PRO Women's Health: Developing a New Interdisciplinary Specialty

This paper argues that medicine is based on a male paradigm that does not permit high-quality comprehensive care for women within existing medical specialties. Suggestions are made to alleviate the shortcomings of the current paradigm by including women. A call for the development of a specialty in women's health is made. Types of resistance to this proposal, stemming from sexism, economics, and alliances to existing specialties, are also discussed. Finally, it is argued that bringing the study and practice of women's health to parity with the understanding and treatment of men must be achieved rapidly and comprehensively using an active and multifaceted approach.