Obstetrics and gynecology has both an amazingly wonderful healing side and also an astonishing abhorrent side that causes incredible harm, which often occur simultaneously. To understand why this happens, one must look at the foundation upon which this profession was built and then how it developed alongside general medicine to become a legitimate institution. Critical to this process is an exploration of how dominant cultural values shaped modern medicine, the rise of male doctors treating women through obstetrics and gynecology, and this profession securing its authority through the medicalization of women.