Resources
Typing ‘menopause’ into a search engine will produce a
mass of sites, of very variable quality. Any site (including this one!)
is developed
from a particular point of view; this will affect what is included,
and what is left out. Good questions to ask as you surf include:
-
Who funds the site? Is it selling products or services directly?
If the site carries advertisements, how are these related to the
topic?
-
Who writes the material? If it is written by clinicians, whether
from conventional or complementary medicine, what is their professional
bias likely to be? How do they handle alternatives?
-
What is the cultural background? For example, there are more sites
generated from the US than from the UK. US medicine has tended to be
more interventionist,
and HRT has been more widely used there. US sites may reflect
this bias.
-
How recently has the site been updated? Has updating responded
to new developments? Websites can respond to changing circumstances,
and they are, in that sense, never quite finished - a bit like housework?
However, as with housework, we need to establish our own standards
of acceptability. For example, new research comes out
all the time, but some sites checked
in September 2003 had still not taken account of the
concerns which caused the early closure of two clinical trials in
July and October
2002.
- If the site offers clinical advice, is it accredited by the Health
on the Net Foundation?
The sites listed on this website in Resources and Links are
intended to complement this one, providing different points of view
on menopause and information
outside
the
scope of this author and this site. Websites change constantly, however,
and
no responsibility can be taken for the quality of advice on other
sites.
|
|
