Women's Health

This collection of essays brings together the best of Oakley's work on the sociology of women's health. It focuses on four main themes - divisions of labour, motherhood, technology and methodology - and considers what it is to be women facing the often impersonal world of twentieth-century medicine.

This unique guide provides useful, practical summaries of the most important mental health concerns of women. This resource helps readers intervene efficiently and effectively by providing comprehensive, yet practical answers to the most common problems seen in practice, with an emphasis on treatment guidelines and other vital steps that should be taken.

When this outstanding medical guide was published in 1993, nearly 600,000 women a year were advised to undergo expensive and potentially risky hysterectomies. Though the issue has garnered much press since, the rate of needless and avoidable hysterectomies has not dropped off significantly. Furthermore, 1 woman in 15 (or nearly 10 million) still suffers chronic pelvic pain and gets bad or incomplete advice on how to treat it.

Hailed by Library Journal as "one of the best women's health books", You Don't Need a Hysterectomy provides authoritative, compassionate advice on the new and effective ways to treat chronic pelvic pain and related gynecological symptoms without radical surgery. Totally revised and updated with up-to-the minute information, You Don't Need a Hysterectomy is an invaluable resource for women.

At last, here is a user-friendly guide to gynecologic surgery. The authors' guiding principle is that each woman for whom any kind of surgery is recommended should be well informed about the indications, the risks, and the expected results. Only with such knowledge can a woman make a sensible decision for herself. Using anecdotes drawn from a combined fifty years of experience, doctors Moore and de Costa provide clear and accurate information about women's anatomy, physiology, common gynecological ailments, diagnosis, alternative treatments, and, finally, full details about surgery itself. Among the surgeries discussed are removal of the uterus (hysterectomy), removal of the ovaries (oophorectomy), and removal of fibroids. The various ways of performing these procedures are examined, including minimally invasive surgery done through the laparoscope. The authors also help the patient through the postoperative phase, revealing what to expect, how to make the recovery easier, and how to take care ofherself after the surgery. The result is a book that empowers women as they weigh their options with regard to gynecologic surgery.

A contributed book written by African-American women--scholars, professionals, and administrators--working with the problems that plague their communities. These women, tired of reading about themselves from nonblack and male perspectives, have confronted the problems of health concerns, substance abuse, homelessness, transracial adoption, and other social and health issues from their unique viewpoints.