Rating: 
Summary: Read with a certain amount of skepticism
Review: First of all, Dr. Northrup does a splendid job dealing with many topics beyond the traditional medical model viewpoint with which we Westerners have grown up. Her personal anecdotes also lend the book a great deal of charm. However, at times I felt some of her explanations were a bit too facile, especially her chapter on infertility. As an infertile woman myself, I might have taken her advice to heart and browbeaten myself over what she insists are my dependent personality, ambivalence about motherhood or poor relationship with my husband (common denominators of infertile women, she claims, but not really applicable to me). Instead I got a medical workup and found the *real* cause of my miscarriages: a uterine septum. I'm quite sure my mindset had nothing to do with causing that. As I said, she does a splendid job, but leaves a few things lacking.
Rating: 
Summary: A women's encyclopaedia
Review: This is a very good book that covers not only the physical aspect, but also the spiritual and emotional issues of women. It's like a reference book, because it also offers resources (web sites, etc.)
Rating: 
Summary: Avoid if you're researching infertility
Review: If you are dealing with infertility, do *not* buy this book. The opening line of the section on infertility basically says if you can't get pregnant then, deep down, you probably don't want to get pregnant.Hello? This is awful, painful advice for someone who's been trying for years to have a child. I threw the book away -- this section undermined any confidence I might have in the rest of the book. I can't even watch this woman on PBS anymore.
Rating:
Summary: WOMENS BODIES WOMENS WISDOM
Review: I found some of the information in this book helpful, but my concern is that this book says that several health problems women have are from deep past hurt. Women can have health problems just from simple illness. I recent the fact that there has to a "deep problem "to have a illness occur- especially with the functioning of women's bodies
Rating:
Summary: appeared promising, but disappointing
Review: As a feminist scholar, I was excited to read this book, especially given that it appeared to have a strong focus on holistic women's health. However, I just could not get myself to continue after she seriously introduced the idea of chakras and energy field/forces. How disappointing to see a medical doctor wander off into an completely unproven and pseudoscientific realm. Discussions of women's health and a holistic approach do not mean uncritically accepting any "spiritual" claims. If these therapies do work, they can probably be explained through promoting psychological wellbeing, or through the placebo effect(which is not necesarily a bad thing if it helps a person feel better). However, given her uncritical acceptance of what is a marginal philosophy at best, I could not trust any of the other information presented. I didn't know if the medical information had been researched/validated at all, or if it merely "sounded good."
Rating:
Summary: For Crying Out Loud!
Review: I am a resonable and open minded person,but I think this book is just plain weird. "How to Heal Energy Leaks", and "How to Heal Lower-Chakra Wounding"... I realize that there is good information mixed in with this, but I just can't take it seriously. Truthfully, I quit after page 255. Elaine (a patient) is experiencing long term pain. She suddenly experiences an in utero memory of feeling her father's penis poking her through her mother's uterus. Elaine is sure she experienced her mother's disgust and indifference during sex and was victimized by it, thus causing all of her problems. Come on,that's just too much!
Rating:
Summary: a thorough look at womens health care
Review: This book is both a reference guide and a very readable series of essays about womens' health care. Dr. Northrup begins the book by looking at the feminine "energy body" and chakra system, thus placing the book squarely in the camp of "mind-body medicine" from the very beginning. However, throughout the rest of the book she very skillfully blends the complementary outlook with allopathic medicine, in a way which is very reasonable and helpful. She definitely comes across as someone who has had rigorous medical training, both in school and later on her own as a very observant practitioner. One of the things I found most helpful about this book was the way she linked womens' emotional states with physical illnesses. For instance, womens' chronic low self-esteem and resulting depression have measurable physical repercussions. What I did not find so helpful was her description of our patriarchal system as "addictive." I personally think the terms "addiction" and "addictive" are way overused right now in our culture, and I did not understand the connection between patriarchy and addiction. However, I found so much in this book that empowered me to accept myself as I am, rather than how the larger culture wants me to look and be, that I strongly recommend the book to others.
Rating:
Summary: not everyone will be ready for this book
Review: I recently spent 5 days in the hospital with a diagnosis of Erlichiosis, a tick borne disease similar to Lyme but more violent in it's onset. As I lay in my hospital bed, sick as can be with a 105 temp, nausea, vomiting, and a terrible hacking cough, it became clear to me beyond a shadow of a doubt that ALMOST all illness is a result of emotional imbalance. I had been working very hard in the previous months and years at personal healing- overcoming my addictions, healing an eating disorder, working to get to the core of my tendency towards depression and imbalance. In the weeks leading up to my illness I had been practicing a lot of yoga and completely avoiding all of my "trigger" foods- as a result I set the stage for some deep repressed emotions to come up. Even though I did pull a tick off me and no doubt did have a tick borne disease, there was more going on than just that. Grief, sadness, anger and panic that I had been carrying around since my father suffered a massive stroke when I was just 10, that I had suppressed due to an inablility to process or understand, was working it's way out of my body and into my consciousness to be released and healed. I believe if I had not had this emotional patterning I would not have had the weakness in my immune system that allowed this to take place- one aspect begat the other. So it is with ALMOSt all illnesses- I do believe there are exceptions. For the people who reviewed this book negatively, I say, open your minds to the possibilty that this approach is the truth. Healing deep emotional wounds is painful, but the results of looking at ourselves honestly are well worth the pain.
Rating:
Summary: Did ya'll read the same book?
Review: I have miscarried and I didn't find that herinformation on it was uncompassionate or meant to cause harm. Thisbook is EMPOWERING, it let me know that I AM THE ONE WHO HAS THE POWER TO CHANGE MY STATE OF HEALTH. I feel indebted to Dr. Northrup for putting herself out on a limb and helping me to find the reassurance that healing FROM ANYTHING is possible. I wish she lived within a 200 mile radius of me so that I could have such a knowledgable and caring physician.
Rating:
Summary: In defense of victimhood...
Review: I straddle the fence between faith in allopathic (Western) medicine and a more wholistic approach. So I bought this book eagerly. I have been both intrigued and disappointed. I appreciate the hard scientific information: how our bodies work, how various procedures and substances affect them, the latest developments in health care. I also appreciated reading that things that I have long considered normal, like pregnancy, are indeed natural processes and not diseases or disabilities. But I didn't appreciate hearing that most medical problems are rooted in dysfunctional emotional states. While I think that there are some conditions that are amenable to a psychotherapeutic approach, I KNOW that the hideous cramps I suffered all through my young girlhood, from age 11 to about 27, were a lot more than merely a function of my ambivalence toward my burgeoning womanhood. And while this isn't my problem, the idea that an enlightened female doctor would tell an infertile woman that her infertility is caused by her own psychological state vis a vis parenthood is absolutely horrifying. As is the idea that grapefruit-sized ovarian cysts can be reduced by changing the way we regard ourselves in a patriarchal society. And the idea that most of our plumbing problems are rooted in our victimhood reverses all the gains in strength and self-confidence we've made in the past 30 years. And the less said about her friend the "medical intuitive," the better! I recommend this book only to women who are grounded, strong in their sense of self as non-victims, and well-versed enough in medical knowledge to winnow through the junk and glean the good medical information. For the rest, I think it could be quite damaging.
| 
