R E S O U R C E S   A N D   B I B L I O G R A P H Y
G e n e r a l   H e a l t h

Bell, Ruth and members of the Teen Book Project, Changing Bodies, Changing Lives, 3rd Edition. Times Books, 1998. Co-authored by members of the Boston Women's Health Book Collective, this outstanding book (for young women and men) includes chapters called Changing Bodies, Changing Relationships, Changing Sexuality, Emotional Health Care, Eating Disorders, Substance Abuse, Living With Violence, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Protecting Yourself: Safer Sex and Birth Control, So You Think You Might Be Pregnant, and Changing Things.

www.booksense.com The independent bookstores' online bookstore. (In chain stores, decisions about which books are purchased are made by very few people. We may pay more with an independent bookstore purchase, but we also buy quirkiness and variety. To read more about the state of books and the publishing industry, go to AuthorsGuild.org, and click on The Midlist Report.)

The Boston Women's Health Book Collective, Our Bodies, Ourselves for The New Century. Simon and Schuster, 1998. This book is a bible for women wanting clear information and personal stories about Taking Care of Ourselves, Relationships and Sexuality, Sexual Health and Controlling Our Fertility, Childbearing, and more. Please note that a Spanish edition, Nuestros Cuerpos, Nuestros Vidas, was issued in 2000 by Seven Stories Press. www.ourbodiesourselves.org

Dionne, Carla, Sex, Lies & the Truth About Uterine Fibroids, Avery, 2001. One out of four women will be diagnosed with uterine fibroids in her lifetime. As a result, hysterectomy is the number-one surgical procedure women undergo. Dionne's book and website offer comprehensive assessments of available treatment options for uterine fibroids--and encouragement for every woman to decide her own course of action by exploring alternatives to hysterectomy. www.uterinefibroids.com

Epstein, MD, Samuel, and David Steinman, The Breast Cancer Prevention Program, MacMillan, 1997. See chapter 3, "The Pill: Assessing Your Risks." This Chapter presents studies which show that "oral contraceptives are an avoidable cause of breast cancer." www.preventcancer.com

Health Care Without Harm focuses on stopping the health care industry from using hazardous chemicals, including mercury and PVC (polyvinyl chloride) plastic, which creates hormone disrupting and carcinogenic chemicals when it's made and burned, and also leaches a toxic chemical during use. (For example, IV bags are made from PVC.) HCWH also has a campaign about phthalates, a chemical found in many popular cosmetics and medical devices which is linked to birth defects in males. 202.234.0091 www.noharm.org; www.nottoopretty.org; www.mercurypolicy.org

Langer, M.D., Stephen and James Scheer. Solved: The Riddle of Illness, 3rd Edition. Keats Publishing, 2000. Another excellent book on the thyroid. Available from Radiant Life, POB 765, Nicasio, CA 94946; 415.662.9535. www.4RadiantLife.com

www.newdream.org The Center for a New American Dream has a newsletter and website which provide a forum for parents to share ideas on how to raise healthy children in a noisy, fast-paced world. How do we know which products are good for our families and for the environment? The Center presents info which helps us nurture ourselves and understand the impacts of everyday choices. 877.68-DREAM.

Ohlig, Adeleheid, Luna Yoga, Ashtree Publications, 1994. Yoga postures for encouraging women's fertility and sexuality. A lovely, inspiring book.

www.pubmed.nlm.nih.gov If you would like to research the possible hazards of a pharmaceutical drug or procedure, go to this website; and at the box, type in the subject you would like to research and [majr]. [majr] will call up the major studies. For example, type in oral contraceptives/adverse effects[majr]; or Clomid/adverse effects[majr].

Reproductive Health Resources A directory of Reproductive Health related websites. http://www.onlinehealthresources.com/Reproductive-Health/

Shomon, Mary J., Living Well With Hypothyroidism, Quill, 2001. The thyroid produces hormones which affect everything from emotions and brain fog to weight, PMS, anovulation, libido, infertility, and more. (If your waking temperatures are lower than 97.5, you've got one symptom.) Many women become hypothyroid during pregnancy or postpartum. It's estimated that 13 million Americans (mostly women) suffer from a sluggish thyroid; many of these people are undiagnosed. Shomon, herself a hypothyroid patient, has written an excellent book packed with info about the symptoms of hypothyroidism, how it's properly diagnosed, and how to treat it with medical and alternative therapies. Also, visit www.thyroid-info.com and www.thyroid.about.com.

www.womenshealthnetwork.org This organization pressures drug companies for safer products, demands tougher federal regulations that will bring about greater accuracy and disclosure in drug company advertisements targeting women, monitors and holds accountable federal agencies like the Food and Drug Administration which are supposed to protect our health.

www.WomensHealthSantaFe.com is the website of Women's Health Services in Santa Fe, a National Community Center of Excellence whose goals include eliminating health disparities between different populations in Northern New Mexico.

www.womenshealthspecialists.org Created by the Feminist Women's Health Centers (authors of A New View of a Woman's Body, illustrated by Suzann Gage), this site explains how you can do a self-exam of your cervix and vagina with a mirror and a speculum. Sylvia Morales' amazing photographs show plainly and simply how the cervix and cervical fluid change throughout a menstrual cycle--unless you're on the Pill.