The Roundup – a few highlights
[Credit: Special thanks to artist Darryl Willison of whimsicalwest.com. Please visit his site and support his work.]
I would be remiss if I didn’t admit that this well-received monthly feature seems to have fallen off Flashfree post list. So, as of today, I am officially reviving it. Rather than list four month’s worth of highlights, I’ve decided to pick and choose a few favourites so you don’t miss anything. Still, my mind isn’t yours’ so feel free to peruse the monthly archives.
Without further ado…
- Female viagra hits a new low in the bedroom. Hypoactive sexual desire disorder is real to many women, who suffering from reduced libido and interest. But can a pill address the underlying issues, such as emotions, relationships, environment and hormones?
- HRT – Wait a moment! Stopping hormone replacement might be bad for your menopause. In fact, it appears that symptoms might suddenly appear out of nowhere.
- When it comes to calcium, think moderation. Women need calcium and vitamin D as they age. But too much of a good thing may be dangerous.
- That ole glass ceiling still isn’t cracked. Want a raise? Some individuals would have you believe that you should let your femininity drive your bargaining.
- HRT – Ask the hard questions. Are you considering starting hormone replacement? Be sure that you know the facts.
- It’s about time…weight, that is. The time of day may determine how much weight you gain as much as what you are eating.
Where’s your focus?
Photographer Alex Prager was asked by the New York Times Supplement to do a photo shoot with women going through menopause. You can find the image that she captured here.
Alex described her assignment and the shot she got as follows:
“There were no rules – all they told me was they wanted pictures of older women and I could develop whatever concept I wanted; I had free rein…The taxi leaked and the rain machine was out of control. So she was soaked and miserable – but it made the shot…she was unhappy for real.”
It’s a beautiful photo and I encourage you to look at it. However, what strikes me is the focus on misery, unhappiness, and a haunting for something other than what “is.” Ironically, Prager says that she wanted the model to look backward, as if perhaps to imply that she longs for what was past and not what is ahead.
Are women in midlife longing for something else? Or are they now able to take life by the reins and reach or redefine personal goals?
Two weeks ago, I sat on a panel at Women Grow Business Bootcamp, a half-day conference devoted to empowering female entrepreneurs in their professional and personal lives. I spoke about evolution and the need to adapt to changes in one’s environment in order to continue to grow and attain goals. While the context that day was on my business and marketing, the larger context was really life and the track that I’ve been on over the past 25 years, pausing to look over my shoulder but trying to keep my focus on the path ahead.
So, when I consider the question about longing, I realize that for the most part, my longing takes me forward and not backward. My visits to the past provide the foundation for my journey. However, a key factor remains true: as I’ve grown older, I do try to take more time to not only live my passion and personal/business goals but to live within them, meditating on what works and what doesn’t so that I can continue to move in a forward direction.
When was the last time you stepped back and asked yourself where your focus is? Are you are looking ahead or consistently looking over your shoulder to see if you’ve caught up yet? What does your menopause and midlife look like so far?
Read MoreAin’t no Wednesday Bubble: tick tock, part 2: the menopause blood test
I don’t usually interrupt our regularly scheduled Wednesday Bubble but this one’s pretty hot off the presses. Researchers have once again confirmed that concentrations of the anti-Mullerian Hormone (AMH – a protein produced by cells in the ovary and controls follicle development) can help predict when a woman will develop menopause .
I wrote about AMH levels being used in this fashion in a post last year, so this current study simply helps to support the hypothesis that science is gaining ground in the fertility/post-fertility arena. Similar to previous studies, researchers collected blood samples from 266 women between the ages of 20 and 49, thereafter, measuring AMH levels. Additional blood samples were taken at three yearly intervals, along with information about participants’ socioeconomic status and reproductive histories. The women also had physical exams every three years. The researchers then developed a mathematical model that would enable them to predict average age of menopause based on varying levels of AMH throughout the reproductive years, and compared these estimates to age at actual menopause in a subgroup of 63 women.
Presenting the findings at the European Society of Human Reproduction meeting this past Monday, researchers say that they were able to predict actual age of menopause within a margin of error of only three to four years. Moreover, certain AMH levels at certain years of age could accurately predict whether or not a woman was likely to start menopause early, before age 45 or at a more common age, e.g. over age 50.
If AMH is confirmed as a marker in further testing, the researchers say that a blood test could help women start family planning early in their reproductive life. As I wrote previously, it could also be used as a strategy to start effective interventions geared towards ameliorating menopausal symptoms and age-related diseases at specific points in a woman’s life. However, the potential of such a test is not without the negative. I wonder if a blood test that accurately predicts menopause could be used against a woman trying to obtain insurance for a pregnancy gone wrong due to age at which she “should have conceived.” Only time can tell the risks and benefits of such a test. In the interim, it seems that science is well on its way to controlling the tick tock of every woman’s biological clock.
What do you think?
Read MoreFat…to boldly go where where none has gone before
That body tire around the middle that tends to plague most women in their late forties and fifties and into old age reminds me of Star Trek – boldly going where no fat has ever gone before. Despite an hour at the gym daily, eating healthy and moderate (okay sometimes more than moderate) intake of alcohol, I still can’t seem to conquer that bulge that’s creeping into my midsection. I’ve spoken to trainers and nutritionists about it and have even tried conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which theoretically helps reduce deposits of body fat. And still, fluctuating hormones and aging seem determined to redistribute that midsection bulge in ways that remain unacceptable (at least, to me). More importantly, however, is the fact that fat that settles in the abdominal areas increases the risk for impaired blood fat and insulin levels that can lead to diabetes and heart disease.
I’ve written about weight and the middle-aged bulge several times in the past and you can find some of these posts here. My friend Mollie Katzen and I collaborated on a post earlier this year about eating habits, food and midlife. And still, an effective solution to the bold bulge continues to elude women, trainers and researchers alike.
Still, a very small study published in the online edition of Menopause shows that hope may still spring eternal. In fact, results suggests that women who took 70 mg isoflavones daily (i.e. 44 mg daidzein, 16 mg glycitein, 10 mg genistein) for six months and then added at least an hour of intensive aerobics, circuit training and resistance training at least three times weekly for another six months experienced significant declines in blood pressure, fat mass and total body weight, and a small reduction in waist circumference (of about an inch and a half). In this particular study, the researchers selected women who were known to respond physically and beneficially to exercise. However, only the women who supplemented their exercise with isoflavones had demonstrable improvements in their fat mass and distribution. These women also experienced improvements in their insulin levels.
Clearly, the benefits of isoflavones added to exercise from both a weight and health perspective need to be explored more thoroughly and with larger numbers of women. However, it is possible that the addition of soy to a regular exercise routine may help to address that elusive bulge from entering the black hole that we call midlife.
Stay tuned!
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