Book Reviews

Your Guy's Guide to Gynecology: a Resource for Men and Women. By Bruce Bekkar, MD and Udo Wahn, MD Review by Patricia C. Gallo, PA-C

Your Guy's Guide to Gynecology is a plethora of information for today's men who care about the women in their lives. This reference combines highly technical information and top-secret female facts in a humorous writing style that helps make learning easy for most men. The book helps uncover the mysteries surrounding female health problems and covers all the important topics men will need to understand women's health issues.

Bruce Bekkar, MD and Udo Wahn, MD wrote Your Guy's Guide. Both are Board-certified, practicing gynecologists with SCPMG and hold teaching positions with the Department of Reproductive Medicine at the University of California at San Diego. Between them, they represent more than 30 years of clinical experience providing health care for women. Dr Wahn has been on the staff at Kaiser Permanente in San Diego for more than 16 years; Dr Bekkar, for 12 years. These physicians have been teaching an ongoing monthly class at SCPMG, San Diego"For Men Only"to help men better understand women and enable men to be more supportive when PMS, menopause, and other gynecologic issues emerge. The monthly class has become very popular and helpful to our members, and now the same important information is available in a book.

The authors' premise is that men do care about women's health problems despite what women believe. As guys, Bekkar and Wahn believe this lack of attentiveness is due to lack of informationnot insensitivity or a short attention span. Your Guy's Guide to Gynecology enables men to be comfortable with women's issues by providing them information in an interactive, "guy-friendly" way.

The authors have included helpful suggestions for men who have specific female questions. My favorite example is from Chapter 6, "Attack of the Killer Hormones." Here "Supportive Guy" (the icon for sensible suggestions) recommends what to do if your partner has PMS. The suggestion goes something like this: Help out more around the house. Be understanding. Listen patiently. Ask her how she is feeling. Encourage her to exercise and watch her diet. And don't forget to hide the chocolate, guys!

Although marketed for men, this book isn't just for them; many women will want to use it as a resource guide as well. Other women will want to buy it for their guy. Household partners who read this book together will be better able to manage gynecologic issues and thus make their relationship stronger. By sharing this book with their male partners, some women will no longer find themselves alone when dealing with their health problems, and their male partners will become more comfortable discussing the various issues of women's physical and emotional health.

For health care professionals, this book is humorous, easy to read, and informative. It is an important book that could help health care practitioners present information to their patients in a down-to-earth style that is easily understood. Your Guy's Guide to Gynecology is a reference source that should be included in your personal library of medical texts. Readersmen, women, and health care professionals of all kindsshould find this book an overdue resource that helps to demystify gynecology, a subject that has been taboo for too long.

325 p. $24.95 ISBN: 0965506746.
East Sandwich, MA: North Star Publications [Ant Hill Press], 2000.

Patricia C. Gallo, PA-C, has been with the Department of Preventive Medicine in San Diego for 12 years. Previously, she worked in Occupational Medicine for the Consolidated Rail Corporation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She attended the Physician Assistant Program at Hahnemann University. She is the mother of two children and is married to a Physician Assistant.

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