Women''s health issues are unique to them and need a
special focus. This is something they do indeed receive on the Internet.
There are a large number of sites on women''s health
matters, and these are informative, friendly pages meant primarily to be directly useful
to women although these sites are often equally useful to the medical professional
concerned with women''s problems. The more frequently found women’s sites on the web
are on obstetrics and gynecology, breast cancer, diabetes in women, reproductive health
and pregnancy, heart disease, family health, childrens’ health issues, hotline and
crisis sites, and Internet resource guides.
The search engines quickly lead to sites that contain links
or maintain resrource lists. At Yahoo these are categorized into links related to Breast
Cancer, Endometriosis Forum, Menstruation, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Osteoporosis and
Reproductive Health. There is also an index and assorted links--many of them very
interesting.
There is the Ask A Woman Doctor site where questions are
answered online, WomenSpace, where women--young and old–can talk about relationships,
sexuality, growing up and health. There is also a site for Women’s Health Articles
where you can read short articles on a variety of women''s health matters, SPOT, which
educates women about the dangers of synthetic tampon use, gives a tampon chart and has
lots of articles on related topics.
In a lighter vein, there is the Health Girl site for
cybersurfing girls to read hot gossip, get tips on beauty and health and fitness. There
are other useful links at Yahoo to women’s health centres and watch sites and an
electronic directory for academic and community workers interested in women''s health..
Other search engines also offer useful links. But there are
special search engines for women’s issues such as FeMiNa at
href="http://www.femina.com/">http://www.femina.com/
which is a top five rated searchable site for all kinds of
women’s matters from shopping to feminism. The Health and Wellbeing index at this
site leads to a really comprehensive list of links. You can link to sites on AIDS,
Pregnancy, Breast Cancer, the Online Reproductive Health Library, the Assault Prevention
Page, Avon’s Breast Cancer Awareness page, sites with information on abuse and
trauma, Gynecology and Maternal sites, information on menstruation and menopause, hormonal
problems, the PMS page, sites on midwifery and nursing, and an index of birth related
information. FeMiNa is a good home base from which to explore women''s issues.
There are many other sites to links for women’s health
sites. At MedWeb at http://www.cc.emory/edu/WHSCL/medweb.gynecology.html,
links are categorised under guides, news, newsletters and journals, software, sites,
bibliographies, documents, handbooks and terminology. At
http://www.siumed.edu/ob/oblink.html you will find a Hardin Meta Directory–lists of
links and resources on Obstetrics and Gynecology, Breast Cancer and some general
women’s health sites.
The Women’s Medical Health Page at
href="http://www.best.com/~sinlow/wmhp.html">http://www.best.com/~sinlow/wmhp.html is
intended to be a source of information on current medical issues and recent publications
concerned with or having an impact on women’s health. This site is for both medical
professionals and the lay person seriously interested in women''s health issues. It was set
up by a female medical student as a source of information for women patients, medical
students, physicians, and others to keep current with selected issues for women. Here,
there are news report style articles selected and reviewed every month. There are current
topic articles on the developments on the Osteoporosis front, the role of Asprin in
certain kinds of cancer, the treatment of high cholesterol in women, etc. Previous
articles are archived. There is a General Medical Information Page and an Abortion
Information Page at this site.
A site honoroued by Bill Gates and Hotwired Magazine is the
Women’s Complete Health Book at http://www.healthwire.com/women/,
a women''s forum with health resources by women physicians and health professionals for
women. Although this site is fairly commerical, with gifts, books and products sold
online, you can consult a woman doctor anonymously. Some questions and answers are
archived here.
A thoroughly awarded site is the Breastfeeding Page at
href="http://www.islandnet.com/~bedford/brstfeed.html">http://www.islandnet.com/~bedford/brstfeed.html.
There is breastfeeding information of all kinds at this site, from tips on how to get
started, to common problems to issues such as parental attachment, breastfeeding and
feminism, and several links to other sites on the subject. The site is a comprehensive
one.
Women can maintain an interactive pregnancy calendar at
href="http://www.olen.com">http://www.olen.com, building up a day by day customized
calendar detailing the development of a baby from before conception to birth.
The pregnancy calendar is a general guide, since each
woman’s pregnancy is unique, and babies develop slightly faster or slower.
There are some newsletter sites such as the Health and
Welfare page at http://www.herspace.com/herspace/3rd/Health.html.
This is a chatty, friendly newsletter with a female heart health emphasis by the author of
The Women’s Health Heart Book. Common sense info mixes with sharp analyses of health
policies and practices that often ignore heart disease in women until it''s too late. The
Women’s Health Hotline Home Page at
href="http://www.soft-design.com/softinfo/womens-health.html">http://www.soft-design.com/softinfo/womens-health.html
is a newsletter that provides the media with information on women’s health.
Some sites, you will discover, are online but have
information available only on request or payment. The Women’s Health Care Centre at
href="http://knet.flemingc.on.ca/Web/IPs/HealthInfo/WHCC.html">http://knet.flemingc.on.ca/Web/IPs/HealthInfo/WHCC.html
is an example. It is online from the Petersborough Civic Hospital at Onta- rio, but
information is mostly available by calling the Centre. You will also find that some of the
sites are particularly American in flavor and have limited use for Indian women because
they feature centers or services available in the US.
There is, of course, plenty of medical information on women
at general medical and hospital network and university sites and news reports at news
sites such as the Your Health Daily site. The websites featured here—and they only
scratch the surface—are from among the more laywoman friendly sites.