Search Help

Spelling counts

Check that you typed your term(s) correctly.
If you're not sure how to spell a word, such as a medical condition, you may want to try:

• Browsing with our topic lists rather than typing the terms yourself.
  (This feature is available for our health publications and health organizations searches.)
• Looking up your terms in the NWHIC Glossary

Use fewer words

Entering fewer words usually increases the number of results you will get. If you're not getting enough (or any) results, try searching on fewer words.
For example, searching on allergies will produce more results than searching on pollen allergies.

Use more words

Entering multiple words usually reduces the number of results you will get. If you're getting too many results, try searching with more words to narrow your results.
For example searching with breast cancer will produce fewer results than searching with breast or cancer by themselves.

Use search operators

You can get more precise results using search operators in your search terms. Search operators are words and symbols that change the criteria for the result that are returned. Some common search operators are:

• AND
• OR
• NOT
• "quotation marks"
• wildcards, like * and ?

AND

Searches for items containing both words

cancer AND treatment

OR

Searches for items containing either word

teen OR adolescent

NOT

Eliminates items where the word on the right is found

treatment NOT tamoxifen

"Quotation Marks"

Quoted phrases are searched for literally. Only exact matches are found. Useful if you need to search for the actual words and, or, not.

* Wildcard

Skin*
(will find skin, skin cancer, skin care)

? Wildcard

? Stands for a single character

teen?
(will find teen and teens, but not teenage)

Case sensitivity

Searches are not case sensitive

Breast Cancer, BREAST CANCER, and breast cancer will find the same items.

Your search results are returned in order of relevance to your search terms.  Relevancy is calculated based on several factors, such as whether the search term occurs in the name of the resource or organization and how many times it occurs in the description text or web page, and how closely search terms occur to each other.

Keep in mind, however, that there are three types of searches on the NWHIC site, and each will bring you results from different content areas.

1. At the top of most pages, you will see a search box and a button that says "Search our site."
   Use this search when you want to find content on the NWHIC web site. This search also returns matches on the Office on Women's Health web site. If relevant news articles are found, they are displayed at the top of the page.
2. On our Health Topics page, you will see a search box under the heading "Find Health Publications."
   Use this search to find entries from our catalog of publications from the Federal Government and other selected sources.
3. On our Health Organizations page, you will see a search box under the heading "Find Health Organizations."
   Use this search to find listings in our directory of organizations within the Federal Government and other selected sources.

Still can't find what you're looking for?

If you're not able to find the information you need on our web site, please call us!

We have trained information specialists available Monday through Friday, 9 am - 6 pm EST.

Our phone number and contact information are available here.