The Psychology Of Women S Health And Health Care

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 model and emphasised 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 analysed within a psychological and a feminist angle.

Women's Health Psychology is the first comprehensive collection ever published to consider the developmental, reproductive, and sociocultural contexts of health decision-making and behavior for women. It provides current, expert advice to help policy makers, researchers, and clinicians make the best decisions concerning topics including: The Context of Women's Health: history of women's healthcare, employment and women's health, and the effects of intimate partner violence Health Challenges: smoking, alcohol, eating disorders, and sleep Reproductive Health: premenstrual dysphoric disorder, the stress of infertility, psychiatric symptoms and pregnancy, and menopause Disability and Chronic Conditions: women's responses to disability, experiencing cancer, the psychology of Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and rheumatic, heart, and Alzheimer's diseases

This text looks at the psychology of women's health and health care and includes chapters on anorexia nervosa, female sexuality and health, abortion, the psychology of infertility and the psychology of lesbian health care.

This volume presents the knowledge, views, and experiences of ex perts in the fields of health care that are particularly important to women. Not all of the authors agree on all of the issues, but all share the same concerns about women's health and recognize the impor tance of providing information to enable women to become active par ticipants in the health care partnership. The idea for the book evolved from our own work in the field of women's health care. The positive responses we received to several papers and presentations based on our experiences and addressed to patients, physicians, and other health care professionals indicated that there is a growing need for open discussion of women's health care issues as well as a need for developing and implementing new and better ways of dealing with these issues. We were further motivated by the repeated failure of the health care community to integrate new insights and information (that frequently contradict older, established beliefs and practices) into current health planning, education, and practice.

Offering a unique combination of pragmatic and philosophical perspectives, Reframing Women′s Health presents an insightful exploration of the theoretical and practical advances in women′s health care. The assembled works of this distinguished group of contributors addresses issues as diverse as the concept of biological primacy, the role of reproduction, and the possible repercussions of accepting the male experience as normative. Other subjects discussed include the physical, emotional, and legal elements of abuse, advances and methodology in clinical and behavioral research, as well as a variety of practice concerns. This comprehensive survey of critical women′s health topics will be indispensable to researchers, educators, clinicians, and students in this and such related fields as gender studies, health sciences, psychology, and social work. "In Reframing Women′s Health, the editor has assembled some of the finest authors in the field to create a broad-based, multidisciplinary source of the latest thinking on women′s health. For a discipline this young, the book represents an extremely comprehensive collection of works. . . . The authors go beyond the stereotyped view of obstetric and gynecologic care and force the reader to consider women in relation to self and in relation to the world in which they live. . . . The tread that weaves through the book is one of challenging the old paradigm of women′s health care as care of reproductive issues alone. It is a must read for clinicians or teachers who wish to broaden their own thinking in a way that will promote optimal health care for women." --Family Medicine "Especially recommended for college-level students of women′s health and health science." --Diane C. Donovan, The Midwest Book Review

The author proposes that the conditions, events, and experiences that contribute to serious mental health problems for a percentage of women, will at some point be experienced by all. Mental Health Issues presents two basic themes: that social contexts and frameworks are experienced and expressed, and then subconsciously internalized as part of the self; and that specific diagnostic conditions, such as depression, alcoholism, or eating disorders, can emerge from dynamics that are experienced by most women. Biomedical Issues closely examines issues such as cyclic biology, programming, birth surgery, and cancer and provides information on national trends in health care. It presents overviews of research issues and methods, while integrating the social psychological significance of these events as experienced by individual women. The author suggests that understanding more about specific health problems of women will provide a basis for also understanding more about the general experience of female gender in society.

This comprehensive reference and text synthesizes a vast body of clinically useful knowledge about women's mental health and health care. Coverage includes women's psychobiology across the life span--sex differences in neurobiology and psychopharmacology and psychiatric aspects of the reproductive cycle--as well as gender-related issues in assessment and treatment of frequently encountered psychiatric disorders. Current findings are presented on sex differences in epidemiology, risk factors, presenting symptoms, treatment options and outcomes, and more. Also addressed are mental health consultation to other medical specialties, developmental and sociocultural considerations in service delivery, and research methodology and health policy concerns.