'Our Bodies, Ourselves,' Updated

Safe sex, breast implants, fad diets and gender identity are among the new topics tackled in an updated edition of "Our Bodies, Ourselves," widely considered the first feminists' health book specifically for women.

The original book began in the spring of 1969, when a dozen women at a conference got together and compared "doctor stories." That group eventually became the Boston Women's Health Book Collective, and their experiences became the foundation of their groundbreaking work.

The book has sold over 4 million copies and is published in 20 languages. Now, it's been updated in, "Our Bodies, Ourselves: A New Edition for a New Era."

Judy Norsigian was one of the original collective members and authors and is executive director of the collective.

On The Early Show Thursday, she told co-anchor Rene Syler, "You must understand that, back in the late '60s, early '70s, we knew nothing about (many of the issues discussed in the books). We were college-educated women that had very little (women's health) education, background. And the definitions of female sexuality were all distorted and inaccurate. We had to recreate our own body of knowledge.

"We were appalled by our own ignorance about our bodies. We were also part of the women's movement, trying to change the social norms.

"One of the reasons women didn't get good medical care and actually were dissatisfied is that they were very passive. They were being 'good girls.' They listened to their doctors, never asked questions. And very often, doctors were not practicing evidence-based medicine, because actually there wasn't much evidence anyway. And that's changed somewhat over the years. So women are asking questions, feel more entitled, know they have to get information and have to be an informed consumer, an informed individual when it comes to health and medical care decisions.

"Over the years, there's been tremendous interest in women's health issues, there is more research. We've been part of that effort to create more research in this field."In explaining other reasons for the updated version of the book, Norsigian noted, "We also wanted to focus in on the questions like body image and the environment, and sexually transmittable infections and growing older and menopause. We included all of this and it grew over the years, partly because of reader input, and the growing body of literature on women's health and sexuality."

Norsigian says a trend of particular urgency is the push to be thin: "We all want to look good. But what happens to many young women is they get caught up in a spiral of spending all their time and energy in looking good or aspiring to some ideal that's inappropriate so they go on starvation diets or engage in risky cosmetic surgery."

An entire chapter in the update is devoted to violence. Says Norsigian: "The sad fact is for women around the world, violence is a stark reality. We have to know as much as we can about protecting ourselves."

To read excerpts of "Our Bodies, Ourselves: A New Edition for a New Era," click here.

Our Bodies Ourselves describes itself as a nonprofit, public interest women's health-education, advocacy, and consulting organization. It provides clear, evidence-based information about health, sexuality, and reproduction from a feminist and consumer perspective. It is one of the few women's health groups in the U.S. that doesn't accept funds from pharmaceutical companies.

"Our Bodies, Ourselves" is published by Touchstone, which is owned by Viacom, the same company that owns CBSNews.com.