In a major update of the book that helped to launch the women's health movement, Our Bodies, Ourselves for the New Century updates the classic with chapters on such issues as online health resources, AIDS, and managed care. At the same time, it expands its appeal by addressing the concerns of an increasingly diverse readership, from lesbians to women of color, from women with disabilities to women of all age groups.

Yet the book, by the nonprofit Boston Women's Health Book Collective, remains true to the spirit of those empowering discussions women were first having in the 1960s and 1970s about their bodies: "As the millennium approaches, our original goals for this book remain as important as ever: to fit as much information about women's health between the covers of this book as we can, providing women with tools to enable all of us to take charge of our health and lives; to support women and men who work for progressive change; and to work to create a just society in which good health is not a luxury or a privilege but a human right."

By updating and continuing to tackle such topics as body image, sexuality, contraception, childbearing, breast cancer, and the politics of women's health, this edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves keeps giving women the power and the knowledge to take charge of their own health. It remains a valuable resource for women of all ages and backgrounds.


From Publishers Weekly
The original edition of 1970's now-classic Our Bodies, Ourselves has sold more than three million copies, and the revised and expanded edition will likely prove equally popular among women of all ages. According to the authors, some of them among the original contributors, knowledge is power, but women will make little change in the medical and health-care industries unless they join forces with other women at home and around the world. Like its predecessor, this volume is wide in scope (but lacking in depth), and has a profoundly feminist perspective as it emphasizes sexual health, reproductive rights, community-based organization and the political, economic and social conditions that limit women's access to quality health care. Much of the new information details recent health research on women's needs and inequities in medical care for men and women, and reflects the experiences of different ethnicities, sexual preferences and economic backgrounds. Women are the primary consumers of health care in the U.S., but, the authors say, they are grossly underserved. In addition, the medical community has viewed many life-stage conditions—pregnancy, premenstrual syndrome, menopause—as illnesses rather than natural processes that require teams of supportive practitioners. The book's rousing political orientation may motivate readers to access the numerous resources listed or the companion OBOS Web site. More than a book, OBOS is a health movement and deserves a place on every woman's bookshelf. (May)


Review
Journal of the American Medical Association A mother lode of information and resources for the client/consumer and the physician.

Byllye Avery founder of the National Black Women's Health Project Our Bodies, Ourselves is the bible for women's health.... It has served as a way for women, across ethnic, racial, religious and geographical boundaries, to start examining their health from a perspective that will bring about change.

Helen Rodriguez-Trias past president of the American Public Health Association What has made each generation of women rejoice in discovering themselves in Our Bodies, Ourselves is that it still emanates from women's experiences as faithfully as ever.


Review
Gloria Steinem Within these pages, you will find the voice of a women's health movement that is based on shared experience. Listen to it -- and add your own.


Review
Gloria Steinem Within these pages, you will find the voice of a women's health movement that is based on shared experience. Listen to it -- and add your own.


Book Description
The essential resource on women's health and sexuality comes of age in this newly revised and updated edition of a long-loved classic. Our Bodies, Ourselves for the New Century reflects the vital health concerns of women of diverse ages, ethnic and racial backgrounds, and sexual orientations. In these pages, women will find new information, resources (including web sites!), and personal support for the decisions that will shape their health -- and their lives -- from living a healthy life, to relationships and sexuality, to child-bearing, growing older, dealing with the medical system, and organizing for change. This is a book for women of all generations to use, to rely on, and to share with others.


About the Author
The Boston Women's Health Book Collective is a nonprofit organization devoted to education about women and health.


Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
From PART ONE: Taking Care of Ourselves Introduction By Wendy Sanford, with Nancy Miriam Hawley and Jane Pincus Revised by Jennifer Yanco and Judy Norsigian for the 1998 edition This first section of Our Bodies, Ourselves for the New Century offers basic information we as women need to take care of our health at home and in the workplace. Conventional medical care, with its heavy emphasis on drugs, surgery, and crisis intervention, sometimes helps us when we are sick, but it does not always keep us healthy. To a great extent, what makes us healthy or unhealthy is how we are able to live our daily lives: the quality of the food we eat and the air we breathe; access to health care; how we exercise; how much rest we get; how much stress we live with; how much we use alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs; how safe or hazardous our workplaces are; whether we experience the threat or reality of sexual violence. Some of these things are under our control as individuals. Many, however, are not; we can influence them only by working with others to bring changes: pressuring an employer to remove hazards, forming a co-op for cheaper high-quality food, protesting the pollution from a nearby chemical plant, starting a network of "safe houses" for women who may be experiencing domestic abuse. The resources available to us, especially our financial resources, greatly influence our daily health. In an unjust society, some people can afford to take better care of their health than others. It is a major aim of the feminist movement to make the crucial tools for health and survival available to everyone. All through this book we emphasize wherever possible what women can do -- for ourselves, for each other -- in staying healthy, healing ourselves, and working for change. HEALTHISM Healthism, simply put, is an overemphasis on keeping healthy. Many persons today (particularly the more affluent) have become preoccupied with staying healthy. We may become preoccupied with controlling the more manageable health factors like diet and exercise because we feel powerless to change major factors like the health care system, contaminated water supplies, and toxins in our food and the air we breathe. When we are overly focused on fitness or a "healthy lifestyle" as goals to strive for (or as the measure of a "healthy" society), we deflect attention from the more important goals of social justice and peace. Even though prevention is crucial, and is dangerously glossed over by conventional medicine, it, too, can be overemphasized. In expanding the concept of prevention ever further, we risk defining more and more aspects of life in terms of health and illness -- that is, according to a medical model. We may end up seeing exercise, eating, meditation, fresh air, or dance, for example -- all pleasures in their own right -- simply as measures of our potential health or nonhealth. in this way, ironically, we further medicalize our lives. Keeping healthy can also become a moral issue. Individuals are made to feel guilty for getting sick. People shake their heads disapprovingly over those who "don't take care of themselves." In many cases, this amounts to blaming the victim; it shows a failure to recognize both the social and economic influences on health habits and the complexity of illness. With personal habits, too, a certain tendency to judge creeps in: "She should have more control over her smoking" or "She should get more exercise, stop eating so much sugar." Even when these are matters of personal choice, a moralistic healthism is inappropriae. And it doesn't help people change, even when they may want to. STRESS Common to most of the chapters in this unit is an appreciation of stress as a major health factor. Humans, like all animals, have innate stress-alarm systems originally designed to help us fight or run away when faced with danger. In earlier, simpler times, this fight-or-flight response was appropriate. In today's world, however, the dangers are no longer so obvious or so simple. We experience multiple, prolonged, often ambiguous stresses (see box below) for which immediate action is often impossible. We squelch the fight-or-flight response over and over again in the course of a single day. One commonly expressed theory is that years of failing to discharge the body's stress response can damage the body's immune (disease-fighting) system and may contribute to different kinds of ill health. Body image pressures are a huge source of stress for women; unrealistic internalized notions of how we should look often lead us to try to alter our appearance by doing things that compromise our health. The stress of living under the constant onslaught of racism has serious health consequences that are finally beginning to be seriously examined by the scientific community. As women, we bear the stress of living under the threat of sexual violence -- on the streets, in our workplaces, and in our homes. Job stress continues to increase as more and more of us are heads of households and have to work longer hours to make ends meet. This, combined with cutbacks in social services, is an enormous source of stress. Food can be one of the greatest sources of stress: Do we have enough to feed ourselves and our families? Do we have access to good, wholesome, uncontaminated food? The extent to which we are able to eat well influences our ability to deal with stress. At the same time, increasing numbers of women and girls suffer from eating problems -- some of them life-threatening, like anorexia and bulimia. Some of us turn to alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs to help us deal with stress; these solutions frequently make matters worse for us. There are many ways to minimize the effects of stress in our lives by taking care of ourselves -- eating well, exercising, and exploring such things as meditation, holistic approaches to health, psychotherapy, and other approaches to caring for our psychological and emotional health -- and by enjoying simple pleasures like foot rubs, long hot baths, and time to ourselves. It helps us to complain when we need to, ask our friends for encouragement, to laugh often, and to cry when we need to. But it is important, too, to try to identify the causes of negative or excessive stress in our lives, and to change as many as we can. This isn't always easy or possible, especially by ourselves. The following chapters attempt to distinguish carefully between what we can do as individuals and the social factors that we must change by working together. In many cases, the fact of joining together with others to bring about needed change can provide us with the energy and hope that are important sources of health and well-being in and of themselves. CAUSES AND SYMPTOMS OF STRESS In our culture today, stress is often defined in a simplistic way: stress is working too hard or having a "type A" personality. But the causes of stress are complex and often beyond our personal control. Some Causes of Stress Financial insecurity Job loss Death of somebody we love and/or need Ending or beginning a relationship Job changes or a new job Having a baby Moving Being discriminated against because of race, class, age, looks, sexual orientation, religion, or physical disability An illness for which we can find no appropriate care A diet low in fresh foods and high in sugar, white flour, caffeine, additives, and salt Environmental pollution The threat of nuclear war Stresses Specific to Women A majority of women now combine outside jobs with full responsibility for home and children. In addition, we may feel -- from others, from ourselves -- the pressure to be "perfect" at each of these. Most jobs pay women little and don't allow us to use our abilities. Many women are single parents; many have low incomes. Some of us are at home all day with small children. We face sexual harassment and abuse on the street, in workplaces, at home. Symptoms of Excessive Stress Headaches Neck, back, and shoulder pains Nervous twitches, "tics" Insomnia Skin rashes Greater susceptibility to colds, influenza, or other illnesses Worsening of existing conditions or illnesses Depression, anxiety, irritability, nervousness, despair Jaw pains and toothaches (from grinding teeth) Cankers, cold sores Stomachaches, diarrhea, loss of or increase in appetite Increased frequency of herpes episodes Copyright © 1984, 1992, 1998 by the Boston Women's Health Book Collective

ANNOTATION

"The first complete and major revision in 14 years includes new photographs and the latest health and medical information...speaks to women from a variety of ethnic, economic, and age groups."

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Our Bodies, Ourselves for the New Century reflects the vital health concerns of women of diverse ages, ethnic and racial backgrounds, and sexual orientations. In these pages, women will find new information, resources (including web sites!), and personal support for the decisions that will shape their health - and their lives - from living a healthy life, to relationships and sexuality, to child-bearing, growing older, dealing with the medical system, and organizing for change.

SYNOPSIS