COME LEARN ABOUT NEW FILM "LADY PARTS"

When Bonnie Gross was only 13, she experienced a sharp, burning, stabbing pain in her stomach that escaped diagnosis for years, across four states by twenty different doctors. She was told she was crazy, that it was all in her head, and that she was making it up. This condition was isolating and was brought about when she rode a bicycle, tryed to use tampons, and later had sex. The problem was in her female genitalia, a body part that has been given such strange names as fufu, vajayjay, pussy, kitty, muff, fandango, hoo ha, down there, lady garden, pocketbook and happy clam. You may know it better as vagina.

After ten years of searching, and being told to use more lube and to stop concentrating on her symptoms, Bonnie found a doctor, Dr. Andrew Goldstein, who diagnosed her condition in five minutes and told her she needed surgery: a vulvar vestibulectomy. She discovered 16% of women suffer from this condition, but little is taught about it, little research is being conducted, and very few people are even talking about it. It was even more disturbing to learn the $10,000 surgery was not covered by insurance because the procedure was considered cosmetic.

All of this was happening while Bonnie was being offered her dream job and the length of her recovery would take a year to complete. Luckily for her, her parents were very supportive, had her move home to Philadelphia and were wonderfully helpful through ever step of the operation. This life changing validation occurred in 2016. By some miraculous stroke of fate, Bonnie Gross possesses skills that made it perfect for her to tell her story to the world in the form of a film, a documentary, a dramedy, a comedy. Her story is now “Lady Parts,” filmed in New York and Los Angeles, giving her a diagnosis and a platform to make a difference, to show how she was to finally find answers, to use her mother’s similar medical issue to expand the conversation for other women, to raise public awareness and create a community conversation.

With director Nancy Boyd and producer Bonnie Gross, the pair have used their personal and painful experiences, honestly and brutally truthfully, what they each went through for medical treatment, when having a sense of humor, surrounded by family and friends was critical. Come meet Paige, a brave Valentina Tammaro, on the verge of her dream career in Los Angeles and moving home to her parents, recovery a year over. The film won festivals, same resources with majestic connections like Tight Lipped, Intimate Rose, Hellocina, The Pelvic People, Isswsh and Our Body Justice Project and she will prepare for another surgery this summer.

Now thirty-two Bonnie Gross has championed to challenge her cause to research, education and treatment, to give the vagina "a voice,” and an ideal writer, filmmaker and comedian to make a major difference.