New York Times Special Section Examines Women’s Health Issues

The New York Times on June 23 devoted a special section to women's health issues. Brief summaries of the section's articles appear below:

• "Hurting More, Helped Less?": Examines women's pain and the theory that women are more likely than men to have their pain "ignored" by doctors (Wartik, New York Times, 6/23).
• "Doubts on Mammograms Do Not Affect Their Use": Examines routine mammograms following a October 2001 study that indicated that mammography "does not save lives" (Sherman, New York Times, 6/23).
• "Weights Build Muscles, But Not the Manly Kind": Examines the health benefits of weight lifting for women (Kolata, New York Times, 6/23).
• "A User's Guide For Those Who Choose Hormone Replacement": Examines the benefits and side effects of hormone replacement therapy and how and when women should take it (Grady, New York Times, 6/23).
• "In Afghanistan, Where Pregnancy is Still a Minefield": Examines the poor condition of women's health care, including care during pregnancy and childbirth, in Afghanistan (Gall, New York Times, 6/23).
• "Stroked, Poked and Hypnotized In the Search For Relief": Examines the growing trend among hospitals to combine "alternative or complementary therapy" with traditional Western medicine (Wilkinson, New York Times, 6/23).
• "Calling in the Pain Team, Specialists in Suffering": Examines pain management programs, which "see pain not as incidental to disease but as a disease in its own right" (Jauhar, New York Times, 6/23).
• "Getting to Know What Makes Her Patients Flinch": Examines the "impenetrable conundrum of pain" and the fact that doctors must understand a patient's pain to relieve it (Zuger, New York Times, 6/23).
• "After All Those Days In the Sun, Years of Damage Control": Examines the ways "former sun worshippers" can attempt to heal their skin following years of sun exposure (Tannen, New York Times, 6/23).
• "A Disturbing Growth Industry: Web Sites That Espouse Anorexia": Examines the growing number of Web sites that support eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia, and treat them as lifestyle choices instead of life-threatening diseases (Morris, New York Times, 6/23).
• "Making an Appointment With the Stork": Examines the practice among pregnant women of scheduling caesarean sections and induced vaginal deliveries for non-medical reasons (Villarosa, New York Times, 6/23).
• "As a Podiatrist Shops, Tales of Love and Pain": Examines the best types of shoes for women to wear and how to minimalize foot damage from other kinds of shoes, especially high heels (Cole, New York Times, 6/23).

Times Also Examines Perimenopause
The New York Times also examined perimenopause, the two- to eight-year period that begins before a woman has her final menstrual period and continues through the year following cessation of menstruation. While some doctors say that perimenopause lasts even longer than nine years, still others say that perimenopause was created by drug companies, book publishers and herbal supplement producers to "exploit the concerns and pocketbooks of millions of health-conscious women over the age of 35," the Times reports. The "universe of symptoms" attributed to perimenopause include irregular menstrual periods, mood swings, difficulty sleeping, memory loss, night sweats, migraines, among many other possible symptoms. "Women's health has been phenomenally overmedicalized and commercialized, and to a large extent perimenopause is a manifestation of that overmedicalization," Dr. Anthony Scialli, a Georgetown University OB/GYN professor, said, adding, "At the same time, there are symptoms that can occur during the years prior to menopause -- and I am being purposefully vague about that number -- that are normal and are simply what happens as a woman comes closer to menopause. [Perimenopause] is not a disease, and it is not an illness" (Kuczynski, New York Times, 6/23).