The Wrong Prescription for Women

This groundbreaking book challenges the medicalized approach to women''s experiences including menstruation pregnancy and menopause and suggests that there are better ways for women to cope with real issues they may face.Before any woman diets douches botoxes reduces reconstructs or fills a prescription for antidepressants statins hormones menstrual suppressants or diet pills she should read this book. Contesting common medical practice the book addresses the many aspects of women''s lives that have been targeted as deficient in order to support the billion-dollar profits of the medical-pharmacological industry and suggests alternatives to these remedies.The contributorspsychologists sociologists and health expertsare also gender experts and feminist scholars who recognize the ways in which gender is an important aspect of the human experience. In this eye-opening work they challenge the marketing and science that increasingly render women''s bodies and experiences as a series of symptoms diseases and dysfunctions that require treatment by medical professionals who prescribe pharmaceutical and surgical interventions. Each article in the book addresses the marketing of a specific condition that has been constructed in a way that convinces a woman that her body is inadequate or her experience and behavior are not good enough. Among the topics addressed are menstruation menopause pregnancy post-partum adjustment sexual desire weight body dissatisfaction moodiness depression grief and anxiety.