Women's Sexual Passages: Finding Pleasure and Intimacy at Every Stage of Life [Paperback]

Elizabeth Davis (Author), Germaine Greer (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 30, 2000 | ISBN-10: 0897932927 | ISBN-13: 978-0897932929 | Edition: 1

A woman's sexuality evolves dramatically during her life. In this book, Elizabeth Davis explores hormones and menstruation, pregnancy and birth, menopause and aging, fertility management through body awareness, and much more, for a complete picture. She analyzes controversial hormone replacement therapy and looks at what effect stress, overwork, major life events, relationship upheaval, and sexual abuse have on a woman's sexual health. The book features chapters on sexual awakening, sex in the later years, and up-to-date information on the creativity hormone, oxytocin. Readers will appreciate her warmth and her "rare combination of breadth, practicality, strong - though not rigid - opinion and generous respect for individual experience" (Publishers Weekly).

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

A midwife for over 20 years and author of Hearts and Hands: A Midwife's Guide to Pregnancy and Birth, Davis intermixes medical and scientific information about life-cycle phases and changes with client comments, responses from interviews, referrals to herbs and holistic remedies, descriptions of women's rituals (some quite inspiring), and freehand New Age-feminist-utopian generalizations about women's connections with nature and mysticism. Her physiological and medical data seem mostly accurate, and she is a rarity in acknowledging and celebrating the sexual aspects of birth and nursing. However, her juxtaposition of facts with speculations and opinions confuses the reader. Too wide a range of information is presented without enough references or qualifications. Useful for women's health collections, this synthesis would have been considerably improved by a bibliography and resource list. Martha Cornog, Philadelphia
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Hunter House; 1 edition (December 30, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0897932927
• ISBN-13: 978-0897932929
• Product Dimensions: 0.7 x 5.6 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,201,039 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A recommended contribution to personal and women's studies April 29, 2001

By Midwest Book Review

Format:Paperback

In Women's Sexual Passages: Finding Pleasure And Intimacy At Every Stage Of Life, midwife and women's health care provider Elizabeth Davis draws upon her many years of experience and expertise to provide a frank and intimate overview of female sexuality and its evolution over a lifetime. She shows how women's sexuality is connected to (and affected by) childbirth, child rearing, stress, grief, and creativity. Her commentary on such issues as sex during menstruation, after childbirth, after menopause, after rape, after infidelity, and the sexuality of celibacy are both candid and informative. By tracing women's sexual cycles through the course of a lunar month and a developmental lifetime, Women's Sexual Passages is a welcome and recommended contribution to personal and women's studies that is enriched for readers with poetry, invocations of ancient goddesses, traces of ritual and herbal wisdom, along with fully up-to-date presentations on endometriosis and PMS.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I wish my mom had had this book to read when I was young! April 26, 2001

By Denise Schwend

Format:Paperback

I was referred to this book by my midwife (Debra O'Conner) as a book that I had to read as it's content was so "right on" and was she ever right. I know alot about my body. I am a licensed massage therapist and a mother of a 3 year old that I had at home. I spent hours and hours learning about my body during the childbirth process. That was great knowledge to add to the physiology I learned during my massage training. This book though, is something that every woman in our culture today should read. I now understand so much about my life and the directions it has taken! I hope to give this to everyone I know who has a daughter. I hope they will read it for themselves and then pass in on to their daughters when they feel the time is right. Our culture today is so lacking in this kind of positive message. It is women's reality and needs to be shared. Of course it is written by a Midwife! Thank you Elizabeth!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A book all women should read August 18, 2003

By Barbara Goodeill

Format:Paperback

This is truly the best book I have ever read. I not only learned so much about my own body but also that of my mom, and what she is physically and emotionally going through. I learned that other women can relate to some of my experiences and I no longer feel alone. I have learned to honor and respect my body and the monthly changes that I go through, and to appreciate those changes. I am going to teach my daughter that having her period is not something to dread, but something to celebrate. I plan to buy this book for my 18 year old niece and my mom.