Monday, April 25, 2005

I read a lot about women, and sex, and women's health, and sexual health, and all kinds of related topics. But even after Our Bodies, Ourselves and Woman: An Intimate Geography, I learned new things about my body from Elizabeth Stewart and Paula Spencer's The V Book: A Doctor's Guide to Complete Vulvovaginal Health. (Plus "vulvovaginal" is just so much fun to say.) Some things about anatomy (could you point out a woman's "vestibule" on a diagram?), and lots more about things that can cause itching, redness, sores, discharges, pain, and any other genital problem a woman might have. Lots of fascinating historical tidbits about how things used to be dealt with. Quotations from real women about all related matters. And the voice of the gynecology specialist ("V doctor" as she might put it) is easily comprehensible. Definitely something to read before going to the gynecologist, so you don't have to try and remember what you wanted to know more while your feet are in the stirrups.