Are you afraid of menopause?

For many women, menopause is scary based on the stories they have heard from their mothers, aunts and older friends.

Dr. Rebecca Singson, an ob-gyne has tips to stay healthy and sane during the menopausal stage.

This is the outline form. For the detailed ones, go to this article.

1. Visit a gynecologist annually on your birthday, to get tested for CBC, Urinalysis, Blood Chemistry Panel 23, Chest X-ray, Treadmill test, Transvaginal Ultrasound and Pap Smear, if not hysterectomized. Bilateral Mammography and Fecal Occult Blood for colon cancer screening.

2. If you started sex by 18 years old and have had five sexual partners or have had any partner who was promiscuous, have an HPV test (Human Papillomavirus ) aside from Pap Smear. The HPV test is far more accurate than a Pap Smear, which can miss cervical cancer up to 50 percent of cases.

3. Have a Bone Densitometry once in three years to detect osteoporosis.

4. If you are having hot flashes, mood swings, irritability, anxiety, depression, sleeplessness, fatigue, memory loss, low libido, and skin or vaginal dryness, you may need hormone replacement therapy.

5. If you are afraid to use hormone replacement therapy because results you can take synthetic hrt.

6. Or take the natural bioidentical hormones are plant-based which don’t necessarily carry the same risk.

7. If you have osteopenia or osteoporosis, with all symptoms stated in Tip No. 4, your best bet for correction is hormone replacement therapy. However, if you just have osteopenia or osteoporosis without all the symptoms stated in Tip No. 4, take an anti-bone resorption drug.

8. Take 1,500 mg of calcium every day.

10. Do brisk walking two to three times your normal pace at a minimum of 40 minutes a day.

menopausal,calcium,pap smear

Indian Women are Required to Reveal Details of Menstrual Cycles

What bloody hell these people want to know about the details of the "bloody moments" of women ?

Outrage at India menstrual form
By Monica Chadha
BBC News, Mumbai

Women civil servants in India have expressed shock at new appraisal rules which require them to reveal details of their menstrual cycles.

Under the new nationwide requirements, female officials also have to say when they last sought maternity leave.

Women civil servants say the questions are a gross invasion of privacy. One told the BBC she was "gobsmacked".

Annual appraisals and health checks are mandatory in India's civil service. The ministry was unavailable for comment.

But one of its most senior bureaucrats was quoted in the press as saying the new questions had been based on advice from health officials.

'No words'

The questions at the root of the controversy are on page 58 of the new appraisal forms for the current year issued by the federal Ministry for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.



Women officers must write down their "detailed menstrual history and history of LMP.

Women working in the civil service told the BBC the government had no need for this kind of personal information.

Ms Gokhale said she had also served in the personnel department at the ministry which drafted the new forms and, while the health of officials was always a concern, asking such questions never crossed their minds.

Maharashtra's joint secretary for general administration, Seema Vyas, agreed that the new questions were uncalled for.


According to Satyanand Mishra,Personnel department secretary:

"Menstrual cycles are a natural phenomenon, they are not an aberration. One does not object to questions related to fitness levels - they are important as they can affect work.

"But there is no need for these details as this does not have any bearing on our work," she told the BBC.

"When we apply for maternity leave, we put in the appropriate application and the government already has those records so why ask again?"


women,
ovulation,menstrual cycle

When Women are Fertile

A study conducted about women's preference for men revealed that a woman prefers a more masculine man.

A woman prefers a more masculine man when she is fertile and looking for a fling rather than a mate for life, according to a new study.

The finding suggests the value that women place on masculinity changes with context and with women’s reproductive cycles and immediate goals. A woman's preference for manly men also was found to vary based on how attractive she rated herself.

And some of a woman's sex drive might involve tricks in the brain over which she has no control.

Previous research has shown that women view facial masculinity—square jaws and well-defined brow ridges—as good characteristics for short-term partners, while more feminine traits are perceived as better for long-term mates. Another study found that women smell better to men at certain points in their menstrual cycles.

A new look
In the new study, researchers asked women who were at different points in their menstrual cycles (and who were not on the pill) to rate their own attractiveness. Then researchers presented them with image pairs representing “feminized” and “masculinized” versions of the same male body. The women were asked to choose the body they thought was most attractive for a short-term relationship and then again for a long-term relationship.

Some of the women performed the experiment again at the opposite point in their cycle.

Fertile women chose the masculine version of each image 15 percent more often, on average, than women who were not fertile, said lead researcher Anthony Little, a psychologist at the University of Stirling in Scotland. The effect was strongest if they were looking for a short-term partner rather than a long-term one, and if they considered themselves attractive.

These findings, to be detailed in an upcoming issue of the journal Hormones and Behavior, reveal that “preferences are not absolute,” Little said.

women,
ovulation

Menopause linked to sexual dysfunction

My friend who is single and is approaching her forty fifth birthday thinks that she is already undergoing menopausal stage. She is engaged but she intimated that she hardly feel sexually aroused when her boyfriend and she are into intimate moments.

So I was happy to find this study.


Menopausal women twice as likely to report problems, study finds

NEW YORK - Women who have particularly low levels of the hormone DHEA during menopause may be more likely to have sexual dysfunction, a new study suggests.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that among more than 300 women they followed for 3 years, sexual dysfunction became more common as women progressed through menopause. Postmenopausal women were more than twice as likely as premenopausal women to report problems like lack of interest in sex, pain or difficulty reaching orgasm.

But there was also evidence that other factors contributed to sexual dysfunction, including the women’s levels of DHEA, or dehydroepiandrosterone. Women with relatively low blood levels of the hormone were 59 percent more likely to report sexual problems than those with high levels.
Story continues below ↓advertisement


Dr. Clarisa R. Gracia and colleagues report their findings in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.

DHEA is a hormone produced mainly by the adrenal gland that acts as a precursor to testosterone and estrogen. The body’s DHEA production peaks in young adulthood and gradually declines with age; because of this, supplements of synthetic DHEA are widely marketed as an anti-aging panacea.

However, the current findings do not mean that women with sexual dysfunction should turn to the supplements, as there’s not yet any evidence that they’d help, according to the study authors.

“A randomized controlled trial assessing the safety and efficacy of (DHEA) is needed to support its use for the treatment of sexual dysfunction,” Gracia and colleagues write.

The study included 311 women who were between the ages of 35 and 47 at the outset. Once a year, the researchers took blood samples from the women to measure various hormone concentrations. They also questioned the women about their health, menstrual cycles and sex lives.

Overall, Gracia’s team found, one-third of the women had some degree of sexual dysfunction by the end of the 3-year study period.

menopause,
women

Female ‘fat talk’ socially mandatory, study finds

Women are more conscious of their weight and their bodies as they grow older.

Researchers found out that the fat talk are common not only in middle school aged female but also in older females as well.

Denise Martz of Appalachian State University said:

“We have found in our research that both male and female college students know the norm of fat talk—that females are supposed to say negative things about their bodies in a group of females engaging in fat talk.”

Marts and her colleagues showed that 124 male and female college students were the respndents in the scenario describing three women engaging in fat talk. The test subjects were then asked to predict how a fourth female would respond to this discussion.

The findings showed the forty percent of male subjects and 51 percent of female subjects believed that the fourth female would self-degrade her body.

Explanation of this phenomenon was made by Martz to LiveScience.:

“Because women feel pressured to follow the fat talk norm, they are more likely to engage in fat talk with other females, hence, women normalize their own body dissatisfaction with one another.”

“If there are women out there who feel neutrally or even positively about their bodies, I bet we never hear this from them for fear of social sanction and rejection.”


“Females like to support one another and fat talk elicits support,” “An example would be one saying, ‘It's like, I'm so fat today,’ and another would respond, ‘No, you are not fat, you look great in those pants.’”

women

Hourglass figure for a woman is not what attracts

As women, we have thought that it is our 36-24-36 which makes us attract men.
We're wrong.

The New York University researchers found out that it is the swaying of hips that make the men take a second look.

This is how they conducted the study.

The team carried out a series of studies involving over 700 participants who were shown a variety of animations and videos of people moving.

Some showed shadow figures, where it was not possible to see if it was a man or a woman, while others obviously showed a man or a woman.

No matter which format was being used, the participants rated women or "female" figures as more attractive if their hips swayed as they walked, while men were more attractive if they had the characteristic shoulder movement.

The research also confirmed the waist-hip ratio assumption, with women's attractiveness being rated higher if their waist-hip ratio was small and men's being higher if their ratio was large.

But Kerri Johnson and Louis Tassinary who led the research, say their work shows attractiveness is not as simple as the difference between two measurements.

Writing in PNAS, the researchers said: "The body's shape and motion provoke basic social perceptions, biological sex and gender - ie masculinity or femininity respectively.

"The compatibility of these basic precepts predicts perceived attractiveness."

The team say their findings only apply to Western cultures, and other societies will judge attractiveness depending on their most prized feminine and masculine traits.

Dr George Fieldman, principal lecturer in psychology at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College said: "This is quite plausible.

"It's the movement which attracts, and not just the waist-hip ratio per se."

He added: "It would be interesting to see what the ideal combination of measurements and wiggle is."

women,psychology,study,feminine

Hugs aid women's hearts

We've been hearing about the good vibes that hugs, arms wrapped around the shoulders and offering shoulders to cry on do to people who need the assurance that things will be okay, that there are people who are there for easy reach.




A study conducted by the University of Carolina showed that hugs can aid women's hearts confirmed this wide belief.

Even the body chemical responsible for such a feeling was identified.

Except of the article says:

This study has reinforced research findings that support from a partner, in this case a hug from a loved one, can have beneficial effects on heart health."

She added: "British Heart Foundation researchers have already demonstrated links between a positive emotional state, such as happiness, and low levels of the stress hormone, cortisol.

heart disease,Women,universtiy

Women's offices are dirtier than men's but men's wallets are dirtier than women's purse

According to the study conducted by the University of Arizona the reasons why women's offices are dirtier than the men's are:

1. Women use hand lotion more often.
2. They use make-up which absorbs germs.
3. Mothers are in contact with children who transmit germs.
4. Women bring and eat more snacks than men.

But the study also showed that men's wallet are dirtier than women's purses.


women,men

Harvard's First Woman President

The mistake of the former president was that he provoked other women professors in Harvard with his sexist comment that women had less "intrinsic aptitude" than men for science.

Now the oldest university in the US has named the first female president, Drew
Gilpin Faust.



Excerpt of the news:

Dr. Faust, the Dean of Harvard's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, will become the university's 28th president on 1 July.

"She knows Harvard and higher education, and her interests extend to the whole of the university, across the arts and sciences and the professional domains," said James R Houghton, senior member of the Harvard Corporation and chair of the presidential search committee.

Harvard,Women,Gilpin Faust

Pretty Women, Life Stages and Relationship

Anna Nicole Smith died at age 39.

Life begins at forty and and it seems some pretty women never get to be born.

Marilyn Monroe-Actress, Playboy model 1926-1962 =36 years old



Cause of death: Her death was ruled as an overdose of the sleeping pill Nembutal. Several conspiracy theories have surfaced in the decades after her death, some involving President John F. Kennedy and/or Robert Kennedy. There is also much speculation that her death was accidental, but the official cause of death was "probable suicide" by acute barbiturate poisoning.

Her quote:

In Hollywood a girl's virtue is much less important than her hairdo. You're judged by how you look, not by what you are. Hollywood's a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss, and fifty cents for your soul. I know, because I turned down the first offer often enough and held out for the fifty.

Dorothy Stratten - Actress, Playboy model 1960-1980




Death: Murdered by Paul Snider, her estranged husband

Edith Minturn "Edie" Sedgwick (April 20, 1943 – November 15, 1971) was an American actress, socialite, debutante and heiress who starred in many of Andy Warhol's short films in the 1960s.



Death: Michael Post, her husband brought her home from a party where she was attacked by a drunken guest who called her heroin addict. Before they both fell asleep, he gave her the medication that had been prescribed for her. When he awoke the following morning at 7:30, she was dead. The coroner registered her death as "Accident/Suicide" due to a barbiturate overdose. She was 28.

Marilyn Monroe,pretty woman, wisdom,quotes

Anna Nicole Smith-woman,life stages and relationships

Life begins at forty. Ana Nicole Smith was not born yet before she died yesterday.
She dreamed of being Marilyn Monroe and she died just like her.


Photocredit:AP
Life Stages :

Name: Vickie Lynn Hogan
Birth: Nov. 28, 1967, Houston, Texas

1969: Parents divorced
1983: Quits high school, works as a waitress in Jim's Fried Chicken
April 4, 1985: At age 17, married 16-year-old fry cook Billy Wayne Smith
they have a son, Daniel Smith VIII.

Jan. 22, 1986 -Gave birth to Daniel Smith VIII
Mid-1986: Left the husband and returned to Houston.
Worked at a Wal-Mart, restaurant and topless at strip clubs.

October 1991: Met Texas oil billionaire J. Howard Marshall II while dancing at a Houston club.

February 1992: She filed a divorce from Billy Smith.

March 1992-Debuted on the cover of Playboy
May 1992- featured as the Playboy'scenterfold in May.

November 1992: Signed a three-year contract to be the new model for Guess jeans, also adopted her new name, Anna Nicole.

1993: She became the Playboy's Playmate of the Year.

Feb. 12, 1994: Was hospitalized for mixing prescription drugs and alcohol.

June 27, 1994: Married Howard Marshall II. She was 26; he was 89.

January 1995: Marshall became seriously ill. Legal fight between Smith and Pierce ensued when he cutoff her spousal support of $50,000 a month.

Aug. 4, 1995: J. Howard Marshall II died of pneumonia at age 90. Spousal support fight unresolved.

November 1995: Smith was hospitalized again due to adverse reaction to prescription medication.

February 1996: Filed for bankruptcy in California.

Sept. 27, 2000: A California judge issued a $450 million ruling for Smith against E. Pierce Marshall, later raised to $474 million.

March 7, 2001: A Houston jury ruled that Smith is not entitled to half the estate of her late husband, and that his sole heir is his son.

March 2002: The U.S. District Court judge awarded Smith $88 million of J. Howard Marshall's oil fortune, concluding that Smith deserves half the investment income Marshall earned during their marriage, plus $44 million in punitive damages resulting from the younger Marshall's attempts to cut her off.

Aug. 4, 2002: Premiere of "The Anna Nicole Show," the E channel reality series in which a camera followed her through her everyday routine.

October 2003: Became a spokeswoman for TrimSpa diet pills.

Dec. 30, 2004: A federal appeals court in San Francisco overturned Smith's $88 million inheritance award.

Feb. 28, 2006: Attended her hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court demurely dressed in black and avoiding making any statement.

May 1, 2006: The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Smith can pursue her late husband's fortune, overruling the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which had ruled that federal courts could not handle Smith's case.

Sept. 7, 2006: Gave birth to baby girl named Dannielynn Hope in the Bahamas.

Sept. 10, 2006: Smith's 20-year old son, Daniel Smith, died in his mother's hospital room in the Bahamas.

Sept. 26, 2006: Lawyer Howard K. Stern says he is the father of Dannielynn. The next day, an ex-boyfriend, photographer Larry Birkhead, says he is the father. Subsequent lawsuits filed.

September 28, 2006: Smith and Howard K. Stern exchanged vows and rings in an informal commitment ceremony aboard the 41-foot catamaran Margaritaville off the coast of the Bahamas.

photocredit: Getty Images
Nov. 7, 2006: Smith is discharged from a weeklong stay in a Bahamas hospital, where she received treatment for pneumonia and a collapsed lung.

Dec. 21, 2006: The Los Angeles Superior Court ruled that Smith must bring Dannielynn to California for a paternity test. That ruling was temporarily blocked, and remains pending.

Feb. 8, 2007: Smith died in Florida at age 39.

Lady Astronaut in love, kidnaps fellow astronaut

This is not a movie. This is in real life. If you are stunned, don't. As Balise Pascal had said " Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too; this is why a great and clear mind loves ardently and sees distinctly what it loves."

This is an excerpt of the news:

A US astronaut has been charged with trying to kidnap a woman she thought was a rival for the affection of a space shuttle pilot.

Navy Capt Lisa Nowak, 43, who flew to the international space station last July, was charged with attempted kidnapping, battery and other crimes.

She drove from Texas to Florida to confront Colleen Shipman, disguised in a wig and trench coat.

Read the entire story here.


women,lady astronauts

One small step for man, one giant leap for womankind

Only few people know that there are lady astronauts. In the man's world, who would think that there are women who have already been to space, commandeered a shuttle and the latest news is about a woman who made a record in spacewalking.

U.S. astronaut Sunita Williams has now spent more time in space than any other woman, setting the record on Sunday as she and a crew mate upgraded the international space station's cooling system.

Williams broke the previous female spacewalking record of more than 21 hours when she and Michael Lopez-Alegria completed the second of what could be a precedent-setting three spacewalks in nine days.

The new record is 22 hours and 27 minutes.

Read the entire story here.

women,lady astronauts

Heart Disease of Women

My long time friend and neighbor died of heart disease last week. It was enlargement of the heart. She often complained of shortness of breath after walking a few distance. First, it was attributed to lack of exercise since she drove everyday from her place. She took long walks after that but the feeling remained the same and it even had gotten worse.

Examination diagnosed her to have a heart condition that needed surgery. So she came to the States but did not get the opportunity to be operated on. By her looks, you would not see that she is suffering so much.

This news article made me ponder of her death at a young age.
Heart disease often misdiagnosed in women


Excerpt of the news:

When Jean Horgan complained of heart palpitations, her doctor told her it was just nerves.

"I was told, 'Go home and take tranquilizers. You'll be fine, you're under stress.' "

Much later, another doctor -- one specializing in women's health -- ordered an echocardiogram, an ultrasound test of her heart. The EKG showed Horgan had a heart condition, and she needed medication.

When Phyllis Cruz went to the emergency room, she told the nurse she felt as if she was having a heart attack. She said the nurse didn't believe her.

"I said to her, 'But I have pain, chest pain. I can't breathe.' She said, 'Well, there's a lot of people here. Sit down.' "

Six hours later, Cruz also was given an EKG. It turned out she did have a heart attack.

Number of Pregnant Women from Mainland China Limited

Effective today, February 1, the rule limiting the number of pregnant women from Mainland China is going to be implemented.

Lately, there was an influx of pregnant women giving birth in Hong Kong's hospitals.

I did not know that the one child policy in China is still enforced. This law penalizes a family with more than one child with a fine of $10,000 or forced abortion for the unwanted pregnancy.

With this high penalty, women with means most likely prefer to spend only one third of this amount to give birth in a Hong Kong hospital where immigration law grants Hong Kong citizenship to the newborn.

Read the entire news here.

Excerpt of the news particularly the new rules :

In future, any pregnant woman coming from China without a hospital booking will be turned back at the border.

The rules are due to take effect on 1 February.

Hospitals in Hong Kong are setting up a centralised booking system to give priority to local women, and impose a quota on the number of mainland mothers allowed in.

Charges for mainland women to give birth in Hong Kong will also be raised.

women,Hongkong,pregnancy