The current (postfeminist) gender order comprises a highly complex coexistence of old and new norms and expectations, freedom and constraints, within a neoliberal social order underpinned by individualism and involving a shift in gender performance by men and women. Health, illness and disease at different points in the life course can be used as a vehicle to illuminate structural and cultural inequalities that persist despite several decades of progressive reform in western countries. This collection brings together a number of key researchers, both established and new to the field, and based across North America, Australia, the UK and Europe, and comprises both empirical and theoretical work. Drawing on a wide range of disciplinary fields, including medical sociology, medical anthropology, nursing, gender studies, sociology of risk and age studies, all authors use heath, well-being, illness and disease as a lens through which to explore the complexities and inequalities associated with late modernity. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of age studies, medical sociology and anthropology, gender studies, healthcare and nursing.

Lose weight for good without deprivation, skipping meals, or eliminating food groups with The Sculpt Plan, a holistic lifestyle approach designed for the busy modern woman. Have you tried every diet in the book, only to end up back where you started? So had Anita Rincon, when she developed the effective, results-driven, multi-tiered program that would become the foundation of her popular weight-loss brand, Sculpt. Inspired by her own weight loss journey of 100 pounds in 18 months, the successful approach has been perfected by Sculpt's all-female team of wellness professionals: 3 certified trainers, 3 registered dietitians, a sports nutritionist, and a recipe creator. Designed for busy women who don't have time for weeklong spa retreats or juice cleanses, it's Weight Watchers for the next generation. The Sculpt Plan is the first weight loss program to cater to both a standard diet and 5 specialty diets, including gluten-free, dairy-free, pescatarian, vegetarian, and vegan, along with a workout program. And most importantly, it includes a post-loss maintenance program so you can stick to your new, healthy habits for a lifetime. The Sculpt Plan includes: Three weight-loss programs based on desired weight Simple instructions on how to get started and succeed A meal-by-meal guide and sample meals for every weight-loss group A food-swap table to easily customize your meals, with ideas for delicious new foods to try Free access to workout plans and exercise demonstrations in Sculpt's mobile app Over 60 easy recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as well as snacks, sides, and treats So get off the dieting rollercoaster and change your relationship with food-forever. The Sculpt Plan will show you how!

A candid assessment of the pros and cons of delayed motherhood.
Biology does not bend to feminist ideals and science does not work miracles. That is the message of this eye-opening discussion of the consequences of delayed motherhood. Part personal account, part manifesto, Selvaratnam recounts her emotional journey through multiple miscarriages after the age of 37. Her doctor told her she still "had time," but Selvaratnam found little reliable and often conflicting information about a mature woman's biological ability (or inability) to conceive.
Beyond her personal story, the author speaks to women in similar situations around the country, as well as fertility doctors, adoption counselors, reproductive health professionals, celebrities, feminists, journalists, and sociologists. Through in-depth reporting and her own experience, Selvaratnam urges more widespread education and open discussion about delayed motherhood in the hope that long-lasting solutions can take effect. The result is a book full of valuable information that will enable women to make smarter choices about their reproductive futures and to strike a more realistic balance between science, society and personal goals.

Although there are many reference guides to diseases, symptoms, and treatment for health problems of women, there is no comprehensive source for the social, political, economic and ethical issues that affect women's health decisions. "The Encyclopedia of Women's Health IssueS" provides valuable information on over 200 topics, including the issues and history surrounding diseases and medical procedures faced by women; health concerns of different ethnic groups of women; information on organizations and programs that deal with women's health; profiles on the people who have pioneered women's health services and information; and legal decisions related to women's health. An extensive bibliography and guides to good Web sites and organizations give users additional helpful resources. Among the features and benefits of this reference are

Charts and tables that present helpful facts and statistics

Contacts for Web sites and organizations that provide access to information about women's health issues--much of it free

Coverage of the issues, not just the diseases, critical to women's healthcare

Provides both basic information and guidance for further reading and research

It is unique in that it is designed and intended to be used to facilitate discussion and to disseminate awareness within real life settings - for example, in a staff room for Inset Days, or for social workers in their team meetings. This workbook has been written for anyone to be able to facilitate a session with colleagues, which takes between 1-3 hours depending on the facilitator and group's needs. The introduction details how to use the book and how to facilitate a training session using the material, including being aware of how people could be triggered by looking at this difficult subject. Will be of interest to all professionals who have a mandatory responsibility to report FGM cases such as qualified teachers, social workers, and health care professionals (nurses, midwives and health visitors particularly).

A collection of 154 sonnets reflecting on love, death, marriage and economic theory, each taking its inspiration from Shakespeare's 154. These poems have wit and a kick coming from a middle-aged woman in the middle of Scotland in the twenty-first century.

Shows women what they can do to cope with symptoms and offers practical suggestions for minimizing the long term health risks that can occur as a result of menopause.

Blending personal narrative and investigative reporting, Emmy Award-winning journalist Cole Kazdin reveals that disordered eating is an epidemic crisis killing millions of women. Women of all ages struggle with disordered eating, preoccupation with food, and body anxiety. Journalist Cole Kazdin was one such woman, and she set out to see if the impossibility of her own full recovery from an eating disorder was all in her head. Interviewing women across the country as well as the world's most renowned researchers, she discovered that most people with eating disorders never receive treatment--the fact that she did made her one of the lucky ones. Kazdin takes us to the doorstep of the diet industry and research community, exposing the flawed systems that claim to be helping us, and revealing disordered eating for the crisis that it is: a mental illness with the second highest mortality rate (after opioid-related deaths) that no one wants to talk about. Along the way, she identifies new treatments not yet available to the general public, grass roots movements to correct racial disparities in care, and strategies for navigating true health while still living in a dysfunctional world. What would it feel like to be free? To feel gorgeous in your body, not ruminate about food, feel ease at meals, exercise with no regard for calories-burned? To never making a disparaging comment about your body again, even silently to yourself. Who can help us with this? We can. What's Eating Us is an urgent battle cry coupled with stories and strategies about what works and how to finally heal--for real.

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER * #1 GLOBE AND MAIL BESTSELLER * USA TODAY BESTSELLER You are not broken. Being a woman is not a diagnosis. Take your body back with the groundbreaking new science for women in Hormone Intelligence. Hormonal. We all know what it means when we hear it - and feel it. While hormonal shifts are natural throughout women's lives, too many experience distressing period symptoms, struggle daily with PCOS, endometriosis, a fertility challenge, pain, low sex drive, sleep problems, acne, bloating, hot flashes, and more - all due to hormone-related problems. And too many are unable to get the answers they're really seeking from their doctors. There is a solution. In Hormone Intelligence, Yale trained and internationally renowned women's health expert, Dr. Aviva Romm, helps you identify the root causes of your symptoms and guides you through a 6-week proven program to achieve lifelong hormonal and gynecologic health. Using a holistic, dietary and lifestyle changing approach, Hormone Intelligence goes beyond treating symptoms to the deeper factors impacting women's health, so you can reclaim your body, hormones, and self. Inside Hormone Intelligence, you'll find: * Hormone Health 101: Understand the key components of the hormone epidemic and associated dietary and lifestyle triggers. * Symptoms and Root Causes Demystified: Discover what your symptoms are saying about your hormones with quizzes, checklists, trackers, and more. * A 6-Week Action Plan: Learn what foods you should indulge and avoid, how to repair your microbiome to support hormone health, how to identify environmental hormone disruptors, engage your body's natural detoxification systems and reduce hidden inflammation, and the lifestyle changes that lead to happy, healthy hormones. * Delicious, done-for-you meal plans to take you through the entire program, including vegan options. Hormone Intelligence is an invitation to a whole new relationship with your body and hormones, the exhale you've been waiting for, and the first step on the road to realizing that a diagnosis does not have to be your destiny. Extended references, a complete index, and additional resources for Hormone Intelligence can be found at the author's website.

A comprehensive guide to the female menopause, written for men to help them understand this often perplexing topic. It addresses all the important aspects of the menopause, including the physical, psychological, genito-urinary and long term symptoms that can occur. It gives essential information on options available to cope with those symptoms plus good advice for men (and women!) on practical lifestyle choices. Short and easy to dip in and out of, with humorous illustrations and practical tips for what you can do (and what NOT to say), this is your essential handbook for surviving the change in YOUR life.

'An astonishing debut, rich in both heartbreak and humour' Jendella Benson, author of Hope & Glory Stunningly honest and bursting with wit, Someday Maybe is the story of grief and resilience that you won't be able to stop talking about Here are three things you should know about my husband: 1. He was the great love of my life despite his penchant for going incommunicado 2. He was, as far as I and everyone else could tell, perfectly happy. 3. On New Year's Eve, he killed himself And here is one thing you should know about me: 1. I found him. Bonus fact: No. I am not okay Eve is left heartbroken by her husband's unexpected death, but everyone around her - her friends, her boisterous British-Nigerian family, her toxic mother-in-law - seems to be pushing her to move on. Unable to face the future, Eve begins looking back, delving through the history of her marriage in an attempt to understand where it went wrong. So begins an unconventional love story about loss, resilience, and a heroine bursting with rage and unexpected joy.

*** As recommended by Josh Widdicombe on the PARENTING HELL podcast "It's staggeringly honest but also really funny - I laughed out loud several times. It felt like hearing from a friend. A book that will make a difference, I am sure of it" - Sarah Turner, author of The Unmumsy Mum "Her memoir is brave, honest and shows how friends, family and the NHS got her back from the brink." - The Sun "Something To Live For vividly, brilliantly depicts a descent into mental illness, and what it feels like. It's funny, brutally honest - but uplifting too, because it shows how, with the right treatment, she recovered." - The Telegraph "A very candid memoir... you are drawn into her story." - JUNO ____ What readers are saying: ***** "What a tremendous read. A big-hearted, painfully honest and utterly joyful story." ****** "Cannot put this book down. A rollercoaster of emotions from start to finish but even in the darkest moments Laura manages to find an uplifting way to talk about them...An incredible read no matter what your circumstances are." ***** "Such a moving and important read bringing light to a topic that is not spoken about enough. Laura writes so candidly and emotively...I have recommended this inspiring and brave account to so many people!" ____ Laura Canty is a new mum. She has a beautiful baby boy, Arthur, and a wonderful husband. She has new mum friends on the local WhatsApp group, and everyone in her life is supportive and happy for her. But Laura doesn't see it this way. In the weeks since her baby was born, like 1 in 5 women, Laura has developed Postnatal Depression. In fact, she has decided that the only way out of her current situation is for her to kill herself, or her baby... A moving and refreshingly honest memoir to finally lift the lid on PND and the mental health problems so many mums face. Full of truth and hope, Something to Live For is a special book about the little discussed realities of the illness - and how Laura overcame it.

If you want to get ahead, get a cycle. The menstrual cycle consists of Optimum Times - days of heightened performance skills and abilities. When we 'match the task to the time' we have the opportunity to excel beyond our expectations. We can achieve goals and success more easily, get ahead in the workplace, and enhance our feelings of fulfilment. In "The Optimized Woman", Miranda Gray presents a flexible plan of practical daily actions for self-development, goal achievement and work enhancement, aligned to the phases of the menstrual cycle. This book will totally change how women think about their cycles. It will change how they live their lives, achieve their goals, plan their work and careers, and create happiness and well being. The reader will be amazed that this is the one self-development method that they can apply month after month without losing the commitment and motivation to achieve their dreams, and bring fulfilment and success.

Provocative, ground-breaking and entertaining, the world’s leading expert on sexuality and the ovulation cycle reveals the hidden intelligence of hormones.

Did you know that at certain times of the month, women are inclined to dance more? Flirt more? Or that PMS may have evolved to remove boyfriends with unfit sperm? Why? Hormones.

Hormones help women choose mates, produce healthy offspring, raise them successfully, and, ultimately, make better decisions.

In this paradigm-shifting book, Martie Haselton explains how hormonal intelligence works – both its strengths and its weaknesses – and how women can track and understand their desires, fears and perceptions. By exploring the biological processes that profoundly influence our behaviour, Hormonal sets forth a radical, new understanding of women's bodies, one that sees hormonal cycles as adaptive solutions to genuine biological challenges.

This book will empower women everywhere to embrace their biology.

Discover the 5 secret pillars that, when combined, will result in rapid fat loss, but more importantly lasting fat loss. This will be the last fitness book you will ever need. Fit Moms For Life talks about what it takes to make this a lifestyle and not just another flash in the pan diet and exercise program that you do for a few weeks and stop. Get to know 31 amazing women who have taken the Fit Mom For Life Challenge and dropped anywhere from 30-100 lbs, and kept the weight off! Are you ready to... Look 20 years younger? Have a flat stomach again? Take your husband's breath away each time he sees you? Bring sexy back into being a mom? Melt the muffin top? Fit into your skinny jeans and still have room left over? Be a mom that your kids are proud of? In this book you will discover: One exercise that will make your stomach 2-4 inches smaller within two weeks Why cardio makes you fat and how you can burn 5X9 times more fat than doing boring cardio How to burn fat 24 hours a day How to eat like a linebacker and have a metabolism of a hummingbird How to change your thoughts to produce lasting fat results Dustin Maher, self-proclaimed "Mama's Boy" has given his life to serving moms and helping them look and feel their best. He believes that moms must start putting themselves first in order to be the rock star mom. He asks the question to mom, "Who is taking care of you?" To learn more about Dustin Maher visit his website at www.DustinMaher.com and join the Fit Moms For Life Community.

More and more women are searching the Internet for medical information. Women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer search for information and participate in online communities-groups that "gather" in established online spaces to interact about their diagnoses of breast cancer. They share their own struggles and emotions with their own language: the rhetoric of breast cancer. They ask questions, share experiences, create friendships, discuss their disease processes, and present their illness narratives. However, they also create ethical dilemmas for online researchers and privacy issues as they share information that is legally protected through HIPAA. Online communities will only increase as research of online information expands through big data and predictive analytics, and more than ever before, women need to be aware of the information they share. Researchers also need to be aware, as they share the data they gather, and seek to preserve the privacy of the creators of the online data that they investigate and report. The Rhetoric of Breast Cancer provides a discussion of the complex structures of online communities, particularly those focused on medical diagnoses, and is a valuable read for patients, theorists, physicians, and researchers.

With an ever-growing interest in aromatherapy as a means to manage mental health as well as the subsequent safety concerns surrounding the use and methodology of essential oils, this timely, evidence-based book offers practical guidance on how to support women's mental health through aromatherapy. Comprehensive in its approach, this accessible text presents the history of mental health treatments, general aromatherapy, and specific practical tips and evidence-based aromatherapeutic treatments and management for conditions such as anxiety, depression, and panic disorders which is supplemented with paediatric emotional health support. It also features chapters on grief, pregnancy, postpartum, PMS, and menopause, making it a wide-ranging and holistic compendium of advice and guidance. This new book by Pam Conrad can be read alongside her previous guide Health Aromatherapy: A Clinically Evidence-Based Guide for Nurses, Midwives, Doulas and Therapists or as a stand-alone text and is an essential read for healthcare professionals looking to expand their holistic practice and cater to women's mental health.

Bringing together experts in the field, this important book considers the underlying risk factors that create situations of psychosocial vulnerability and marginalisation for mothers, from their baby's conception up to a year after birth. Adopting a strengths-based approach, the book looks not only at the incidence and impact of disadvantageous circumstances on women but also explores protective factors at an individual, family, community and service level. It identifies promising evidence-based interventions and sources of resilience. With a distinctive focus on social and cultural diversity, Psychosocial Resilience and Risk in the Perinatal Period considers a wide range of personal circumstances and social groups, including women's experiences of traumatic birth, domestic and family violence, drug and alcohol use and mothering by indigenous, same-sex and disabled women. Throughout, case studies and service user experiences are used to illuminate the issues and illustrate exemplary care practice. International in scope, this book is particularly strong on the implications for care practices and health service delivery within Western models of maternity care. Its applied focus and evidence base makes it eminently suitable for study purposes and professional reference. Of relevance to midwives, health visitors and other health and social care practitioners, Psychosocial Resilience and Risk in the Perinatal Period's final chapters focus on developing resilience amongst professionals and multiprofessional and interagency working.

Women's Health Matters, like its sister volume Women's Health Counts, is an invaluable practical guide to doing feminist research on women's health. Written by experienced researchers and practitioners, these lively accounts of research work range from getting the research idea, through obtaining the funding and doing the research, to the practical problems faced, and eventual publication. The book provides an ideal antidote to textbooks and manuals, giving the reader a taste of the problems and pleasures of doing real research.

Reproductive rights are human rights. Reproductive Justice and Women's Voices: Health Communication across the Lifespan offers an in-depth analysis of women's reproductive health in a transformative, sociopolitical moment that is redefining women's access to health care; reducing disparities in maternal and child health is a critical public health goal for the United States. Sundstrom contributes to patient-centered public health by analyzing women's reproductive health across the lifespan. Four critical body episodes: contraceptive use dynamics, pregnancy, childbirth, and the post-partum period explicate women's understandings of control and embodiment in the context of technology. Women's meaning making of each body episode is interrogated in three areas: (1) the physiological experience of reproductive health, (2) perceptions of medicine and the biomedical model, and (3) opinions of mediated messages about reproduction, including new media. Through stories and silence, the women interviewed in this book demand accurate information, including the risks and benefits of health care, and access to reproductive services and technologies. The analysis disrupts the nature/technology dualism and reconceptualizes health outside of the normative processes of menstruation, pregnancy, and childbirth. By talking with women, this study privileges women's decision-making about reproductive health and offers insight for how women's partners, families, and health care providers can support them in this process.

This comprehensive guide for the more than 4 million women each year who experience abnormal Pap smears discusses the relationship of cervical cancer to infection by the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV) and underscores how crucial Pap smears are for cervical cancer prevention. The book covers the meaning of different Pap-smear diagnoses, ranging from atypical to full-blown cervical cancer. Simple and clear line drawings illustrate pertinent female anatomy and normal-to-abnormal cell changes.
Since suboptimal tests can produce misleading results, tips are provided to help women improve their chances of receiving the most accurate Pap smear. This updated edition details the most recent developments in HPV testing, as well as the new liquid-based Pap test. Lastly, the future of Pap smears and cervical-cancer prevention is explored, with special emphasis on the recently approved HPV vaccine.
Vital to the book are interspersed personal interviews, which provide firsthand information on women's feelings about their abnormal Pap smears as well as their experiences with cervical disease. These personal vignettes offer insights into the social and emotional effects that often result from an abnormal Pap smear.
The first edition was chosen by Nurse Practitioner and by Library Journal as one of the best books of the year. Now fully updated, this clearly written, very approachable guide fills a vital consumer-health need.

No Family History presents compelling evidence of environmental links to breast cancer, ranging from everyday cosmetics to industrial waste. Sabrina McCormick weaves the story of one survivor with no family history into a powerful exploration of the big business of breast cancer. As drugs, pink products, and corporate sponsorships generate enormous revenue to find a cure, a growing number of experts argue that we should instead increase focus on prevention reducing environmental exposures that have contributed to the sharp increase of breast cancer rates. But the dollars continue to pour into the search for a cure, and the companies that profit, including some pharmaceutical and cosmetics companies, may in fact contribute to the environmental causes of breast cancer. No Family History shows how profits drive our public focus on the cure rather than prevention, and suggests new ways to reduce breast cancer rates in the future."