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Lipoedema, an adipose tissue disorder, is a poorly visible, often unrecognised condition. To foster a greater understanding of the significant and debilitating impacts faced by women living with lipoedema, the charity Lipoedema UK conducted four focus group interviews, the findings of which were published in a series of reports under the umbrella title ‘Women in dire need’. The reports identified the substantial and numerous negative effects of lipoedema on the women's everyday lives, including the patients' experiences with compression garments, the effects of liposuction surgery (many of which were not positive), the everyday impacts ranging from pain and reduced mobility to poor self-esteem and working prospects, and the considerable challenges faced by women with late-stage lipoedema which can render them immobile.

On Armistice Day, November 11, 1939, Queen Elizabeth, wife of King George VI, made the following statement about women’s roles in wartime:War has at all times called for the fortitude of women. Eve...

For decades, researchers have been examining the correlates, outcomes, and contexts related to sexual debut. Early inquiries employed mostly retrospective methods with convenience samples, focusing on the negative correlates of early sexual debut. However, recent research has been more nuanced, using longitudinal methods with nationally representative samples around the globe, accounting for relevant covariates, and examining the correlates of early, later, and nonexistent sexual debut. In this review, we discuss the significance of the timing and context of sexual debut for women’s sexual lives, focusing especially on the new conceptualizations and insights gained from research in the past five years. Although early sexual debut relative to one’s peers typically has been considered problematic in terms of later sexual health and psychological well-being, more recent research has demonstrated that other factors, including individual characteristics and family and peer influences, are co-occurring risk factors that may better explain these significant relationships. More recent research has demonstrated that sexual competence at debut (i.e., maturity and preparedness) has greater predictive utility of later sexual health and wellness, including positive affect and appraisals of sexual desirability. From both a sociocultural and a methodological perspective, the framing of sexual debut has changed considerably in the past few decades. Accordingly, it is time to reconsider the framing of sexual debut to account for the wide range of sexual activities and relationship configurations that exist. Moreover, the study of sexual debut needs to include the individual, sociocultural, and contextual factors that might influence the way that the event is interpreted in an individual’s lifelong sexual trajectory.

Urogynecology is considered to be a field that addresses health problems that occur during a woman’s reproductive and immediate post‐reproductive years. Therefore, much of the focus in urogynecology centers on genital fistula, stress incontinence, and pelvic organ prolapse. However, women on either end of the age spectrum—from childhood to advanced adulthood—also suffer from well‐recognized and troublesome urogynecologic problems.

Compliance with the use of combined hormonal contraceptive drugs containing drospirenone is presented. The use of such drugs enhances the use of hormonal contraception. The distinctive features of the drugs are considered: reliable contraception, reduced severity of side effects, additional positive preventive and curative effects.

It is a truism among women that our clothes do not have enough pockets. Where are we to stash the keys, phones, and credit cards that facilitate the navigation of our daily lives? Barbara Burman an...

International audience; Fair trade is a new form of commercial partnership whereby actors in the North engage with actors in the South on a number of conditions, including setting a minimum price, a development bonus, and so on. But above all, fair trade organizations in the South are implementing mechanisms that more or less facilitate the empowerment of their members. This article analyzes the empowerment effects of two fair trade organizations in South India. It shows that while positive effects can be seen, the prevailing social norms in India are extremely influential for women at the moment, so that women are putting all their hopes on their daughters through their education.

In this article the author reflects on her personal experience from being at the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, and the study and work she has done since this time on the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action through the United Nations, NGOs and her active role in the global women's movement. She looks at strategic ways the document could have been used in a policy context to lead global and national dialogue and draws from her PhD thesis titled ‘Beijing – Transformation and Feminist Politics: From the Personal to the International’. She links the process of the Beijing conference and Platform for Action back to the accountability within the UN itself, identifying opportunities lost through lack of clear commitment, planning and resourcing. She concludes by highlighting the importance of this event and document on the lives of women who were a part of the process and the value of a future NGO Forum for women for the global women's movement.

The violence against disabled women has its own mechanisms, which differentiates it from the violence suffered by women or the disabled in general. The few Spanish studies on this issue have focused on “double discrimination,” instead we propose intersectionality as a more suitable epistemological framework. The research, carried out in Spain, is based on five life stories of disabled activist women which show us how heteropatriarchal and ableist violence intersect in their lives, and the resistance mechanisms that they develop to deal with it. This research gives important clues to plan and design effective interventions for and with disabled women.

The digitisation of archives has enabled the public lives of very ordinary women in the past to become much more accessible to the historian. But some have argued that the wonders of searchable Internet databases have taken the serendipity out of historical research, with our understanding of the context and richness of the past the poorer for the ease with which we can now zoom into what we set out to find. This article uses the author's research into the lives of mid-nineteenth-century, colonial, urban businesswomen as a case study to investigate the pleasures and the pitfalls of the digital archive for women's history research. It concludes that a new kind of serendipity—the serendipity of unexpected connections between people and across spaces—is provided by the ever-growing global digital archive, enabling us to see these women more completely than previously possible and creating a new narrative of women's past experiences.

Menstrual cups are gaining more popularity among women, [1]. who prefer cups over pads and tampons. The innovative FemmyCycle (Figure 2) has several advantages over traditional menstrual cups, which has led to its increased popularity [2]. The objective of this study is to mitigate and correct the possible or potential side effects caused by traditional menstrual cups (Figure 3). The most common side effect among traditional cups is leakage. "Despite the fact that 1.9 billion women globally are of menstruating age—spending on average 65 days a year dealing with menstrual blood flow, few good quality studies exist that compare sanitary products", says senior author Penelope Phillips-Howard, a public health epidemiologist from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in the UK. [3]. We focused our study on all causes of leakage and other side effects caused by traditional menstrual cups. Methods of corrective and preventive actions included; the no-spill design, (Figure 4 & Figure 5), use of a removal ring instead of a rigid stem, the use of a flask shaped body rather than the conical shape of traditional menstrual cups, (Figure 2 & Figure 3), the elimination of suction holes and the need to manually open the cup. We analyzed 834 independent reviews by women who have had prior experience with traditional menstrual cups to obtain objective results. The implementation of these design changes and enhancing the written and video instructions produced measurable, objective, positive results in favor of the FemmyCycle. We analyzed all these reviews for FemmyCycle to measure the effects on leakage and other side effects. We selected the reviewers who volunteered to compare the FemmyCycle with their experience with traditional cone shaped menstrual cups. There were many reasons why women preferred FemmyCycle, but the most common by far was the prevention of leakage followed by the ease of insertion, ease of removal and comfort when inserted. The implementation of the design changes from a conical shaped cup with a removal stem to a flask shape cup with a removal ring, in addition to the added no-spill feature and enhanced instructional material, improved the acceptability of the FemmyCycle.

Background and context: The WHO has presented that more than 90% of deaths from cervical cancer happened in low and middle-income countries. Albania is one of them. Albania has a national cervical cancer screening program. However, the program is not well-promoted and the service is not always available at the primary public health care level. The situation worsens when it comes to rural areas. In 2016, to bridge the gap and achieve health equity the Albanian Center for Population and Development (ACPD) initiated a series of activities to promote the utilization of visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) and cryotherapy for the first time as a pilot study in rural Albania. ACPD sees this as a health priority to strengthen the existing national screening program through advocacy with the Ministry of Health and Social Protection (MoHSP). Aim: To enable VIA and cryotherapy provision in rural Albania to expand cervical cancer screening by advocating for its integration into the national cervical cancer screening program. Strategy/Tactics: The strategy applies a client-centered and bottom-up approach. The changes are driven through four sections, namely: context understanding, providers' engagement, partnership strengthening, and sustainability development (Fig 1). Program/Policy process: Following the proposed strategy, four main approaches were developed. · Demand generation: ACPD promoted relevant cervical cancer prevention and treatment information as well as redressed misconceptions through developing education materials and carrying out education sessions. · Provide services in rural settings: ACPD engaged different health providers into the VIA and cryotherapy training and institutional protocol development. · Collaborate with key stakeholders: ACPD worked closely with stakeholders, such as civil society organizations (CSOs), media, and health facilities. · Provide medical evidence to affect national policy-making processes: ACPD provided strong evidence to support the integration of VIA and cryotherapy into the existing cervical cancer screening program. Outcomes: In line with aforementioned process, the project succeeded to establish an effective model improve national cervical cancer screening program. All achievements and outcomes are summarized in Table 1. What was learned: The proposed strategy enabled VIA and cryotherapy in rural Albania. From clients' perspectives, this cost-effective cervical cancer screening tool is well-accepted, and most women were thrilled by the idea that the precancerous lesions could be screened and eliminated at the same visit. It is evident that ACPD distributed this desired service in rural Albania through collaborating with key stakeholders, including media, CSOs and public health facilities. ACPD still works on integrating VIA and cryotherapy into the national cancer screening program to reduce cervical cancer deaths. [Figure: see text][Table: see text]

Background and context: It is the third leading cause of cancer deaths among females in Latin America and the Caribbean, and yet cervical cancer is almost entirely preventable and treatable. In a region where many lack even basic access to quality sexual and reproductive healthcare, screening and treatment services for HPV and cervical cancer are far from universally available. International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region (IPPF/WHR) and its member associations (MAs) are working to reverse this trend, identifying and bridging local gaps in access and services wherever possible. Aim: IPPF/WHR and its MAs seek to improve both providers' ability to deliver - and women's ability to access - quality cervical cancer screening and treatment through institutional capacity building, the introduction of new technologies, advocacy and community awareness efforts. Strategy/Tactics: 1) Increase cervical cancer services by training providers in the provision of low cost, high capacity screening and treatment methods, including visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA), HC2 and HPV DNA screening technologies, and a single-visit approach (SVA) to treatment using cryotherapy, thermocoagulation and LEEP. 2) Educate populations and increase demand for cervical cancer services by implementing public awareness campaigns and community information, education and communication (IEC) activities promoting the importance of early detection and treatment. 3) Improve and standardize clinical protocols and referral pathways by advocating among and collaborating with key decision-makers and local ministries of health. Program/Policy process: MAs are implementing small-scale pilot studies to incorporate VIA, HC2 and HPV DNA screening and new treatment to provide even greater numbers of women with potentially life-saving diagnostics and care in Belize, Honduras, El Salvador and Bolivia. As leading clinical experts and advocates, several MAs are also working with public sector counterparts to refine two-way referral pathways, standardize screening protocols and clinical guidelines, and to ensure data quality and collection. A range of Caribbean MAs have also been trained in the use of VIA, cryo and LEEP. Outcomes: From 2016 to 2017, MAs from Belize, Grenada, Suriname, and several additional Caribbean countries who received training in VIA and other screening and treatment techniques saw an average 7% increase in the number of direct cervical cancer services provided. MAs from Belize, Bolivia and Honduras also contributed to updated national cervical cancer protocols. What was learned: An effective national response to cervical cancer requires the support and collaboration of civil society organizations, which can deliver direct services and play a catalytic role in advancing technical recommendations and policy dialogue. Countries should continue to improve the quality of VIA services, until more advanced screening technologies become available and can be scaled up.

Until recently the range of cogently analysed biographies of women was relatively small. Even the Dictionary of National Biography, the most prestigious biographical reference series we have in Britain, had few biographies of women beyond the very famous and royalty. One of the aims of the new and ever extending Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB), published in 2004, is the inclusion of more women and it does have an ever expanding number of biographies. This is at a time when there is increased interest in and subtle explorations of biography as a form of historical writing which can illuminate women’s lives. It is worthwhile exploring, therefore, how the ODNB’s tightly constructed way of telling life stories fits into the historiography of writing women’s lives. This article investigates this through using a recent case study.

Although regular exercise has important health benefits, women's physical activity participation remains low. Addressing the gender- and generation-specific barriers in an intervention may help women become more physically active. Fifty women (mean age = 45 years) participated in a six-session cognitive-behavioral intervention. Baseline, post-intervention, and follow-up data were collected. Total physical activity levels increased from baseline to post-intervention and were maintained at long-term follow-up. This research suggests that participation in a comprehensive, cognitive-behavioral, and empowerment-based physical activity intervention, tailored to address women's distinct constraints and pressures due to sociopsychological experiences, can facilitate increased physical activity among white, middle-aged women.

In an earlier issue ofNew Theatre Quarterly, NTQ55 (August 1998), Marcia Blumberg examined the setting of the kitchen in performances by Bobby Baker and Jeanne Goosen, arguing for the ‘transitional and transgressive’ possibilities of this domesticcum-performance space. Here, Elaine Aston returns to the ‘kitchen’ in Bobby Baker's performances of ‘daily life’. The article examines Baker's ‘language’ of food which ‘speaks’ of domesticity, and her conjunction of comic playing and the hysterical marking of the body, to show how her performance work constitutes an angry, feminist protest at the lack of social transformation in women's lives. Elaine Aston has authored a number of studies on contemporary women's theatre, and is Chair of Contemporary Performance and Theatre Studies, Lancaster University.

This 6-year longitudinal study of 103 community-dwelling older women examined changes in physical and mental health and self conceptions and the relationships among self conceptions, physical health, and depression. Over time, physical health, personal growth, and purpose in life declined; depression increased; and positive relations and autonomy were stable. Regression analyses indicated declines in physical health rarely affected the self; increase in depression was related only to concurrent physical health; and prior depression did not predict subsequent physical health. Thus, positive self conceptions and physical health appear to be independent in elderly women, but declines in physical health are associated with depression.

In this paper, we first describe Participatory Rapid Appraisal (PRA), a group of qualitative research techniques that have the potential to raise the status of women, particularly when carried out with all members of a community. We then present the traditional formative evaluation research methods such as focus groups and central location intercept interviews and discuss their use. We critically analyze the assumptions about information and audiences that underlie these traditional methods, and then explain PRA techniques, the principles that govern their use as well as limitations to date vis‐a‐vis gender, followed by several examples. The paper concludes by illustrating how PRA can be used from a communications perspective for gender equity in developing countries.

This article takes a critical look at Ina Boudier-Bakker's work in the 1920s and 1930s. It analyses her views on women's role in society as expressed in the political tract De moderne vrouw en haar tekort1 (The modern woman and her failings), and two novels, one contemporary, one historical. It also investigates the notion of love and its function, and attempts to answer the question of how the love-ideal can be reconciled with the women's lives as portrayed in the fiction.

(1996). Menopause, hormones and women's lives. Sexual and Marital Therapy: Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 119-122.

Health practices designated, over time, as complementary and alternative to normative biomedicine represent one of the earliest manifestations of the growing significance, especially for women, of holistic health care in many Western English-speaking societies. In this article, I interrogate ideas and practices around the body and self in Western herbal medicine (WHM) in the UK. I first explore women herbalists' ideas of the body, health, and illness. I then examine the self-care practices that constitute an integral part of WHM, leading to an investigation of the implications of their incorporation into women users' everyday lives. Drawing on theoretical understandings of embodiment and technologies of self, the explorations presented reveal women's bodies and selves as arenas for self-care and self-fulfillment while also highlighting tensions and dilemmas in women's lives. I suggest that WHM constitutes a form of holistic and politicized health care that contributes to confronting and fulfilling women's traditional gender roles and discourses of caring femininity.

In April 2000 Phyllis Cave responded to my press appeal for the stories of British migrants who had taken up the postwar assisted passage to Australia but subsequently returned to Britain. She sent a short account of her migration in 1969 with husband Colin and three small children, together with a selection of her “best” photographs from the time. Among the photos was this image (Figure 9.1) that Phyl described as “my husband’s family seeing us off at Southampton,” shown top left and including the lady in the check coat waving her hand, the man beside her with a child, the three to their left and, in front, Colins brother with the camera and binoculars.1

It has taken over a decade for "mainstream" psychiatry and psychology to begin to acknowledge, respect, and assimilate these newer approaches.

Background and methodology Endometriosis is a chronic condition in which endometrial glands and stroma are present outside of the uterus. Whereas chronic pelvic pain is the most commonly experienced pain of endometriosis, many women also suffer from deep dyspareunia. In order to determine how much of an impact endometriosis-associated dyspareunia has on the lives and relationships of women a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews, supplemented with quantitative data on the extent of dyspareunia, was conducted in a dedicated endometriosis clinic in the West Midlands, UK with 30 women aged from 19 to 44 years. Results The main outcome measures were the extent of dyspareunia within the sample of women, and the impact of dyspareunia on quality of life. The experience of dyspareunia was found to be higher than in previous research. Three main themes emerged. The experience of pain was found to limit sexual activity for the majority of the sample, with a minority ceasing to be sexually active. Lack of sexual activity resulted in a lowering of self-esteem and a negative effect on relationships with partners, although the experience differed between younger and older women. Discussion and conclusions The experience of dyspareunia is a significant factor in the quality of life and relationships for women living with endometriosis. For most of the women in the study it was very severe and resulted in their reducing or curtailing sexual activity. Qualitative research can produce salient data that highlight the impact of dyspareunia on self-esteem and sexual relationships.

My feminist project over the last three years has been to interject the reality of violence against women into the dominant discourse on AIDS, women’s health, and international family planning. My overall aim has been two-fold: to improve public health policy by making it more reflective of the reality of women’s lives, and to marshal some of the resources and technical know-how of the international health community to assist women’s organizations fighting gender violence in the developing world.1