YOUR BODY, YOUR HEALTH: A Woman's Guide

One is tempted to call this Your Bodies, Yourselves, since it is clearly a male-authored appeal to the women who liked the book by the Boston Women's Health Collective. The authors, a gynecologist and a writer, are well-intentioned--espousing the belief that the informed woman is the best patient--but in this case a little goodwill goes too long a way. Can they really be serious in saying that the good gynecologist should keep up a running monologue during the pelvic exam, explaining while doing? Do some gynecologists really feel that even if estrogen stimulates cancer of the breast or uterus ""it is worthwhile if it aids in the prevention of ovarian cancer?"" Later there's the chapter on sex with drugs and other variations with such titillations as ""A couple using cocaine can enjoy much prolonged intercourse,"" or ""one average serving of semen may be substituted for three slices of cucumber."" Possibly the most gratuitous advice is for prostitutes: ""any professional worker who feels this psychological stress [having to indulge in sexual relations with revolting men] should immediately stop prostituting and find a new profession."" If you have read up to this point without your gorge rising, you can learn a great deal. The authors present solid and up-to-date information on the normal reproductive cycle, the estrogen controversy, contraception, abortion, infertility, the menopause, VD, vaginitis, and other common problems--indeed everything affecting a woman's sexual life except childbirth. Pity some of the ripeness and redundancy weren't edited out.