Misdiagnosis: Woman As a Disease
by By Hicks, Karen M.
Category: Social Science , General

For the first time, in one volume of provocative essays, women speak out about their experiences with the American health-care system. From victims to victors, their reflections in Misdiagnosis: Woman As A Disease serve as an inspirational clarion call to all women who have been on the short end of American medicine. It is also a wake-up call to providers and institutions of medicine who, for more than a century, have treated women with arrogance and disrespect.Not since Our Bodies, Ourselves has a book about women's health been so powerful. Never before has any publication explored so many diverse and pertinent themes - all through the eyes, and in the words, of women.Sometimes poignant but always provocative, Misdiagnosis: Woman As A Disease is a collection of essays and short works on the most important topics related to the woman's health experience. Women voice their reactions to the medicalization of childbirth, the "reshaping" of women by plastic surgery, the obvious flaws in physician training that lead to indifference and trivialization of women's health concerns ... and so much more.In his preface to Misdiagnosis: Woman As A Disease, People's Medical Society President Charles B. Inlander indicts the medical system for decades of medical scandals perpetrated on women: DES, thalidomide, the Dalkon Shield, unnecessary hysterectomies, the sky-high cesarean section rate, silicone breast implants - all resulting in a long trail of victims."American medicine," he charges, "has made the word 'woman' a medical diagnosis."For decades women have written of their experiences in the health-care system. But never have their thoughts and ideas been collected in one volume. Misdiagnosis: Woman As A Disease is that volume.