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Sexually Speaking: What Every Woman Needs to Know about Sexual Health
The ultimate women's guide to sexual health—new from Dr. Ruth In this down-to-earth guide, celebrated sex expert and bestselling author Dr. Ruth Westheimer teams up with prominent gynecologist at Cornell and New York Presbyterian Medical Centers, Dr. Amos Grunebaum, to address the most pressing health issues women face today. Written in Dr. Ruth's refreshingly candid and lively style, it gives you everything you need to take charge of your health—from finding a gynecologist to having a happy sex life to planning or avoiding a pregnancy. With practical advice and information for every age and stage of a woman's life, Sexually Speaking is an invaluable reference you will turn to again and again.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published October 20, 2011
7 people are currently reading
215 people want to read
About the author
Ruth Westheimer
68 books141 followersKarola Ruth Westheimer, better known as Dr. Ruth, was a German-American sex therapist, talk show host, author, professor, and Holocaust survivor.
Westheimer was born in Germany to a Jewish family. As the Nazis came to power, her parents sent the ten-year-old girl to a school in Switzerland for safety, remaining behind themselves because of her elderly grandmother. They were both subsequently sent to concentration camps by the Gestapo, where they were killed. After World War II ended, she immigrated to British-controlled Mandatory Palestine. Despite being only 4 feet 7 inches (1.39 m) tall and 17 years of age, she joined the Haganah, and was trained as a sniper, but never saw combat. On her 20th birthday, Westheimer was seriously wounded in action by an exploding shell during a mortar fire attack on Jerusalem during the 1947–1949 Palestine war, and almost lost both of her feet. Moving to Paris, France two years later, she studied psychology at the Sorbonne. Immigrating to the United States in 1956, she worked as a maid to put herself through graduate school, earned an M.A. degree in sociology from The New School in 1959, and earned a doctorate at 42 years of age from Teachers College, Columbia University, in 1970. Over the next decade, she taught at a number of universities, and had a private sex therapy practice.
Westheimer's media career began in 1980 with the radio call-in show Sexually Speaking, which continued until 1990. In 1983 it was the top-rated radio show in the area, in the country's largest radio market. She then launched a television show, The Dr. Ruth Show, which by 1985 attracted 2 million viewers a week. She became known for giving serious advice while being candid, but also warm, cheerful, funny, and respectful, and for her tag phrase: "Get some". In 1984 The New York Times noted that she had risen "from obscurity to almost instant stardom." She hosted several series on the Lifetime Channel and other cable television networks from 1984 to 1993. She became a household name and major cultural figure, appeared on several network TV shows, co-starred in a movie with Gérard Depardieu, appeared on the cover of People, sang on a Tom Chapin album, appeared in several commercials, and hosted Playboy videos. She is the author of 45 books on sex and sexuality.
The one-woman 2013 play Becoming Dr. Ruth, written by Mark St. Germain, is about her life, as is the 2019 documentary, Ask Dr. Ruth, directed by Ryan White. Westheimer had been inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame, and awarded the Magnus Hirschfeld Medal, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the Leo Baeck Medal, the Planned Parenthood Margaret Sanger Award, and the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Westheimer was born in Germany to a Jewish family. As the Nazis came to power, her parents sent the ten-year-old girl to a school in Switzerland for safety, remaining behind themselves because of her elderly grandmother. They were both subsequently sent to concentration camps by the Gestapo, where they were killed. After World War II ended, she immigrated to British-controlled Mandatory Palestine. Despite being only 4 feet 7 inches (1.39 m) tall and 17 years of age, she joined the Haganah, and was trained as a sniper, but never saw combat. On her 20th birthday, Westheimer was seriously wounded in action by an exploding shell during a mortar fire attack on Jerusalem during the 1947–1949 Palestine war, and almost lost both of her feet. Moving to Paris, France two years later, she studied psychology at the Sorbonne. Immigrating to the United States in 1956, she worked as a maid to put herself through graduate school, earned an M.A. degree in sociology from The New School in 1959, and earned a doctorate at 42 years of age from Teachers College, Columbia University, in 1970. Over the next decade, she taught at a number of universities, and had a private sex therapy practice.
Westheimer's media career began in 1980 with the radio call-in show Sexually Speaking, which continued until 1990. In 1983 it was the top-rated radio show in the area, in the country's largest radio market. She then launched a television show, The Dr. Ruth Show, which by 1985 attracted 2 million viewers a week. She became known for giving serious advice while being candid, but also warm, cheerful, funny, and respectful, and for her tag phrase: "Get some". In 1984 The New York Times noted that she had risen "from obscurity to almost instant stardom." She hosted several series on the Lifetime Channel and other cable television networks from 1984 to 1993. She became a household name and major cultural figure, appeared on several network TV shows, co-starred in a movie with Gérard Depardieu, appeared on the cover of People, sang on a Tom Chapin album, appeared in several commercials, and hosted Playboy videos. She is the author of 45 books on sex and sexuality.
The one-woman 2013 play Becoming Dr. Ruth, written by Mark St. Germain, is about her life, as is the 2019 documentary, Ask Dr. Ruth, directed by Ryan White. Westheimer had been inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame, and awarded the Magnus Hirschfeld Medal, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the Leo Baeck Medal, the Planned Parenthood Margaret Sanger Award, and the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 23, 2014
Disclaimer: I adore Dr. Ruth. I can't be impartial, reading her book, because I find her a darling of modern culture, and I'm so, so glad I grew up in a world that has Dr. Ruth to offer. She's also my favorite celebrity I ever met. I've met her a fair number of times (long story) and she charmed me, and I'm smitten. So I jumped at the chance to meet her again at Book Expo in May, and was totally enchanted once again when she was able to place me (and demanded my business card for her handler.)
So anyway, I'm not impartial, when I review Sexually Speaking: What Every Woman Needs to Know About Sexual Health. I just love an octogenarian sexologist whose most strongly-held belief is that every woman should be having great sex. She wrote this particular book with the intent of "helping women get optimal care when they see a gynecologist", and she's co-authored with Amos Grunebaum, M.D., but her own take on the subject is basically: helping women get off, through all of the phases of one's gynecological life. Like her section on "a healthy pregnancy" differs from many other pregnancy books out there because her main mission is to let you be clear when, in pregnancy, it's okay to have sex, and when it's not, and to make sure you're getting all the pregnant sex you want or need.
And she has a lot of advice that has endured the decades that she's been giving it. Things like: don't fake your orgasms. Be honest with everyone (your partner, your doctor) because "by sharing information, everyone gets to have better sex." And she often has a strong female-centric view on the subject--like when else do you see a discussion on erectile dysfunction that focuses on the potential effects of an ED pill on a woman's arousal? (The partner of the guy swallowing the pill, I mean, not a woman popping viagra for her own use.)
She also covers the risks of "getting frightened of pictures you find on the internet" and tells the tale of one woman using Google to self-diagnose cancer after discovering the opening to her urethra. She offers suggestions on "moving beyond your mother's gynecologist" and the impact of fertility issues on your sex life (emotional, arousal, intimacy.) There's a big chunk on STDs and various cancers, and a chapter on avoiding pregnancy, as well as the aforementioned section on a "healthy pregnancy", and another section on sex when you get older (which is a subject where Dr. Ruth is clearly tops.)
So on one hand, this might be a good basic manual for a younger audience, perhaps, new to the subject, heading off to a first gyn exam. But I get the nagging feeling, reading this, that there are probably so many great, savvy "teen to teen" sources these days, I don't know who will listen to an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor when there are newer, hipper options for obtaining the same information. And, I'm sorry to say, her advice can also be somewhat dated. For all I love her, in these pages Dr. Ruth worries that vaccinating girls against HPV at a young age "seems to send the wrong message." Oh, Dr. Ruth. You told me in Chapter 4 that my vagina was my body's front door, but now this? Call me, sister. You've got my digits, we gotta have a talk.
And yes, as I reach the section on anal sex, I realize that for all my great fondness and affection for the woman, in this day and age, Dr. Ruth's suggestions are not the best options out there, for readers at any age. It's a wide, wide world, and a lot of people are writing on such topics, these days. I'm glad Dr. Ruth was there to pioneer, but she won't be my first go-to source for details, so I can hardly suggest she be anyone else's, either.
So anyway, I'm not impartial, when I review Sexually Speaking: What Every Woman Needs to Know About Sexual Health. I just love an octogenarian sexologist whose most strongly-held belief is that every woman should be having great sex. She wrote this particular book with the intent of "helping women get optimal care when they see a gynecologist", and she's co-authored with Amos Grunebaum, M.D., but her own take on the subject is basically: helping women get off, through all of the phases of one's gynecological life. Like her section on "a healthy pregnancy" differs from many other pregnancy books out there because her main mission is to let you be clear when, in pregnancy, it's okay to have sex, and when it's not, and to make sure you're getting all the pregnant sex you want or need.
And she has a lot of advice that has endured the decades that she's been giving it. Things like: don't fake your orgasms. Be honest with everyone (your partner, your doctor) because "by sharing information, everyone gets to have better sex." And she often has a strong female-centric view on the subject--like when else do you see a discussion on erectile dysfunction that focuses on the potential effects of an ED pill on a woman's arousal? (The partner of the guy swallowing the pill, I mean, not a woman popping viagra for her own use.)
She also covers the risks of "getting frightened of pictures you find on the internet" and tells the tale of one woman using Google to self-diagnose cancer after discovering the opening to her urethra. She offers suggestions on "moving beyond your mother's gynecologist" and the impact of fertility issues on your sex life (emotional, arousal, intimacy.) There's a big chunk on STDs and various cancers, and a chapter on avoiding pregnancy, as well as the aforementioned section on a "healthy pregnancy", and another section on sex when you get older (which is a subject where Dr. Ruth is clearly tops.)
So on one hand, this might be a good basic manual for a younger audience, perhaps, new to the subject, heading off to a first gyn exam. But I get the nagging feeling, reading this, that there are probably so many great, savvy "teen to teen" sources these days, I don't know who will listen to an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor when there are newer, hipper options for obtaining the same information. And, I'm sorry to say, her advice can also be somewhat dated. For all I love her, in these pages Dr. Ruth worries that vaccinating girls against HPV at a young age "seems to send the wrong message." Oh, Dr. Ruth. You told me in Chapter 4 that my vagina was my body's front door, but now this? Call me, sister. You've got my digits, we gotta have a talk.
And yes, as I reach the section on anal sex, I realize that for all my great fondness and affection for the woman, in this day and age, Dr. Ruth's suggestions are not the best options out there, for readers at any age. It's a wide, wide world, and a lot of people are writing on such topics, these days. I'm glad Dr. Ruth was there to pioneer, but she won't be my first go-to source for details, so I can hardly suggest she be anyone else's, either.
July 31, 2015
a great read for those struggling with comfort and sexuality -- geared towards hetero-normative cis gendered females
March 29, 2012
Good information. Nothing very revolutionary. Good book for older women who plan on eventually having children.
November 21, 2017
Sexually Speaking: What Every Woman Needs to Know about Sexual Health (Hardcover)
by Ruth Westheimer
Primer on sexual health for women. Mostly about reproduction.
by Ruth Westheimer
Primer on sexual health for women. Mostly about reproduction.
December 21, 2018
Yipes. Where to start?
I had such high hopes for this book. I was ready for a really interesting conversation about sex; healthy sexual boundaries, common concerns, troubleshooting, outside the box ideas, etc. Well, sex-related etc.
Sadly for me this book is written for someone who one day wakes up to discover they've grown a vagina and are perplexed about it's parts and pieces, what it does, the kind of doctor that might care for it, diseases that might affect it, etc. Pretty much it's a health class primer. A better title would be "You Have a Vagina and Have Lived in a Religiously Repressed Community for Years and Want to Know How the Heck This Vagina Thing Works and You're Pretty Sure There's A Lot People Aren't Telling You and I Don't Know How You Got This Book Past Your Creepy Elders But Hide It Under a NIV Bible Cover If You Want to Keep It!"
And for the most part, the authors do a good job of covering all the basics. But they do throw in some commentary that I found irrelevant/unhelpful. Ex. "Up until now, we haven't found the etiology--the reason--for homosexuality..." Uh...okay. Also the helpful tip to wear clean socks or get a pedicure prior to your gynecological appointments. Seriously?
Recommenced for: Parents of daughters who'd rather not say "vagina" out loud. Makes a great stocking stuffer.
I had such high hopes for this book. I was ready for a really interesting conversation about sex; healthy sexual boundaries, common concerns, troubleshooting, outside the box ideas, etc. Well, sex-related etc.
Sadly for me this book is written for someone who one day wakes up to discover they've grown a vagina and are perplexed about it's parts and pieces, what it does, the kind of doctor that might care for it, diseases that might affect it, etc. Pretty much it's a health class primer. A better title would be "You Have a Vagina and Have Lived in a Religiously Repressed Community for Years and Want to Know How the Heck This Vagina Thing Works and You're Pretty Sure There's A Lot People Aren't Telling You and I Don't Know How You Got This Book Past Your Creepy Elders But Hide It Under a NIV Bible Cover If You Want to Keep It!"
And for the most part, the authors do a good job of covering all the basics. But they do throw in some commentary that I found irrelevant/unhelpful. Ex. "Up until now, we haven't found the etiology--the reason--for homosexuality..." Uh...okay. Also the helpful tip to wear clean socks or get a pedicure prior to your gynecological appointments. Seriously?
Recommenced for: Parents of daughters who'd rather not say "vagina" out loud. Makes a great stocking stuffer.
February 12, 2021
Comprehensive, concise, useful, informative.
I love Dr. Ruth. She has taught me a lot.
I wish I had this info when I was younger, but society still doesn't know how to do sexual education (or doesn't want to, like in the case of my own country).
I love Dr. Ruth. She has taught me a lot.
I wish I had this info when I was younger, but society still doesn't know how to do sexual education (or doesn't want to, like in the case of my own country).
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews