Sexuality is much more than sex; it is the embodiment of how we perceive our sexual selves and encompasses past experiences, attitudes, values, as well as the meanings that we have constructed throughout our lives about our sexual behavior. It is integral to healthy human functioning, and it can be severely affected whenever a person becomes the victim of illness or injury. This book describes how illness and injury impact sexual functioning. From cancer to diabetes, hysterectomy to injury, from mental illness to combat injury, the author covers a wide variety of illness and disease that can directly impact sexuality. Based on cutting edge research, current practice in this area by leading sex therapists and experts, the author provides readers with a guide to how illness and disease can affect sexual functioning and how victims can handle the various issues involved. Case studies, quotes from patients, and tips and solutions for problems encountered in all aspects of sexual functioning are included throughout. Until now, a comprehensive overview of the challenges to sexuality from illness and injury was not available. This book explains the reasons why illness and injury affect sexuality. This information alone will help many people who are experiencing problems in their sex lives as a result of the illness itself or the treatments for it. It also presents suggestions for how people can help themselves to solve their problems. Helpful resources are included at the end of each chapter for further information and help. Each chapter contains stories of people who have experienced sexual problems as a result of illness or injury and many readers will see themselves in these examples. Just knowing that other people have the same sorts of problems may be a comfort. In addition, the information and explanations in the book can be helpful in starting a conversation with health care providers about problems in sexual functioning. Readers will come away with a better understanding of how they can cultivate sexuality during and after battling illness and injury.

From the author: After researching & gathering information before my hysterectomy in June of 1998, I found that no matter what resources I had, I needed more! I wanted more than medical brochures. I wanted reassurances that the funny aches & pains & odd smells were normal. I wanted to know if I would survive the hormone jungle. The Book: Through the Land of Hyster, the Sisters Guide is from the website (www.hystersisters.com). The book contains frequently asked questions by women for women. It is not intended to be medical information or to take the place of a personal physician. The book is intended to be a comfort & a companion through the difficult choices & decisions we must make for pre-op, post-op & hormone choices. Included in the book are checklists, humorous antidotes, "Bedtime Stories for Hyster Sisters" & photographic illustrations from the Land of Hyster. This book is neither anti-hyst or pro-hyst in nature. Rather, it is a book of kindness with medical concerns that each woman faces when she is told by her doctor that a hysterectomy may be necessary or an option.

Recent scientific findings regarding the potential dangers associated with hormone replacement therapies bring renewed attention to the relationship between women's bodies and gender identity. In Am I Still A Woman? Jean Elson offers the testimony of women who have thought deeply about this issue as a result of gynecological surgery. For the women in this book, gynecological surgery for benign conditions proved to be a crisis that prompted questions about the meanings of sexual and reproductive organs in relation to being female and feminine. Is a woman who no longer menstruates still a woman? What about a woman who can no longer bear children? Elson looks closely at the differences in responses to understand the impact of surgery and lost fertility on sexuality and partnerships as well as the steps some women take to deal with a sense of a stigmatized identity. Whether they reconceptualized their old notions of what it means to be a woman or put a new focus on making themselves attractive, they made conscious efforts to reclaim their female identity and femininity. This book provides a wealth of insight into the choices women make regarding gynecological surgery and maintaining their sense of themselves as women. Author note: Jean Elson teaches sociology at the University of New Hampshire.