Women's Health

At Progressive Health Services we provide gentle, supportive and informative gynecological examinations with an emphasis on self-help and self-knowledge. We encourage your questions and active participation in your health care.

We combine the best of mainstream conventional western medicine with alternative and wholistic medicine so that we can provide women with the widest possible range health care options.

We believe women from all walks of life, cultures and ethnicities, be they young, old, short, tall, heavy, thin, single, married, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, able bodied, challenged etc. should be treated with dignity and respect in receiving health care, and should have full access to all available health care resources.

Self-Examination

We teach women breast self-examination and vaginal self-examination as part of routine health care. Breast self-examination can enable women to find their own breast lumps before a health practitioner may detect them during a yearly breast examination in the medical office.

Vaginal self-examination enables women to look at their cervix, the donut shaped entrance to the uterus in the back of the vagina, with a plastic vaginal speculum. By doing vaginal self-examination women can actually see exactly what the health practitioner sees.

We give women speculums to keep and take home. Vaginal self-examination helps women become more knowledgeable about their bodies and their cycles enabling them to detect signs of ovulation, common vaginal conditions such as yeast, and even early signs of pregnancy.

Well Woman Health Care

The medical specialty of women’s health care is called gynecology. The medical specialty addressing pregnancy and birth is called obstetrics. The field of obstetrics and gynecology, or OB/GYN as it is abbreviated, deals primarily with well woman health care- Routine physical examinations, family planning, pregnancy, childbirth and menopause.

Growing up, having periods, becoming sexually active, taking measures to planning or avoid pregnancy, becoming pregnant, having babies and going through menopause are all normal natural aspects of being female. None of these activities or life circumstances, in and of themselves, have anything to do with disease, thus the term "well women health care."

Women’s Health: A Herstory

Women’s medicine for the vast majority of human history has been taken care of by women themselves. Knowledge of women’s health matters was, and to a great extent still is, passed on from one generation of women to another. Because of women’s involvement with child bearing and caretaking, women also had a primary role in health care activities for the entire family. Women of a village or tribe who spent a great deal of time assisting other women with their health needs were often referred to as midwives, nurses, medicine women or other similar terms.

Women’s direct involvement in defining and developing their own health care has prompted some women’s clinics to use the term herstory rather than history in referring to a female health background.

Coming Soon...

Come back to this page soon for more information on our women’s health services!