Lectures and Books
The Clitoral Truth (Seven Stories Press, 2000),which was featured on “Sex and the City” on September 7, 2003. Salon.com observed, “The Clitoral Truth is Our Bodies, Ourselves; your favorite textbook; a Nancy Drew mystery; and the Good Vibrations catalogue rolled into one. It blows the lid off some of the biggest secrets being kept from women and their partners about women’s sexual pleasure and how to achieve it….”
A Woman’s Book of Choices: Abortion, Menstrual Extraction, RU-486, Seven Stories Press, 1992 (senior author). Choices received front page coverage in the New York Post and the Philadelphia Inquirer, and widespread media attention in the United States. The book was favorably reviewed in Publishers Weekly and The New York Times Book Review. I was quoted regarding issues raised by the book in The New York Times, Newsday, Associated Press, Ms., Self, and The Women’s Help Advocate, the National Women's Health Network newsletter, and numerous others publications. Carol Downer and I discussed menstrual extraction on 20/20 on June 18, 1993. I also appeared on the Sally Jesse Raphael Show, 9 Broadcast Plaza (interviewed by Matt Lauer), The Real Story on CNBC, Deborah Norvill’s ABC Radio Show, and RAI (Italian national television). Choices became a something of a sensation in England and was covered by The London Times, The Guardian, The Observer, and The Evening Standard, and on two BBC radio shows. In addition, I was interviewed by satellite on The Morning Show, a popular London TV talk show. A major article on Choices also appeared in the Irish Times. Both Barbara Ehrenreich and Barbara Seaman termed A Woman's Book of Choices "the most important book on reproductive rights ever written."
Overcoming Bladder Disorders: Medical and Self-Help Advice on Incontinence, Cystitis, Interstitial Cystitis, Prostate Problems, and Bladder Cancer (senior author), HarperCollins, 1989. This book was named one of the top medical self-help books of 1989 by the New York Times and received widespread praise from patients, urologists, and other medical professionals.
The Complete Cervical Cap Guide, Harper & Row, 1987. For both women and medical professionals, this book is the standard resource on use and provision of the cervical cap—a barrier method of contraception similar to the diaphragm but smaller and more convenient to use. Because of inept business decisions the Prentif cervical cap, which was used in England and the United States for more than a half-century, is no longer available. The FemCap is FDA-approved for contraception and the Oves is FDA- approved for artificial insemination by the donor.
A New View of a Woman’s Body (editor). The Federation of Feminist Women’s Health Centers. Simon & Schuster (1981); Feminist Health Press (1991). Two chapters from this book—on the clitoris and menstrual extraction—have take on lives of their own and have kept this book in print for over 20 years. The chapter on the clitoris has been cited in dozens of books and articles as well as in medical publications, and as such has been enormously influential in bringing the definition of the clitoris up to modern anatomical standards for other organ systems. For many years, I have presented “A Walking Tour Through the Genitals” to countless classes and private groups, and at national and international conferences.
How to Stay Out of the Gynecologist’s Office (editor). The Federation of Feminist Women’s Health Centers. Peace Press, 1981; Feminist Health Press, 1991. This book provided the model for a virtual flood of self-help books on well-woman gynecology.
I also wrote “Unscripted Sex,” the cover article for Ms. magazine, November-December, 1995, and the lead article, Updating the Model of Female Sexuality, in the Journal of the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), 22:5, June/July 1994. I also co-wrote an article on interstitial cystitis for the Journal of Urology in May, 1997.
In February, 2003, I presented a four-part lecture series on “Sexual Revolutions” at the Museum of Sex in New York City. I have spoken at the World Congress of Sexology in Goteberg (2009), Havana (2003), Paris (2001), Hong Kong (1999), Yokohama (1995), Heidelberg (1987), and Washington D.C., (1983). I also spoke at the 4th United Nations Conference on Women in Beijing (1995) and at the First International Conference on Orgasm in New Delhi (1991). Since 1978, I have given countless presentations on women's health, contraception, and sexuality at the American Public Health Association, the National Women's Studies Association, and the Interstitial Cystitis Association, and have spoken frequently to women's groups on college campuses and in private lectures and public forums.
