Does eating sugar cause yeast infections? Does pubic hair have a function? Should you have a vulvovaginal care regimen? Will your vagina shrivel up if you go without sex? What's the truth about the HPV vaccine? So many important questions, so much convincing, confusing, contradictory misinformation! In this age of click bait, pseudoscience, and celebrity-endorsed products, it's easy to be overwhelmed-whether it's websites, advice from well-meaning friends, uneducated partners, and even healthcare providers. So how do you separate facts from fiction? Obstetrician Jen Gunter, an expert on women's health-and the internet's most popular go-to doc-comes to the rescue with a book that debunks the myths and educates and empowers women. From reproductive health to the impact of antibiotics and probiotics, and the latest trends, including vaginal steaming, vaginal marijuana products, and jade eggs, Gunter takes us on a factual, fun-filled journey. Discover the truth about: * The vaginal microbiome * Genital hygiene, lubricants, and hormone myths and fallacies * How diet impacts vaginal health * Stem cells and the vagina * Cosmetic vaginal surgery * What changes to expect during pregnancy, after childbirth, and through menopause * How medicine fails women by dismissing symptoms Plus: * Thongs vs. lace: the best underwear for vaginal health * How to select a tampon * The full glory of the clitoris and the myth of the G Spot ... And so much more. Whether you're a twenty-six-year-old worried that her labia are 'uncool' or a sixty-six-year-old dealing with painful sex, this comprehensive guide is sure to become a lifelong trusted resource.

As many as one in ten women experience amenorrhea--the absence of menstrual function in women who have not yet reached menopause--in varying degrees of severity, at some point in their lives. This book offers women guidance and information about a subject that is often difficult to discuss.

As many as one in ten women experience amenorrhea--the absence of menstrual function in women who have not yet reached menopause--in varying degrees of severity, at some point in their lives. This book offers women guidance and information about a subject that is often difficult to discuss.

Studies show that people suffering from chronic illness fare better when they share experiences with people fighting the same disease. Judith Lynn Nichols found this to be true after she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1976. For 20 years she felt estranged from her family, her doctors, and her own body. Then, while researching MS on the Internet, she connected with a group of women fighting to live with MS. The group quickly became each woman's support network, and in daily emails they offered each other medical information as well as life-sustaining doses of humor, empathy, and compassion. Based on those Internet conversations, this book helps anyone fighting a chronic illness.

A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org. Documenting Death is a gripping ethnographic account of the deaths of pregnant women in a hospital in a low-resource setting in Tanzania. Through an exploration of everyday ethics and care practices on a local maternity ward, anthropologist Adrienne E. Strong untangles the reasons Tanzania has achieved so little sustainable success in reducing maternal mortality rates, despite global development support. Growing administrative pressures to document good care serve to preclude good care in practice while placing frontline healthcare workers in moral and ethical peril. Maternal health emergencies expose the precarity of hospital social relations and accountability systems, which, together, continue to lead to the deaths of pregnant women.

Quick Answers for a Healthy Start A healthy pregnancy starts with a well-balanced diet, but there s much more to know. For example: True or False?
* You need to eat an extra 500 calories a day when pregnant.
* Iron needs triple during pregnancy.
* A high-fiber diet is important during pregnancy.
Answers:
* False. Pregnant women require 300 extra calories a day and nursing women need an extra 500 calories a day. You ll find more on calories and weight gain in Chapter 1 and nutrition tips while breast-feeding in Chapter 9.
* False. Your need for iron doubles during pregnancy. Still, it can be difficult to get this much iron from food alone. That s why you should read more about iron in Chapter 3.
* True. Fiber helps prevent constipation, a common occurrence during pregnancy. Learn tips for managing constipation, morning sickness, and other discomforts of pregnancy in Chapter 7.
From the latest information on vitamin and mineral supplements and exercise to advice on losing weight after your baby is born, this handy book covers it all.

Finally -- an approach to meditation especially for women!

The benefits of meditations are manifold -- but so few practices are tailored to the special needs and interests of women. Now, with Meditation Secrets for Women, you can discover how to love your body and find a time and place to tune into yourself and restore inner balance. Get in touch with your body's natural rhythms. Honor your instincts, and tap into your feminine power so that you can emerge nourished, revitalized, and joyful. Meditation Secrets for Women offers all the tools and insights necessary for women to design their own custom meditation techniques, without all the restrictions of traditional practices.

Learn How To:

• Make use of sensual, pleasurable meditation techniques
• Gain a refreshing, rejuvenating rest that is deeper than sleep
• Relieve stress and promote good health
• Relax and be yourself as you reap life-affirming benefits
• Live in harmony with your world
• Enhance your relationships and creativity

This is a straight-talking, woman-to-woman postnatal recovery guide with a difference. These tailored Pilates exercises are safe and effective to build strong foundations, whatever your exercise goals.

Clear step-by-step exercises are suitable for the fourth trimester, caesarean recovery and year one and beyond. Take control of your postnatal recovery and feel empowered with this toolkit of resources.

Health, fitness and wellbeing advice will help replenish and renew your energy in mind, body and spirit.

Learn how to check for abdominal separation and recognise the signs of pelvic floor weakness - what it means and what you can do about it.

Posture tips, easily incorporated into your day-to-day life - while breastfeeding, pushing your buggy, at your desk, picking up your toddler.

Routines are realistic and manageable as they are broken down into bite-sized 10/20/30-minute blocks.

Beat the symptoms of PMS by making simple changes to your diet with this lively and authoritative self-help guide from the authors of the best-selling PCOS and PCOS Diet Book. A must-have for all women who feel they're spending half their life feeling less then 100%, this book shows how you can get rid of discomfort and pain for good. This book, by the authors of the best-selling PCOS and PCOS Diet Book, reveals how simple changes can produce startling results, ridding you of pain and discomfort for good. A healthy lifestyle and good nutrition are the key factors in relieving PMS- without this, the many supplements on the market are ineffective. The easy-to-follow 12-week programme includes weekly information on nutrition, PMS-busting exercise, emotional well-being and vitality boosters such as supplements and mood-lifters. The book also explains the PMS cycle, telling you when is the best time to start the plan, when you will most likely feel like comfort eating, giving up or snapping at everyone- making it easier to stress-proof your life. The plan promises long-term results, with a maintenance plan to ensure life stays PMS-free after the 12 weeks are over. Also includes chapters explaining why PMS occurs and why the plan works, exploring the hormonal problems that PMS might point to, such as peri-menopause and PCOS, as well as an A-Z of symptoms and how to beat them so you can fine-tune the plan to suit you. Includes quotes from real women whose lives, relationships, families and jobs have been affected.

The feminist women's health movement of the 1960s and 1970s is credited with creating significant changes in the healthcare industry and bringing women's health issues to public attention. Decades later, women's health issues are more visible than ever before, but that visibility is made possible by a process of depoliticization The Vulnerable Empowered Woman assesses the state of women's healthcare today by analyzing popular media representations-television, print newspapers, websites, advertisements, blogs, and memoirs-in order to understand the ways in which breast cancer, postpartum depression, and cervical cancer are discussed in American public life. From narratives about prophylactic mastectomies to young girls receiving a vaccine for sexually transmitted disease, the representations of women's health today form a single restrictive identity: the vulnerable empowered woman. This identity defuses feminist notions of collective empowerment and social change by drawing from both postfeminist and neoliberal ideologies. The woman is vulnerable because of her very femininity and is empowered not to change the world, but to choose from among a limited set of medical treatments. The media's depiction of the vulnerable empowered woman's relationship with biomedicine promotes traditional gender roles and affirms women's unquestioning reliance on medical science for empowerment. The book concludes with a call to repoliticize women's health through narratives that can help us imagine women-and their relationship to medicine-differently. |The feminist women's health movement of the 1960s and 1970s is credited with creating significant changes in the healthcare industry and bringing women's health issues to public attention. Decades later, women's health issues are more visible than ever before, but that visibility is made possible by a process of depoliticization The Vulnerable Empowered Woman assesses the state of women's healthcare today by analyzing popular media representations-television, print newspapers, websites, advertisements, blogs, and memoirs-in order to understand the ways in which breast cancer, postpartum depression, and cervical cancer are discussed in American public life. From narratives about prophylactic mastectomies to young girls receiving a vaccine for sexually transmitted disease, the representations of women's health today form a single restrictive identity: the vulnerable empowered woman. This identity defuses feminist notions of collective empowerment and social change by drawing from both postfeminist and neoliberal ideologies. The woman is vulnerable because of her very femininity and is empowered not to change the world, but to choose from among a limited set of medical treatments. The media's depiction of the vulnerable empowered woman's relationship with biomedicine promotes traditional gender roles and affirms women's unquestioning reliance on medical science for empowerment. The book concludes with a call to repoliticize women's health through narratives that can help us imagine women-and their relationship to medicine-differently.

THE IMMEDIATE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER The debut self-help book from Vicky Pattison, on how to quash your inner doubts, overcome fear and live a happier life. "If there's any woman out there who is feeling like they're going through things on their own, or they're worried that they're not achieving what they should be, or feeling or looking how they should, I want this book to let you know you're not alone." In over a decade on television, Vicky Pattison has had her fair share of ups and downs, from her rise to fame on Geordie Shore to her public break-up with her fiance, her body confidence issues and debilitating anxiety. In The Secret to Happy, Vicky opens up about her darkest moments and shares the pearls of wisdom and hard-won lessons she's picked up along the way - to overcoming heartbreak, ending toxic relationships and managing her mental health - to help you find inner strength, accept imperfections and be true to yourself. Brave, honest and insightful, with Vicky's trademark Geordie humour, The Secret to Happy is an empowering and uplifting guide to help you find your own kind of happiness, whatever that looks like.

A physical therapist who has worked almost exclusively with breast cancer patients for nearly 30 years writes a warm and understanding book that uses the stories of real women as examples to discuss the best exercises and therapies for relieving pain after surgery.

'Hormone balance is within reach, and this is the definitive guide for reaching that goal.'-David Perlmutter, MD, author of Grain Brain Prepare to thrive. As women approach menopause, many start to experience the physical and emotional indignities of hormonal fluctuation: metabolic stall and weight gain, hot flashes and night sweats, insomnia, memory loss or brain fog, irritability, low libido, and painful sex. Too often, doctors tell us that these discomforts are to be expected and that we will have to wait them out during "the change". But Dr Anna Cabeca's research and experience with thousands of her patients show that there is a fast-acting and non-pharmaceutical way to dramatically and permanently alleviate these symptoms. The Hormone Fix introduces Dr Cabeca's unique Keto-Green protocol, a plan that pairs the hallmarks of ketogenic (low-carb/high fat) eating with diet and lifestyle changes that bring the body's cellular pH to a healthy alkaline level. The proven result: balanced cortisol and reduced output of insulin, the hormones most responsible for belly fat and weight gain, plus an increase in oxytocin, the "love and happiness" hormone. Whether you are perimenopausal, menopausal, or postmenopausal, The Hormone Fix offers an easy-to-follow program, including - A 10-day quick-start detox diet to jump-start weight loss and reduce symptoms immediately - Daily meal plans and weekly shopping lists to take the guesswork out of a month's worth of Keto-Green eating - 65 delicious and easy-to-make recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, smoothies, and soups - Detailed information on vitamin and mineral supplementation that optimizes hormone balance and gut health - Simple self-assessments and recommended optional lab testing for a better understanding of your hormonal status - Tested and trusted stress-reduction and oxytocin-amplifying advice and techniques With The Hormone Fix you can expect to trim down, tap into new and unexpected energy levels, enhance intimacy, and completely revitalize your life! Ready for your fix?

THIS VITAL REFERENCE BOOK MAKES NATURAL HEALTH A REALISTIC PART OF BUSY STRESSFUL LIVES.

Susan Curtis and Romy Fraser draw on many years' experience in natural medicine to explain the different needs of our energy and repair systems, and the natural healing options available.

'The Repertory of Ailments' covers psychological as well as physical ailments – from anxiety to acne, colds to cancer – and explains conventional methods of treatment as well as the benefits of alternative approaches.

'The Materia Medica' is an A to Z of alternative remedies and treatments, including homoeopathy, herbalism, flower remedies and essential oils, with clear instructions on preparation and application.

'Lifestyle' contains practical and realistic guidelines for improving diet, exercise and sleep patterns, as well as relaxation techniques, a cleansing programme and a natural first aid kit.

These three sections combine to form a unique guide to healing mind, body and spirit.

What is Diabetes?

What Are You Feeling?

Treating Gestational Diabetes.

Food, Food, Food.

Exercise.

Insulin.

Understanding Insulin Reactions.

Monitoring.

Tests and More Tests: What to Expect.

Tips for Managing Stress.

What to Expect on Birth Day.

To Nurse or Not to Nurse.

Looking Toward the Future.

Learn More About It.

Glossary of Terms.

Biographical Information.

Sample Record Pages.

Index.

Introducing the fitness program designed by a physical therapist exclusively for women — proven to increase strength, tone muscles and reduce aches and pains in just 15 minutes a day!

Few women realize that most popular fitness regimens are designed for men. Yet women have their own unique fitness needs — and using a program developed with men’s bodies in mind is not only ineffective, but can actually result in injury.

Renowned physical therapist Peggy Brill has devoted her life to developing an exercise program specifically for women. Based on her understanding of movement dynamics and body structure, these exercises focus on developing and balancing the muscles in the anatomical center of the body — the core — which includes the back, hip and abdominal muscles.

Peggy’s remarkable head-to-toe workout targets the “hot spot” areas — neck, back, pelvis, hips, knees — that cause problems for even the healthiest women. In just 15 minutes a day, The Core Program’s easy-to-learn exercises will help women:

• Strengthen their bodies to achieve balance and alignment
• Eliminate everyday aches and pains
• Prevent bone loss
• Protect against osteoarthritis
• Improve sleep, digestion and circulation
• Enjoy better sex
• Feel energized all day long
• Overcome the effects of aging

With inspirational case histories, detailed photographs illustrating each exercise and self-tests for rating balance, flexibility and strength, The Core Program is an owner’s manual for the naturally strong, healthy body every woman should have.


From the Hardcover edition.

The psychology of women's health is an area traditionally controlled by male-orientated scientists, psychologists and doctors. Women by definition have been unquestioningly seen and treated as deviant from the male norm. This model has been challenged by feminist historians and sociologists, but not by psychologists who seem to have implicitly accepted the medical models, and emphasized the pathology in women's behaviour and emotions. In this book, women's views and their experience of their own health and health care are taken seriously, and analyzed within a psychological and a feminist angle. It includes chapters from psychologists who work in research, teaching and practice. Paula Nicolson and Jane Ussher are co-editors of "Gender Issues in Clinical Psychology". Jane Ussher is the author of "The Psychology of the Female Body" and "Women's Madness: Mysogyny or Mental Illness".

In this collection of essays, Ann Oakley, one of the most influential social scientists of the last twenty years, brings together the best of her work on the sociology of women's health. She focuses on four main themes - divisions of labour, motherhood, technology and methodology - and in her own inimitable style, combines serious academic discourse from a feminist sociological perspective with a practical understanding of what it is to be women facing the often impersonal world of twentieth-century medicine. Updating and substantially expanding on her earlier work, Telling the Truth About Jerusalem, this new collection bridges the medical/social divide in an accessible and personable way.