NO MORE MENSTRUAL CRAMPS, AND OTHER GOOD NEWS

by ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 10, 1980

Further insights into how society's view of women has affected their health care--with practical (if somewhat prescription-prone) advice on menstrual pain, contraception, radical mastectomy, menopause and estrogen therapy, hysterectomy, and routine gynecologic care. Budoff, a longtime family practitioner now teaching at SUNY, Stony Brook, is convinced that women are blamed for having symptoms that doctors don't know how to treat; that they have surgery far too often, take too many pills, and in general receive poor medical treatment. Menstrual pain, she contends strongly, has a chemical basis, and women who suffer from it are ""neither neurotic nor weak."" Here, she names and discusses non-narcotic, non-hormonal, non-sedating pain-relief medications. She has done much of the scant research on these drugs and on those known as antiprostaglandins (which can alleviate the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome); and in presenting her findings, she asks why there has been so little interest elsewhere in the medical community. She also challenges the tendency of medicine to ""blindly"" treat menopause by using any drug ""currently in vogue,"" be it tranquilizers or estrogen. Her feeling is that estrogen replacement therapy, given properly (which, she contends, it usually isn't) and in conjunction with progesterone, will relieve common menopausal complaints as well as lower rates of endometrial cancer, bone degeneration, and coronary heart disease. With the same clarity and concern for women's welfare, she discusses: breast cancer (survival rates are little affected by how radical the surgery is), contraception (the only routine advice--but dollar costs are included), and hysterectomies (far, far too many are performed for conditions that could be medically treated). Though some may be disappointed by her fix on pharmacological solutions, Budoff raises important questions and provides responsible guidance.

Pub Date: Nov. 10, 1980

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1980

Categories: NONFICTION