Susan Salenger was born and raised in Los Angeles, and for more than twenty-five years owned Salenger Films, which produced corporate training and development films and distributed them around the world, with her husband. Sue wrote the scripts and the workbooks that accompanied the films. Once her children had grown up and she had some time for herself, Sue took some anthropology classes at UCLA. Her final project for one of those classes was a study of women who had undergone hysterectomies; that study was the catalyst for this book. Sue’s wonderful husband has passed away, but she has two fabulous daughters and four incredible grandchildren. They all live in Petaluma, California, and see each other often.

Through personal stories and extensive research, Sidelined: How Women Manage (and Mismanage) Their Health examines the many ways in which women unwittingly neglect their own health. Researcher and writer Susan Salenger describes how women tend to place their needs behind the needs of their families, how they blame themselves for getting sick, and how they too often hesitate to question their doctors’ advice.

But women’s attitudes toward themselves and their health don’t exist in a vacuum—which is why Salenger also examines the cultural and medical history that has conditioned women not to act in their own best interest, offering insight into the gender biases of the medical community and exploring why women are misdiagnosed more often than men and why we’ve been routinely omitted from clinical trials. Designed to help women—particularly women over thirty-five—become more aware of why they make the decisions they do and Sidelined will equip readers with the knowledge, language, and skill sets they need to get the best healthcare possible.