Sunday, July 18, 2010

First Crowdsourced Women's Health Book Released

First Crowdsourced Women's Health Book Released

190 Women Share Experiences and Treatments for Painful, Common Chronic Condition

Mountain View, CA (PRWEB) February 25, 2009

CureTogether, a Health 2.0 Startup based in Silicon Valley, today released the first crowdsourced women's health book. Assembled from the input of 190 women living with a common, but poorly understood condition called vulvodynia, "Vulvodynia Heroes" is the product of an ongoing online research study at http://www. curetogether. com (http://www. curetogether. com).

"Patients decided on their own what symptoms and treatments they wanted to track and gathered detailed, quantitative data on their bodies and experiences," said Alexandra Carmichael, co-Founder of CureTogether. "The hope of this book is to spread awareness, reach out to people in pain who may not have heard of vulvodynia, and increase interest and funding for future research."

"The vulvodynia heroes are pioneers not just in investigating their own condition, but in developing self-cure practices that others can follow," said Gary Wolf, Contributing Editor of Wired and Blogger at The Quantified Self. "Many other women who are suffering will find this very helpful and inspiring," added Elizabeth Rummer, MSPT at the Pelvic Health and Rehabilitation Center in San Francisco.

Vulvodynia is a painful chronic condition that affects 16% of women at some point in their lives. It's one of the most active condition communities at CureTogether, with information about symptoms, treatments, and causes added by almost 200 women with vulvodynia. The "Vulvodynia Heroes" book is available at http://www. curetogether. com/VHeroes (http://www. curetogether. com/VHeroes).

About CureTogether
CureTogether launched in 2008 to help people anonymously track and compare health data -- to better understand their bodies, make more informed treatment decisions and contribute data to research. Starting with 3 conditions (Migraine, Endometriosis and Vulvodynia), its members have since expanded it to support 214 conditions.

*Please note that the information in Vulvodynia Heroes and at CureTogether. com does not constitute medical advice.

For more information, please contact Alexandra Carmichael at 650-533-2163.

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