Women's Health

Women's health was described as “a patchwork quilt with gaps” in 1992.1 This has been an especially fitting metaphor as quilts are stitched with discarded remnants using thread that may unravel over time. The image of a patchwork quilt also captured the separation between specialties (which often function in isolation) and the experience of individuals who attempt to work across disciplines. At best, those who have worked to bridge disciplines have created a strong cross-stitch between patches, and at worst, they have found themselves extending over an abyss. The content gaps described by Drs. Clancy and Massion in 1992 included several topics that were then not addressed effectively by most primary care physicians: sexuality, eating disorders, depression, domestic violence, and life cycle transitions.1