On 23 Jan 2025, Hektoen International published a medical‑history article portraying Metrodora as an Egyptian physician, midwife, and pioneering surgeon.
On 23 January 2025, the medical‑history journal Hektoen International published the article “Metrodora: Egyptian physician, midwife, and surgeon”, offering a modern synthesis of what is known about Metrodora’s life and work.
The article presents Metrodora as an Egyptian‑born physician who practiced mainly in Greece between approximately AD 200–400, and characterizes her as “the mother of gynecology.” It discusses her treatise The Diseases and Cures of Women, its 63 chapters largely devoted to gynecological topics, and various procedures attributed to her, such as the introduction of the speculum, the use of pessaries and tampon‑like devices, and early surgical approaches to breast and facial reconstruction and cancer excision.
While acknowledging the limited and uncertain nature of the primary evidence, the Hektoen article is significant because it consolidates scattered scholarly and popular claims into a single, accessible narrative for medical professionals and historians. It frames Metrodora as a symbol of female expertise and innovation in a period when women were generally excluded from formal medical training, emphasizing the social barriers she would have faced. In the ongoing reception history of Metrodora, this publication strengthens her visibility in contemporary discussions of women’s contributions to surgery and gynecology.