It's Your Life!

A Gynecologist Challenges You to Take Control

James A. Schaller, M.D.

ISBN: 1-57733-004-8, paperback, 360 pages, 6x9, paper, $16.95
ISBN: 1-57733-018-8, cloth, $24.95

At the quiet end of an appointment, Dr. Schaller would often ask his patients, "Now, what's really going on?" and the door would open to discuss the family and relationship issues. This much loved gynecologist offers his 30+ years of experience in helping women manage their health and emotional well-being. He provides the tools women need to make informed decisions. Presented in an easy-to-read format, this 300-page reference book pays equal attention to maintaining the health of mind/body and to improving one's most important relationships. Virtually every topic of importance to women is discussed, including:

Table of Contents

Preface
Before Proceeding
Understanding the Message

SECTION ONE--Staying Healthy
Introducing Section One
1 Being Kind to Your Skin
2 Attending to Five Other Little Things That Can Mean a Lot
3 Handling the Problems Your Ovaries Hand You
4 Coping with Premenstrual Tension
5 Selecting Your Own Menopausal "Approach" 6 Doing Something About Estrogen Loss
7 Exercising: Your Secret to a Better Life
8 Throwing Away All Your Diets
9 Facing the Health Problems of Adolescence

SECTION TWO--Healing Your Relationships
10 Looking at "Love"
11 Learning From Past Mistakes
12 Keeping Love in the Family
13 Eliminating Sexual Ignorance and Repression
14 Creating Intimacy Magic Moment-by-Moment

SECTION THREE--Completing Your Active Choices
15 Deciding Your Role in the Feminist Struggle
16 Making Your Judgment Regarding Life's Meaning and Purpose

APPENDIX
"Warning!", a poem Jenny Joseph
Nomogram for Body Mass Index
Formula for Calculating Percent Body Fat
"A Meditation on Mothering" Nancy McBrine Sheehan
Schaller Family Recipe for Potato Pancakes

Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Resources
Index

Excerpt

Continuing the Loving Every Day Is the Key

Everyone would readily admit that "lovers have to exchange gifts." ... Each gift tht is freely given and freely received binds us together more strongly. It is really a contradiction to call something a gift when it is given out of the giver's sense of need. Rather, the gift that generally becomes most treasured is the one that satisfies the receiver's deepest need. By the same beautiful principles of love, the gift that is treasured most by the receiver comes to produce the greatest joy in the giver....

The reality of love is that it is in the giving of ourselves that we best express our love. Incredible as it may seem, the most valuable gift we possess to give is ourselves. When we offer this gift freely and unreservedly, we become more lovable, because in making ourselves vulnerable by revealing our ourselves, warts and all, we prove our love

Two of the classic expressions of love remain true--"I experience my greatest joy when I am giving you something that brings you joy," or "I love you so much that I must do something to prove my love." Men especially, when they are in love, have a burning desire to do something, ideally to give their beloved what she would most like to receive, that which would bring her the greatest happiness. Hopefully, ... what their mates want most is them.

Copyright 1997

Also by James A. Schaller, M.D.:

Becoming the Husband Your Wife Thought She Married

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