Description

Where Women Have No Doctor c ombines self-help medical information with an understanding of the ways poverty, discrimination and cultural beliefs limit women’s health and access to care. Developed with community-based groups and medical experts from more than 30 countries, Where Women Have No Doctor is an essential resource for any woman who wants to improve her health, and for health workers who want more information about the problems that affect only women, or that affect women differently from men.

by A. August Burns, Ronnie Lovich, Jane Maxwell, and Katharine Shapiro
596 pages, paperback, illustrated

Topics covered include:

• Ways to stay healthy
• Pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding
• Health concerns of women with disabilities, girls, older women and refugees
• Sexual health, HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections
• The use of medicines in women’s health
• Mental health
• The politics of women’s health
• Rape and other violence against women

This 2010 printing features new and updated information on family planning, cervical cancer screening and treatment, early detection of stomach cancer, breast feeding guidelines for HIV+ women, female condoms, and updated medicines for PID, STIs, UTIs, and womb infection. In addition, the Resources section has been significantly updated.

What people have to say about Where Women Have No Doctor:

“The value of any reference book depends as much on the accessibility as on the extent of the information it contains. The editors of this book have made considerable efforts to set out the wealth of information it imparts as clear and as ‘user-friendly’ a manner as possible. … There is no space in a brief review to comment on the many individual subjects touched on (in Where Women Have No Doctor.) …This book is commended by (Hesperian) as ‘an essential resource’. For once such a claim is not exaggerated. It is also available at a remarkably low price!” -Pat Pridmore, Institute of Education, London

“Where Women Have No Doctor covers a broad range of issues that concern women’s health. …The text includes clear, reliable, useful, and updated information, and encourages collaboration among women and participation at the community level. Aware of the limited schooling and reading capacity of many in this audience, the authors succeed in providing high-quality, updated information in an easily accessible format. The quality of its contents make this book one of the best (if not THE best) guides for women’s health at the community level. The main contributions of this book include its approach, which reflects the most advanced concepts in the field of women’s health.” -Ana Langer, Director, Population Council Regional Office for Latin America and the Carribean

The Matendo Work-Group Project in Kenya organized women’s study groups to review draft chapters of Where Women Have No Doctor. They found our materials to be “simple, educative (sic) and very attractive.” More importantly, the Kenyan women so enjoyed this new way of learning together that they decided to keep the study groups going — and local men have been inspired to form study groups, too. Our experience is that forming study groups such as these is a first step in creating the environment for more open discussions about gender-based health issues like safer sex. “The discussions (in the book) were eye-openers to us and gave us insights into the appropriate health-care approaches to women in (various) communities.” -GABRIELA Commission on Women’s Health and Reproductive Health, Philippines