Years ago editors of the Our Bodies, Ourselves series of books on women’s health removed a brief entry on the disorder trichotillomania, compulsive hair pulling, to make room for a new entry.

“We heard from our readers,” said Judy Norsigian, a founder of the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, which authored the book series.

They asked, “Why did you take this out. Don’t you know how many women are affected.”

Subsequently there were studies,” said Norsigian. “It is a greater problem than we assumed,” she said, and the section was returned.

Registration is full for a Friday forum featuring Norsigian and organized by the VCU Institute for Women’s Health, but people are still welcome at a Thursday event 7-9 p.m. at the Gay Community Center of Richmond’s Art Gallery Space, 1407 Sherwood Ave. There are about 20 slots left.

In advance of her trip to Richmond, I talked to Norsigian about women’s health issues. Here are excerpts from that interview.

Q. Women today can find a lot of health information on the Web. Is there still a need for books like Our Bodies, Ourselves.
A. Norsigian: “When we got going there was nothing out there is lay language for women. It was an abyss. Even educated women were remarkably ignorant about their bodies, about childbirth contraception, basic things. What’s happened is over the years is much more women’s health information is available everywhere. But there are a few problems that haven’t changed. One is partly because of the profit motive and the role of the pharmaceutical industry and other profit interests, we often see women’s normal health stages of their lives medicalized in unnecessary ways. If we were just wasting out money it would be one thing. There are harmful effects of this medicalization. Over the years what our challenge has been was to point to evidence-based practices. Where and when do we intervene, when do we get the best outcomes.

“The Internet is loaded with a tremendous amount of misinformation. There is tremendous need for good quality information that guides women so they can make good decisions. Especially with the advertising and the advertorials and the inability to know the source of your information when you are on the Web. It’s critical to look twice to find out who is behind the Web site or source of information that they are looking at.”

Q. Who are your sources for Our Bodies, Ourselves?
A. Norsigian: “We have built up a pool of a few thousand incredible people, several hundred are probably our most common advisers. They are experienced in decades of research and clinical (practice) or have been advocates for many years. The knowledge base is huge. What we do, whenever we produce something, a Web-based article or chapter for our book, for instance, we run it by numerous reviewers.“

Q. What’s new in the most recent edition?
A. Norsigian: “The 2005 edition updated every single chapter. So whether you are looking at nutrition, the environment, workplace safety or cancer, or childbearing or violence in women’s lives, we introduced lots of new material.”

“We have two single-topic books. We produced Our Bodies, Ourselves Menopause in 2006 and Our Bodies, Ourselves Pregnancy and Birth in 2008. The latter of the two has received a huge amount of attention.”

Q. What are some controversial topics in women health?
A. Norsigian: “One of the things we discovered in the course of working in the pregnancy and birth book is this is one of the areas where we have medicalized an aspect of women’s lives so far and so extremely that we are now seeing the downside. We are actually in good studies measuring poorer outcomes from the higher rates or intervention. Cesarean section is probably the most famous example. But a lesser well-known example which the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is dealing with right now is the use of medically unindicated induction, that’s starting your labor before 39 weeks of pregnancy. What it’s done it’s produced a whole rash of premature births that have led to low-birth-weight babies and premature babies. This is causing the NICUs to fill up. Some hospitals have reviewed what has happened when they eliminate the practice of unnecessary early induction.”

“One other issue is the use of breast implants for augmentation purposes, totally elective not for reconstruction after breast surgery. The figures are startling, especially among younger women who are going to the Web and getting misinformed. We are trying to reach younger women with the actual evidence. There is a filmmaker who produced a very balanced film called Absolutely Safe that we’re trying to show in more colleges.”