Customer Reviews

Male Practice

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I was introduced to this book by my teacher. Based on the information given in this book, I have decided to do a home birth with my first son. Two years later, I delivered my second son at home. During my regular prenatal check-ups, my naturopathic doctor, midwife tought me how to be resposible for my own health. I changed my diet, my lifestyle, I used hypnosis for pain relief which worked beautifully. Before I read this book I was a follower and pretty much did what the medical authority told me. Robert Mendelsohn WOKE me up! Now I research a lot and use naturopathic methods of healing and herbs. I never would have thought that a book could change the direction of my life. I also highly recommend another book by Robert Mendelsohn which is called "How To Raise A Healthy Child Inspite of Your Doctor" which sheds some real light on safety of vaccinations. Jana

This book is a real eye opener. We all like to have trust in our Doctor and Hospital. After reading this book I had a whole new view of medicine. Lots of wonderful information for women on what to do if your Doctor recommends surgery. It is a real shame this book is no longer available. It would be wonderful if Contemporary Books would reprint this book.

I was introduced to this book by a professor a few years ago...I was only assigned to read a couple of chapters--I eventually read the whole book....to me the content of the book was so vital, that I took notes on the book, and began to share with others what I had read... Having recently watched my mother pass, the book hit home even further. Has I watched the doctors fumble and stumble with my mother's life, I was constantly reminded of Mendlesohn's book. Let's face it, poor black women in America will not get top-notch treatment anywhere--let alone, a hospital! It is truly a shame that this book is being cast into oblivion (out of print)...it helped change my thinking of the Medical Association in the U.S.

Even though this book is about 17 years old, I really like it. It will help all people, especially women, to take control of their visits with their doctors, to ask questions, refuse therapy because of the real threat posed by unnecessary and dangerous procedures, tests, physicals, and drugs. A must read for anyone who visits doctors for their healthcare. It inspires me to continue to do research before subjecting myself to recommended procedures, etc.

I read Male Practice twenty-one years ago, because the book caught my eye and I had already been thinking about how doctors were much more apt to prescribe medications for women than for men. If a man experienced depression he had counseling prescribed for him. If a woman had the same problem, she would get a prescription for some kind of medication. I was also aware how insensitive society has been to basic anatomical facts about women: for example, making high-heeled shoes attractive to them, and discouraging them from speaking at a pitch that would be more natural for their vocal chords but instead pressuring them in all sorts of subtle ways to pitch their voices into the men's voice range no matter that it eventually ruins their voice.

I saw much more than that sort of thing in Dr. Mendelsohn's book, however. The shameful way women were treated in their unique role of pregnancy and childbirth was something I had not noticed before. Even now, obstetricians direct women to the table. That, and the stirrups, tells us we're still in the dark ages. Maybe not even that. In the dark ages women were using birthing stools, which are still the right way to go. He aptly points out that where men got control of childbirth, out went the birthing stool and in came a bunch of unnecessary problems, especially the dreadful episiotomy. Since a baby's weight is often resting on its umbilical cord during a supine childbirth, treatments for fetal distress are made necessary, including caesarian section (which I actually saw recommended when my son's head was crowning). The reclined, leaning back, lithotomy position that is currently being promoted for childbirth, is just about as bad. The influence of the male-dominated medical profession is visible in supposedly midwife-controlled birthing centers, where women's childbirth education is routinely channeled along male-approved lines. Even women gynecologists and obstetricians still toe the male-approved line, a fact pointed out when the book was written, so you can't count even on a woman doctor to look out for your best interests if you are a woman.

There is a lot of progress that is just as overdue now as it was when Dr. Mendelsohn wrote his book.

As a young mother I read and reread Dr. Mendelsohn's first book, Confessions of a Medical Heretic, which empowered me to listen to my instinct regarding the health of my children. At midlife, I read Male Practice, which further strengthened my ability to question conventional wisdom and do my own health research. Women today can thank medical heretics like Dr. Mendelsohn, who, in the early 1980's, was among the first physicians to sound the alarm on the medicalization of menopause. Male Practice warned women about the adverse effects of Premarin--a substance derived from the urine of pregnant mares. Dr. Mendelsohn also alerted women to the risks of the most indiscriminately recommended surgical procedures--the hysterectomy and the radical mastectomy. His observations on the hazards associated with the use of Hormone Replacement Therapy, including uterine cancer, blood clots, liver tumors and high blood pressure, proved remarkably prophetic. The recent Vioxx scandall only confirms what Dr. Mendelsohn and brave souls like him have said for decades: the "cure" is often worse than the disease. For anyone who feels shy about questioning their doctor about the side effects of any drug prescription, Male Practice will give you all the confidence you need!

--Suza Francina, author, Yoga and the Wisdom of Menopause and The New Yoga for People Over 50.

I was introduced to this book by a professor a few years ago...I was only assigned to read a couple of chapters--I eventually read the whole book....to me the content of the book was so vital, that I took notes on the book, and began to share with others what I had read... Having recently watched my mother pass, the book hit home even further. Has I watched the doctors fumble and stumble with my mother's life, I was constantly reminded of Mendlesohn's book. Let's face it, poor black women in America will not get top-notch treatment anywhere--let alone, a hospital! It is truly a shame that this book is being cast into oblivion (out of print)...it helped change my thinking of the Medical Association in the U.S.