Complete Guide To Women's Health
Author: American Medical Association
Random House of Canada, Ltd, 1265 Aerowood Dr, Mississauga, ON L4W1B9
1996/759 pp
Good starter guide to women’s health
Strengths
Well formatted, easy to read, practical approaches to common problems, focus on wellness and preventive health
Audience
General public
This comprehensive reference volume for women contains common-sense approaches to a number of important health issues. Its target audience is middle-class American women with a moderately high level of literacy. The book aims to provide women with up-to-date medical information to guide decision making and to facilitate communication with their physicians.
Its four main sections cover health maintenance, sexual and reproductive health, pregnancy, and the common health concerns of women. It is well laid out with useful summaries, flow charts, sidebars containing helpful hints, questions women often ask, and narrative vignettes that lend a dynamic and personal tone to the main text.
I found the chapters on nutrition, fitness, avoiding risky behaviour, and stress management refreshingly frank and practical. The sections on pregnancy and childbirth are well illustrated and cover many of the issues women enquire about in my own practice. Although there are excellent chapters on family violence, sexual assault, and bereavement, the social context of women’s health is not explored in sufficient depth. The short section on sexual abuse, for example, makes only passing mention of the health consequences that an adult survivor of abuse might experience. In contrast, the 19 pages on elective cosmetic surgery seemed excessive.
The book is written with a specialty focus, emphasizing early referral. Very little is said about family physicians and their potential for providing comprehensive care and building health partnerships with women over time. There are no references or suggestions for further reading for women who wish to pursue controversial or rapidly changing issues, such as prevention guidelines. It is also unclear how consultants evaluated the evidence behind their recommendations. I found it surprising, for example, to see episiotomy presented as a procedure to prevent excessive tears during childbirth when there is evidence in the literature to the contrary.
The overall strength of this publication is its range, its detail, and its attention to the prevention of illness, making it a good starting place for many women to access health information and to consider dialogue with their physicians. In this regard, it fulfils the authors’ objectives. Because of its expense and likelihood of dating quickly, I would recommend it as a resource volume for a public library or community health clinic.