National Academies Press: OpenBook
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." Institute of Medicine. 1997. In Her Own Right: The Institute of Medicine's Guide to Women's Health Issues. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4956.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." Institute of Medicine. 1997. In Her Own Right: The Institute of Medicine's Guide to Women's Health Issues. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4956.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." Institute of Medicine. 1997. In Her Own Right: The Institute of Medicine's Guide to Women's Health Issues. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4956.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." Institute of Medicine. 1997. In Her Own Right: The Institute of Medicine's Guide to Women's Health Issues. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4956.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." Institute of Medicine. 1997. In Her Own Right: The Institute of Medicine's Guide to Women's Health Issues. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4956.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." Institute of Medicine. 1997. In Her Own Right: The Institute of Medicine's Guide to Women's Health Issues. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4956.
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Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

In Her Own Right The Institute of Medicine’s Guide to Women’s Health Issues By Beryl Lieff Benderly for the Institute of Medicine NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS Washington, D.C. 1997

I N H E R O W N R I G H T National Academy Press • 2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W. • Washington, D.C. 20418 NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. This report has been reviewed by a group other than the authors according to procedures approved by a Report Review Committee consisting of members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The Institute of Medicine was chartered in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to enlist distinguished members of the appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. In this, the Institute acts under the Academy’s 1863 congres- sional charter responsibility to be an adviser to the federal government and its own initiative in identifying issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Kenneth I. Shine is president of the Institute of Medicine. This project was supported in part by a grant from the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Benderly, Beryl Lieff. In her own right : the Institute of Medicine’s guide to women’s health / by Beryl Lieff Benderly for the Institute of Medicine Council. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-309-05327-7 1. Women—Health and hygiene—United States. 2. Women’s health services—United States. I. National Research Council (U.S.) II. Title. [DNLM: 1. Women’s Health—United States. 2. Women’s Health Services. 3. Women’s Rights—United States. WA 309 B458i 1996] RA564.85.B46 1996 613′.0424—dc20 DNLM/DLC for Library of Congress 96-26155 CIP Copyright 1997 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America Cover: Madge Tennent. Local Color, 1934. Oil on canvas. The National Museum of Women in the Arts. On loan from the Tennent Art Foundation. The serpent has been a symbol of long life, healing, and knowledge among almost all cultures and religions since the beginning of recorded history. The image adopted as a logo-type by the Institute of Medicine is based on a relief carving from ancient Greece, now held by the Staatlichemusseen in Berlin. ii

C H A P T E R 10 Looking Ahead Contents 1 Why Another Book on Women’s Health? 3 2 Gender Differences in Health 15 3 Roots of Difference 35 4 Health Through the Life Span: The First Two Decades 53 5 Health Through the Life Span: The Reproductive Years 75 6 Health Through the Life Span: Menopause and Beyond 105 7 Eating for a Healthy Life 119 8 Women in the Health Care System 153 9 Research on Women, Women in Research 179 10 Looking Ahead 209 References 213 Index 217 iii

I N H E R O W N R I G H T Acknowledgments The Institute of Medicine acknowledges with gratitude the contributions of the many people who have lent their efforts and expertise to this project during its planning and inception, writing, and production. Among these people are the speakers at the Institute’s 1992 annual meet- ing and the 1991 Symposium on Nutrition, Women, and Their Health; the author, Beryl Lieff Benderly, who organized and made more acces- sible a vast amount of material; the editor, Roseanne Price, who helped refine the text; past and present Institute staff, including Enriqueta Bond, under whose stewardship as executive officer the project was conceived and largely executed; Karen Hein, IOM’s current executive officer, who has seen it to its completion; and Judith Auerbach, Sue Barron, Conrad Baugh, Claudia Carl, Lou Cranford, Michael Edington, Polly Harrison, Chris Howson, Sandra Matthews, Patty Olender, Janet Stoll, Carol Suitor, Paul Thomas, Betsy Turvene, Catherine Woteki, and Allison Yates; and the staff at the National Academy Press—Dawn Eichenlaub, Barbara Kline Pope, Estelle Miller, Francesca Moghari, Brooke O’Donnell, and Sally Stanfield—who have applied their art and craft to the book’s design and publication. All of these people have helped to shape the volume you now hold in your hands. Finally, the Institute is especially grateful to the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies for the financial support that made this project a reality. iv

C H A P T E R 10 Looking Ahead In Her Own Right v

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Right to life. Right to choice. Masectomy, lumpectomy. Vitamin therapy, hormone therapy, aromatherapy. Tabloids, op-eds, Phil, Sally, Oprah.

Yesterday, women confided in their doctors about health problems and received private, albeit sometimes paternalistic, attention. Today, women's health issues are headline material. Topics that once raised a blush now raise a blare of conflicting medical news and political advocacy.

Women welcome the new recognition of their health concerns. Now women are less often treated, as the old saw goes, as "a uterus with a person attached."

At the same time, they need help in sorting through the flood of reports on scientific studies, claims of success for new treatments, and just plain myths. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has responded to this need with In Her Own Right.

Throughout its 25-year history, the IOM has provided authoritative views on fast-moving developments in medicine—bringing accuracy, objectivity, and balance to the hottest controversies.

Talented science writer Beryl Lieff Benderly synthesizes this expertise into a readable overview of women's health.

Why do women live longer than men? Why do more women than men suffer vertebral fractures? Benderly highlights what we know about the health differences between men and women and the mysteries that remain to be solved.

With a frank, conversational approach, Benderly examines women's health across the life span:

  • Issues of female childhood, adolescence, and sexual maturity, including smoking, eating behavior, teen pregnancy, and more.
  • The host of issues surrounding the reproductive years; contraception, infertility, abortion, pregnancy and birth, AIDS, and mental health.
  • Postmenopausal life and issues of aging, as health choices made decades earlier come home to roost.

Benderly addresses women's experience with the nation's health care establishment and the controversy over the lack of female representation in the world of scientific research.

Much more than a how-to guide, In Her Own Right translates the finest scholarship on topics of women's health into terms that will help any woman ask the right questions and make the right choices. Covering the spectrum from traditional beliefs to cutting-edge research, this book presents the personal insights of leading investigators, along with clear explanations of breakthrough studies written in plain English.

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