Integrated Adult Women's Medicine: A Model for Women's Health Care Centers

Publisher Summary There is a biologic limit to everyone's lifespan. The practice of climacteric and adult women's medicine attempts to maximize the active life expectancy of women and to allow them a full vigorous and independent life. A vital issue in this quest is preventive measures in young adulthood. By increasing the baseline health threshold, the level of wellness is raised and extended into later life. As a result, the risk for at least two of the most prevalent chronic disabilities associated with the older woman—osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease—could be modulated, delayed, or even eliminated. Climacteric and adult women's medicine is a discipline waiting to be born. It is defined as preventive medicine for women in their middle years, and it has as its basic premise consideration of the whole individual, with the objective of achieving a healthy mind in a healthy body in a healthy environment. As such, it may be regarded as a national insurance policy. A healthy middle-age population will be a productive population; by preventing or ameliorating chronic illnesses much of the need for and cost of long-term geriatric care can be avoided. The benefit of preventive medicine in obstetrics and dentistry is noted. The reason for climacteric difference is analyzed. It is in this context that climacteric medicine has emerged as a science and has become a societal need.