Medicines For Women

In this definitive new text, the major medicines, devices and vaccines used by women worldwide are brought together for the first time in a single volume. Written and edited by international experts with an evidence-based approach, the book offers a comprehensive summary of all the key areas of women’s medicines. In the first part, issues relating to female drug exposure and considerations for prescribing for subgroups of women - for example during pregnancy and lactation - are presented in the context of contemporary clinical practice. In the second part, specific groups of pharmaceutical products are reviewed, including oral contraceptives, emergency contraception, treatment of chronic pelvic pain, hormone replacement therapy, bisphosphonates, herbal medicines for women, contraceptive devices and human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccines.  Every chapter reviews and summarises the efficacy and safety of each group of products and concludes with a useful set of clinical take home messages. In the third part, broader perspectives are presented - from a primary care overview of prescribing for women, through to regulatory, political and religious aspects, including issues with women’s medicines in developing countries. The final two chapters focus on risk communication and conclude that women themselves should be placed at the centre of all discussions about their medicines.

The book is aimed at prescribers, other healthcare professionals and students in the field of women’s health throughout the world. It is an extremely valuable resource for all in clinical practice, for students of medicine, nursing, pharmacy and related sciences, and also for those in medicines regulation, pharmacovigilance and the pharmaceutical industry.

Mira Harrison-Woolrych is an Honorary Research Associate Professor at the Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago, New Zealand (NZ). She has worked on women’s medicines for over 20 years, having first trained in clinical obstetrics and gynaecology.  Dr Harrison-Woolrych has significant experience in research, medicines regulation and pharmacovigilance in the UK and NZ. As Director of the Intensive Medicines Monitoring Programme for ten years, she led pharmacoepidemiology research studies on many different medicines and intrauterine devices, resulting in an extensive list of publications in high-ranking journals. 

Dr Harrison-Woolrych is a Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and has served on several government advisory committees as an expert on women’s medicines. She was also elected to the Executive Committee of the International Society of Pharmacovigilance (ISoP) and leads the ISoP Women’s Medicines Research Group. The international networks developed in these roles have enabled her to draw on a wealth of expertise from the other authors who have contributed chapters to this extraordinary book.