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By continuing to represent disability as the feared outcome of disease, public health campaigns help to perpetuate prejudice against disabled people.

Mental health and emotional symptoms are common during menopause, but a long history of dismissing sufferers as 'hysterical women', at the mercy of their emotions has made it much harder to discuss these issues and to get support.

Needle, a small London-based group, led the early fight for patient rights. Leona Letts reveals how they championed giving patients a louder voice in their own care.

The great generator of confusion, rumours have not spared human health from their chaos. Find out how whispers, gossip and rumours have caused medical mishaps through the ages.

In the plague-ravaged London of 1665, could perfume really save your life?

Before antibiotics, syphilis unleashed centuries of misery, countered by desperate but largely useless remedies. With the spread of syphilis on the rise, it’s worth remembering what our forebears suffered.

How accurately can we imagine the future? These past prognostications suggest that we cannot escape the pull of our own time and its biases.

Sickness from nervous exhaustion is not a new thing. Over a hundred years ago, neurasthenia afflicted society’s ‘brain-workers’.

Throughout history, medics and campaigners have tried to stamp out masturbation – but is modern science transforming its reputation?

Not in the mood? Come and visit our traditional drug store for natural tonics rumoured to increase sexual desire.

Scientists, artists, and philosophers have long studied our anatomy to try to discover what it means to be human.

From hairpins that ward off evil to anklets that alter the way you walk, there’s a lot more to wearing jewellery than simply showing off.

Some people will use a dose of ginger to help with hangovers – but it hasn’t always been a friend to the thirsty.

Mystery and controversy surround the dark-skinned religious icon who represents the Virgin Mary throughout the Catholic world.

A new emphasis on the link between exercise and health, in the early 20th century, inspired a culture of physical self-improvement. Lalita Kaplish explores how yoga influenced and was inspired by this global phenomenon.

The story behind why somebody tried to sell Henry Wellcome a unicorn head in 1928.

We might try to deny our animal instincts, but this series of extraordinary 17th-century drawings suggests they are only too apparent.

Fitzrovia, 1875. A woman recorded only as A.G. enters hospital and is diagnosed with syphilis.

We are able to provide immunity from seizure for cultural objects which are on loan from overseas under Part 6 of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007. This page outlines immunity from seizure information for objects in our exhibitions.

Surrounded by saltwater but starved of the fresh kind, Aegina’s residents rely on tankers and plastic bottles to get by. Mirela Dialeti explores how life on this Greek island balances on a hope that a new underwater pipeline will finally bring change.