Vancouver Women’s Health Collective

This document, produced by the Vancouver Women's Health Collective, demystifies the medical term "fibrocystic breast disease," and calls into question the tendency of medical practitioners to label women's bodies diseased or damaged. The document then goes on to describe different breast changes or conditions that often fall under the term "fibrocystic breast disease," including breast pain, breast lumpiness, and breast cysts. The document then describes different medical procedures used to determine whether lumps or cysts are benign or malignant, and also offers a comparison of natural treatments and drug treatments.

Notes for the Vancouver Women's Health Collective Menstruation workshop (2005). The notes include information about the presence of dioxins in tampons, the rumour of asbestos in tampons, and the symptoms and causes of toxic shock syndrome.

The Community Health Advocate Manual is a comprehensive manual for training community health advocates (a project of the Vancouver Women's Health Collective (VWHC) with funding from the Vancouver/Richmond Health Board). The manual includes information about the VWHC's feminist perspective on health and its philosophical position on the need for women's health care advocates in the health care system. The manual includes: a chapter on the BC health care system; a chapter on women's health issues (such as reproductive health, abortion, breast health, etc.); a chapter on empowering women and patients' rights; a chapter on dealing with violence and misconduct in the health care system; and a chapter detailing forms of advocacy and different ways that the community health advocates project could be used to advocate on behalf of women's health needs. The manual also includes: worksheets and strategies for advocating on behalf of a woman; case studies; summary of skills necessary for successful advocacy; resources for advocates, including articles on women's health and patients' rights; and contact information for other useful organizations.

A production manual for the Vancouver Women's Health Collective (VWHC) newsletter called "Healthmatters," produced in the 1980s. The production manual includes guidelines for the newsletter layout, as well as suggestions for editing, and some commentary on the tendency of women to shy away from giving one another constructive criticism. The document establishes guidelines in order to make it easier and more systematic when editing and deciding on content for the newsletter.