FROM WOMAN TO WOMAN: A Gynecologist Answers Questions About You and Your Body

There still seem to be women growing up in ignorance of their feminine topography and equipment; those who are reasonably well informed will still gain a good deal of additional information here since medicine is always changing and improving (i.e., the minipill offers some advantages, in spite of its 3 percent margin of error). In question and answer form, Dr. Lanson scrutinizes the anatomy of those small and larger parts, inside and out; she covers the examination; the Pap smear (only 50 percent of women today have ever had one and all of course should); menstruation -- in several chapters; infections, irritations and VD; odors (back to soap and water or towelettes); bladder and pelvic problems; intercourse per se; pregnancy and contraception and abortion; growths; the menopause (estrogen does not assure forever youngness); and a final vista of some of the year-2000 likelihoods. There's no telling what you might learn (""Switching to breezy boxer shorts has made more than one man a father"") and the coverage is extensive, the advice qualified when necessary, responsible and specific. Far more advanced than Sherwin Kaufman's From a Gynecologist's Notebook (1974).