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Welcome to WomensHealthMatters.ca, a Canadian source for trusted, evidence-based and timely information on women's health.  Our websites draw on the expertise of Women's College Hospital's multidisciplinary healthcare community to provide authoritative women's health information. Information provided on this site is created by health experts at Women's College Hospital and is designed to support, not replace, the relationship with your healthcare provider.

The website has the latest information, news and research findings on women's health, including:

• Feature Articles on health topics and issues that affect the health of Canadian women.
•  Health Centres to learn more about topics such as heart health, diabetes, mental health and osteoporosis.
• A Question of Health, Women's College Hospital experts answer a question about a health issue that's in the news or on women's minds.
• The latest developments in women's health in our Health News section.

Editorial Policy

The WomensHealthMatters.ca and MyHealthMatters.ca websites are provided by Women's College Hospital as trusted sources of information, news and research findings on women's health. Our goal is to provide Canada's most reliable resources for online health information for women.

We strive to provide a women-centred, interactive, non-judgmental environment for online health learning to enable women to make informed decisions with their healthcare providers. We embrace a broad definition of women's health that recognizes the importance of emotional, spiritual and physical well-being, as well as the influence of factors such as lifestyle, socioeconomic status and cultural background on women's health.

Principles of women's health:

The websites are committed to the principles of women's health advocated by Women's College Hospital, which include:

• empowerment of women through informed, participatory decision-making
• broad definition of health
• collaborative planning through community partnerships
• accessibility of programs
• high quality care
• innovative and creative approaches to women's health research and in response to contemporary health issues

Funding

Start-up funding for WomensHealthMatters.ca was generously provided by the CA*net Institute. Bell Canada generously provided funds to maintain and grow WomensHealthMatters.ca and its sister site femmesensante.ca. Parts of the website were funded by the Ontario Women's Health Council from March 2002 until the Council closed in March 2007. The Council was fully funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.

We gratefully acknowledge the Women's College Hospital Association of Volunteers and the Women's College Hospital Foundation for their support of WomensHealthMatters.ca.

Sponsorship

For information about becoming a sponsor please contact us at digicomm@wchospital.ca. Our corporate sponsors do not exert any influence on the editorial content, selection of content or presentation of material on WomensHealthMatters.ca or MyHealthMatters.ca.

Please note that we do not permit advertising on WomensHealthMatters.ca or MyHealthMatters.ca.

Editorial team

The editorial team consists of health writers, editors, librarians and expert reviewers from Women's College Hospital, Women's College Research Institute (WCRI) and other leading healthcare organizations. Except where otherwise noted, all material has been produced by our editorial team and reviewed by healthcare professionals.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please contact us at digicomm@wchospital.ca.

Linking Policy

The following policy outlines the requirements for linking to WomensHealthMatters.ca and MyHealthMatters.ca. It also outlines the criteria for providing external links to other websites.

Linking to WomensHealthMatters.ca and Related Sites

Women's College Hospital permits other websites to link to it's various websites.  When linking, please consider the following:

• Any text-only link be clearly marked eg. "Women's Health Matters". Logos and word marks may not be used as a hypertext link without express prior written permission from Women's College Hospital.
• The link must open a page within the website. The page must be viewed in a browser window on its own and not be framed by the host website.
• The appearance, position and other aspects of either the link or the host website may not be such as to damage or dilute the goodwill associated with the Women's College Hospital name and trademarks.

Women's College Hospital reserves the right to change this policy at any time.

Women's College Hospital is not responsible for the information or materials contained on the host website. Links are provided for convenience of reference only and are not intended as an endorsement by Women's College Hospital of the organization or individual operating the host website or its content.

Links to Other Websites from WomensHealthMatters.ca and Related Sites

Women's College Hospital is not responsible for the contents of any linked website or any link contained in a linked website or any changes or updates to such websites. The inclusion of any link does not imply that we endorse that website or the information and services provided by that website. We cannot guarantee the privacy or security of information you provide to the linked sites.

Links to non–Women's College Hospital websites are evaluated based on the following criteria:

• relates to Women's College Hospital's vision and mission
• complements and enhances the information offered by the Women's College Hospital's websites
• provides credible, accurate, current, evidence-based information
• is subject to adequate procedures for the review and updating of material
• primarily focuses on information or educational content rather than the promotion of a product or service
• adheres to adequate policies regarding external links and privacy of user data

These criteria may change at any time without notice to reflect the policies of Women's College Hospital. Sites that are link to are reviewed annually or as needed. If you find a page that doesn't link properly, please email digicomm@wchospital.ca.