Our Bodies Ourselves

Our Bodies Ourselves is a world-class online platform that provides up-to-date, trustworthy, and inclusive information about the health and sexuality of women, girls, and gender-expansive people. Our Bodies Ourselves integrates LGBTQIA+ perspectives and leadership in all levels of the organization, and we serve members of LGBTQIA+ communities throughout the world. In fact, Our Bodies, Ourselves was the first mass-readership nonfiction book in US history to center lesbian lives and sexuality, in a chapter called "In Amerika they Call Us Dykes" (1970). Our information on sexuality is especially queer-focused, although all aspects of our site are LGBTQIA+ inclusive. 

We currently have these nine core content areas: 

ABORTION & CONTRACEPTION | GROWING OLDER | PREGNANCY & CHILDBIRTH | GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE | HEART HEALTH | MENSTRUATION THROUGH MENOPAUSE | MENTAL HEALTH | SEXUAL ANATOMY | SEXUALITY

Where We’ve Been

For almost 50 years, the book Our Bodies, Ourselves provided clear and accurate information on women’s health, sexuality, and empowerment. What started as a self-published booklet created by a collective of women’s health advocates grew into a vital resource, continually updated in new editions, selling millions of copies, and translated into 34 languages.

Where We Are

Since our launch in September 2022, we have reached over 660,000 users from nearly every country in the world. 

As you well know, this is a critical time for accurate women’s health and sexuality information to be freely available. 

Unfortunately, in today’s political climate of political onslaught against reproductive freedom, in the context of a broken, for-profit healthcare system, with “abstinence only” masquerading as sex education, amidst an ever-worsening gun violence crisis, it’s not easy for women, girls, and gender-expansive people to maintain our health and sovereignty over our bodies and our lives. 

Although health and sexuality-related content is widely available on the internet, much of it is flawed—a morass of haphazard web searches, celebrity health trends, porn, and Pharma-funded “women’s wellness” sites. These resources are often slanted, inaccurate, overly narrow, sexist, and profit-driven. They do not fill the void left by Our Bodies, Ourselves. 

Where We’re Going 

Our Bodies Ourselves is curated and continually updated by panels of leading health experts drawn from the fields of medicine, public health, academia, consumer advocacy, reproductive justice activism, policy, and media. The carefully vetted information we provide is accurate, evidence-based, holistic, and user-friendly. In each area, our experts combine personal stories with the most current and intersectionally feminist information.

Your Role 

You can contribute to this project strategically as a valued donor, as we work to ensure that queerness and LGBTQIA+ issues are integrated into all of our core content areas and throughout the site. Your donation this year will support $50 gift cards for members of the LGBTQIA+ communities who share their personal stories with Our Bodies Ourselves about their health and sexuality, showcasing the importance of bringing LGBTQIA+ voices to the forefront. With your help, people throughout the world will continue to have ready access to information that is crucial to their health, sexuality, and empowerment. Your generosity will continue the important service that Our Bodies, Ourselves has provided for the last half-century. 

We have an anonymous donor who will match all GiveOUTDay support from June 1 to June 28!

OUR BODIES OURSELVES WELCOMES YOUR SUPPORT!