Secrets of the Sexually Satisfied Woman: Ten Keys to Unlocking Ultimate Pleasure - Hardcover

Dr. Laura Berman is a clinical assistant professor of OB/GYN and Psychiatry at the Feinberg School of Medicine of Northwestern University and is the founder and director of the Berman Center in Chicago, which specializes in sexual medicine and menopause management. She lives in Chicago.

Dr. Jennifer Berman is an assistant professor of Urology and director of the Female Sexual Medicine Center at the UCLA Medical Center. Her medical practice focuses on individually tailored management of female gynecologic, urologic, hormonal, and sexual function problems. She lives in Los Angeles.

Alice Burdick Schweiger is a freelance writer specializing in health, relationships, travel, and entertainment. A Michigan native and a mother of two, she resides in New York City with her husband.

The Berman sisters, coauthors of the bestselling For Women Only, return with this more ambitious but less successful treatment of women's sexual pleasure and health. The doctors adopt a prescriptive writing style in their "mind-body approach" to the numerous influences on sexual satisfaction, including communication, self-esteem, emotional health, chronic diseases, arousal and orgasm problems, family upbringing, and social attitudes. The comprehensive range of topics aren't sufficiently addressed, however; many treatments leave readers feeling merely teased. For instance, while the authors suggest Kegel exercises, they don't provide instructions on how to perform them. They assert that many women don't achieve orgasm from intercourse, yet they fail to discuss oral sex in any practical sense. And while one might expect the doctors—Laura is a sex therapist; Jennifer is a urologist—to provide the most insight in the chapter on the various health problems that affect sexual function, this is one of the most disappointingly sparse parts of the book. Their National Women's Sexual Satisfaction Survey is by far the book's most original contribution, but the findings are awkwardly integrated into the text. While the Bermans' tone is woman-centered and sex-positive, this work is largely disappointing. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.