The Yale Guide to Women's Reproductive Health: From Menarche to Menopause

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Summary: The Yale Guide to Women's Reproductive Health: From Menarche
Review: The qualifications of this volume's authors are the chief reasons to consider purchasing yet another guide to women's health that covers less territory than the classic Our Bodies, Ourselves for the New Century. Minkin, a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Yale University School of Medicine, graduated from and trained at Yale. Freelancer Wright has written on women's health topics. Aiming to provide readers with information needed to make choices that may be presented in a gynecologist's office, the text covers menstruation, contraceptives, infections and sexually transmitted diseases, breast and genital tract cancer, pregnancy and infertility, and abortion and miscarriage. The chapter "Premenstrual Syndrome" includes a chart called "Anxiety Levels and PMS" and pages of information about various remedies, including diet, alternative medications and therapies, hormones, and antidepressants, while "Fibroids and Endometriosis" contains wide-ranging information about risk factors with emphasis on drug treatment and surgical intervention. Surprisingly, there is little information about new technological innovations used in treatment of gynecological diseases, such as uterine artery embolization for fibroids. Brief chapters cover lifestyles (eating habits, alcohol use, and exercise) and sexuality, but it should be noted that lesbian-specific healthcare issues are not addressed, and patients described in vignettes are specifically or implied heterosexual. There are 33 figures, several tables and charts, a glossary, and a thoughtful, though brief annotated list of resources, both print and web-based. While this guide is more extensive than Scott Thornton and Kathleen Schramm's Everything You Always Wanted To Ask Your Gynecologist, which briefly answers 200 questions, other libraries may prefer more comprehensive books such as Karen Carlson and others' The Harvard Guide to Women's Health.