Confirming the hypotheses of researchers working in health care over the past thirty years, a recent report concluded that an individual's gender is a significant factor influencing health and wellness throughout life. Exploring the Biological Contributions to Human Health: Does Sex Matter?, the report produced in April 2001, by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, called for additional studies of the role that one's sex or gender plays in biological development, disease resistance, and other health-related topics. With that mandate, the targeted study of women's health assumed a larger significance. The tempo and enthusiasm for studying women's health has been intensified in recent months over the controversy related to the advisability of mammograms as a useful and effective screening tool for breast cancer, and the newest data that raises questions about the advisability of hormone replacement therapy for as many women as were previously considered good candidates.

Aside from the obvious, uniquely female health concerns such as breast cancer and pregnancy, studies directed at women have great potential to improve the health of our families and communities. Generally speaking, throughout time, most health care and health education interventions have been designed either with men only or both men and women in mind. No longer is the field of women's health confined to reproductive health. In fact, health care and wellness concerns ranging from heart disease to basic nutrition are associated with different symptoms and effects based on gender. 1 The result of this new focus is predictable: better interventions, improved outcomes, and overall positive progress in the health of women and girls.

Clearly, the emerging knowledge related to differences of gender requires that health care professionals should design interventions and health awareness campaigns with this in mind. Whether we are serving as researchers, advocates, educators, or leaders of organizations, a broader understanding of women's health should inform our decisions and guide our efforts. This perspective will not only improve the lives of women, but also, by extension, improve the health of our communities more generally. For instance, with the awareness of postpartum depression heightened by the recent trial of Andrea Yates, efforts devoted to the research and interventions that address this particularly tragic mental health scourge are sure to be renewed. Nevertheless, we should be taking action before tragedies shatter our complacency and motivate us to act.

This issue of Family and Community Health (26:2) contains a variety of articles that address this theme. Topics include breast and cervical cancer screening practices, attachment experiences in women with breast cancer, HIV assessment and prevention, relationships between smoking and weight control in young women, the relationship between eating disorder attitudes and the risk of cardiovascular disease, and jails as venues for considering women's health. The growing relevance and attention to women's health holds promise for directly enhancing the quality of life of roughly half of the world's population. I urge you to carefully read the articles collected herein. They have been chosen as exemplars of the groundbreaking research that tightly ties the advances and increasing significance of women's health with community health activities.

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