INTRODUCTION - "WOMEN'S HEALTH"

Yet too many women reap a bitter harvest during their later years of life: osteoporosis, heart disease, cancer, depression, frailty and social isolation. In the next century, elderly women will make up an even larger proportion of the U.S. population, and physicians, policymakers and women nationwide now recognize the importance of keeping women healthy and mentally and physically active throughout all the years of their lives.

Since they are living longer, women now also spend about one-third of their lives following menopause. This fact has altered the very meaning of the term "women's health", which used to imply women's reproductive health and was the exclusive purview of gynecologists and obstetricians. Traditionally, women's other health concerns—conditions like heart disease and cancer that affect both men and women—^were studied and understood in terms of male models of prevention and treatment, without focusing on potential gender differences.

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