge to be like “Oh my gosh, let me tell you about this time that…” then I would remember Lissa wasn’t sitting in front of me telling me these stories, I was reading them.  (I resisted the urge to email her with my OMG stories because I’d be willing to bet those emails are flooding into her inbox these days.)

The book has a wonderful flow and is broken up easily so that you can pick it up and read a quick section while the angel hair pasta is cooking or you’re waiting for your kids to put their shoes on before going for a walk.  It has stories that will make you laugh, cry, and cringe a little bit.  It has information about every stage of life from puberty to beyond menopause.  The underlying and most valuable lesson in this book is that you are wonderful just as you are.  Lissa is all about love and this book invites women to love every inch of themselves including all those girly parts that we often curse.

If you are a woman and someone asks you if you would like a book about Vaginas, ask what the title of the book is.  If it’s What’s Up Down There by Lissa Rankin M.D., SAY YES!  Do not miss the opportunity to read this book, even if parts of it make you blush and think heavens me it’s worth it!!  And if you are a man, consider reading it so that you’ll understand a little about what the women or girls in your life are and will be going through (also you might learn a few tricks to use in the bedroom).