My daughter and I purchased this book hoping to get some insight into the reasons why women are given less than optimum health care in some cases. I was impressed until I got to the chapter regarding chronic fatigue syndrome (an unwise name for this condition) and fibromyalgia. As a sufferer of both these ailments as well as diabetes I wish on behalf of the millions of people who have these conditions to disagree totally with your idea that these are "psychosomatic illnesses". Bullcrap...there is enough evidence out there now that these are very real physical illnesses. I am not ill because I want to be or because in some way there's a payoff for me. I struggle daily to do the things that well people do without a thought. I do not ask someone else to pick up my chores. Although I finally cannot work after over 32 years in the workforce, I do my best to keep up my day to day responsibilities. I am not taking any strong medication nor do I meet most of the other "criteria" for their explanation of why they think these are psychosomatic illnesses. The authors have done a great disservice to people suffering (and I mean suffering) with these conditions. It was very poorly researched in this area and I wonder did they even talk to people who actually had the conditions, go into their home and watch them try to live normal lives or did they just "surf the net" and glean some (mis) information from some of the support groups on it. If you want to read a book that will really tell the story about CFS, read "Oslers Web" by Hiliary Johnson, also a journalist. I feel very disappointed that what could have been a great opportunity to do many women (and also men by the way are stricken with these conditions..which is another thing that seemed not to be mentioned) a great service by bringing this into the open and discussing it in this type of forum, you opted to fall in with the traditional medical opinion (which has now been disproven) that these are psychological illnesses. Shame on you! I hope your next attempt at this type of book will be the result of better research.

With respect to the other reviewers of this book, I find Outrageous Practices to be an excellent introduction to women's health issues as they relate to the larger society. I would like to emphasize the word "introduction", as someone who is well-read in these issues would find this book repetitive and without a great deal of depth.

I do agree with other criticisms that the book often repeats facts and statistics. I think the sometimes flippant and critical tone of the writing leads some readers to feel that the book is biased and "one-sided". It certainly would have been stronger writing if the authors had left their personal interpretations out of the text and let the facts speak for themselves, because the facts are just that - proof of a tremendous bias in society that continually affects women's health on a day to day basis.

Having used this book as a textbook in a college course on women's health, I found it to be an excellent source when combined with other books and articles, usually those concentrating on the history of a given issue. The history aspect is crucial - and by concentrating on scientists and government statistics for their work, Laurence and Weinhouse often leave the reader bewildered as to how our society got to a place where women's health is ignored or endangered by cultural attitudes. This book helps get women angry at their treatment by the medical profession and that often is the first step to understanding and exploring other issues in women's studies. My thanks to the authors.

I'm somewhat mystified at the negative comments by the other reviewers. I read this book in 1994 when it first came out, and it really opened my eyes to the inequities of the medical system and showed me the truth of my own experiences - I've encountered several male doctors who tend to dismiss my own observations of my body or my health as irrelevant or suspect, simply because I'm female. I even had one doctor get angry with me for researching mononucleosis when he diagnosed me with it in college! You would think he would be pleased that I was taking charge of my health and wanted to learn more about my problem, but he seemed to find this threatening. While I agree that race and sexual orientation are also vital factors, I don't think this book meant to focus on them, so criticizing it for not doing so is unfair. I do not claim any special knowledge re. chronic fatigue syndrome, but I can say that when the book was originally written in 1994, and even during the time period of this second edition in 1997, much less was known about CFS than is known now. It's possible they were making judgments based on research at that time or at the time of editing. The bottom line for me is that this is a great book. If I had a daughter in high school, I'd hand this to her as required reading. While funding for women's medical problems such as breast cancer has increased, it is still far from equal. I'd love to see an update to this book - perhaps with chapters that do focus on the issues raised by other reviewers.