Republican Senators vote no to women’s rights

In an unbelievably disgusting move, 30, yes THIRTY, Republican senators voted no on a bill proposed by Democrat Al Franken (in a year where Republicans seem to be the “Party of No”) proposing that contractors that make employees sign contracts preventing them from exercising normal human rights (like taking the company to court when they mistreat a woman, and make sure evidence disappears when she’s raped while in Iraq) should no longer be given lucrative government contracts. Yes, these fat cat Republican senators did not think the unfortunate woman should have the right to bring the company, the employees of which worked hard to deny her basic human rights in the aftermath of the rape, to court. Luckily, the majority of senators were more in tune with what is right, and so was one of the most conservative judges, a West Point Grad and Vietnam vet, in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Well done to them all.

Empathy has never been a strong point for republican officials, and even less these days, it seems. I’m beyond disgusted. And I can only hope – in vain, I’m sure – that people wake up and see the republican party for what it is…. a party populated by selfish, me-first!!, only-care-about-my-fellow-man-when-I’m-in-church-and-kinda-have-to, hypocrites.

Menopause – Women vs. Men

You know, it’s been said that all the bad things that happen to us women start with three letters: “men”. Menstruation, mental disease and menopause are three of them. We women seem to bear the brunt of all the things that can go wrong with the human body. While menstruation is certainly like a rope around one’s neck, with period pains, messiness and the anxiety that comes with missing one of them, there is, in my opinion something even worse than menstruation and that is menopause. Virtually every woman will at some point in her life have to deal with the issues that result from her sexual hormones dwindling to a halt. Did you know, though, that there are many men who suffer from andropause, or as I like to call it, the Male Manopause?

Is it the same, though? Do men suffer even remotely like we do at that point in our lives? I’d like to argue that they don’t, I kind of like having the monopoly on suffering in our house, at least in the sense that it provides for many good excuses to avoid having to help out around the house, but when you look at it more closely there are indeed many similarities.

Many of us apparently deal with men who are either in full-blown, or entering, andropause. One of the signs can be one that they share with us: mood swings.

I had a boss once who was definitely entering andropause and his mood swings were tremendous. This was before I had joined the distinguished club myself, so I wasn’t personally familiar with the signs, but I figured out fairly early on that the mood swings were not natural. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of spending time with a woman in the icy grips of mood swings, you know what I mean. He would snap at me for the smallest of things, all of a sudden, but later on in the day he would return to his normal jovial self. The problem was that you could never predict which persona would meet you in the morning when you arrived to work.

I never asked him if he would wake up at night soaking the sheets in an avalanche of sweat, but if he really was enjoying andropause, chances are he did. Being in full-blown menopause myself right now, at way too early an age if you ask me, I can vouch for the night sweats. You’re fast asleep and suddenly you wake up having dreamt that you were thrown into a sauna. The bed cover is off, and your body is dripping wet. Next to you, still asleep, lies your husband shivering in the cold air. The cat, who started the night enjoying your toasty warm aura, has moved off in disgust, and when you reach out your hot hand to give a conciliatory stroke, she hisses at you, recoiling in horror. Instead, she gets up to lend her loving warmth to the poor man next to you who, let’s face it, is now in dire need of it (and whom she loves more anyway). If she could stick her tongue out at you, she would.

Imagine a husband and wife hitting menopause at the same time, but suffering alternating hot flushes and night sweats at night! The tug of war over the duvet would keep you awake most of the night! The bitchfest would be almost too delicious for words.

Around the same time that Mother Nature lovingly throws the mood swings and hot flashes at you, depression can set in. This is another wonderful aspect of menopause that men and women have in common. Of course, we handle the issue quite differently. For instance, men tend to tie their identity to being successful and powerful, which can be quite unhelpful as they then perceive themselves as being weak and pathetic if they are feeling overwhelmed and down.  Men don’t like to admit to feeling vulnerable so they do not seek help as much as women do, when they feel depressed. Therefore, a man under the influence of depression during his andropause, can be harder to deal with than a woman dealing with the same issue.

Now, what are the underlying factors for our similar, but unfairly different, menopausal symptoms? That’s an easy one to answer: the decline of sexual hormone levels. For us women, our estrogen levels decline dramatically until we no longer have any of the hormones at all in our bodies. Men also experience a decline in their sexual hormones, so, while we as women may choose to start Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), men can do the same. Only, it’s called Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT) when they take it. It’s probably a good thing; once you’ve got used to an ailing or disappearing libido, a dose of testosterone for a woman might be less than healthy. Perhaps she might end up wanting to ravish her husband, who has no interest in being ravished whatsoever. These things rarely coincide, right? That would just be too easy.

We have heard a lot about the comparisons between the female menopause and the male manopause, but are there differences? You can bet your tush there are. And they are – wait for it – in men’s favor. Surprised? Surely, you jest.

As I intimated earlier, the female hormone estrogen starts to decline in our 30’s or 40’s and by the time we are finished with our menopause, however long that ends up taking (for some of us, far too long), we are left with nothing. At this point, we can no longer bear children. For a man, however, their sexual hormone testosterone, while it dwindles, never really stops being produced. Men can still sire children well into their 80’s. Whether they would want to is another issue altogether, but they still produce the necessary components; sperm and testosterone to drive the wish to share that commodity with the opposite sex. And whether we want to share that is, also, a totally different kettle of fish.

Women and men deal with a lot of issues and problems throughout their lives. I have argued that women have more frustrating problems than men. I would also argue that their issues are more devastating to our bodies than men’s issues, but I may be wrong. It would appear, however, that we share most of the joys and tribulations that accompany that last hormonal stage of our lives: menopause. The experts do assure us, on the other hand, that women’s menopause is tougher than men’s andropause.

At least there’s that.

Sex inequalities in the treatment of acute myocardial infarction

Survival chances both in hospital and after discharge in women with acute myocardial infarction are reduced because they do not have the same opportunity for therapeutic intervention as men.

That’s a pretty horrible sentence right there, don’t you think? But it’s true. The study I took that conclusion from was done in 1994. The same was still true as found by a study done in 2000. It is still the same today. Have we not learned anything in the 15 years since that 1994 study was done??

The American Heart Association in December 2009 reported:

“Men and women have about the same adjusted in-hospital death rate for heart attack — but women are more likely to die if hospitalized for a more severe type of heart attack, according to a report in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.”

So, no real difference in the care women receive,  from 1994 and here we are more than a decade later. Not only that, but heart disease is now the #1 killer of women in a big part of the developed world. And still, we get sub-standard care.

Having been on the receiving end of this sub-standard care myself (I have an arrhythmia and a dilated ascending aorta), this incenses me enormously. I’m sure I’m not the only woman who’s been made to feel like a hypochondriac when arriving in the ER with chest pain. My chest pain has so far been impossible to explain, although the medical treatment I received to treat my 40,000+ PVCs a day has made a TREMENDOUS difference, and when I get pain with symptoms of a myocardial infarction (chest pain, pain in the left arm, tingling in the fingers, pain between the shoulder blades, pain up into the jaw) I more often than not try to ignore it and stay home. Everyone advises you to go to hospital with these symptoms, and far too many times I have done – only to be treated like I’m an idiot at worst, and indifferently at best – and I’ve come to a point where I will avoid heading to the ER for as long as possible. Now, I also know I have a very healthy heart (except for the dilation on the aorta) with vessels clean as whistles so I feel quite safe in staying home now that I have been checked out more times than I could ever have cared to. But that doesn’t mean it’s the right action to take. In fact, though I don’t always heed this advice myself, my advice to anyone dealing with symptoms of a heart attack is HAVE SOMEONE TAKE YOU TO THE ER or, better still,  call 911.

However, if you, as a woman arrive in the ER and you really ARE having a heart attack, can you be sure you’ll be taken seriously? And let’s say that you ARE taken seriously and admitted for care, can you be sure that you’ll get the same treatment a man would get, and hence improve your chances of survival? That is the question.

More libido-enhancing pills? Do we really need them?

The latest from the world of sex science is that a new pill has been invented, to improve men’s sex life. There is an attempt to appease women by saying that the pills also work on us, AND the pill would make us thinner.

PUH-LEEZE. Who do they think they’re fooling???

How many of us women “over a certain age”, with jobs, children still in the K-12 school system and in other words still at home needing us more or less 24/7, can honestly say that we would welcome more demands for sex from our more rested and less responsibility-laden husbands?

Yes, many of us women could do with some help with our own ailing libidos, and if only there really was a magical pill that would make us thinner!, but reality is different.

The scientists, who have tested these drugs on monkeys, discovered it encouraged ‘rump presentation and tail wagging, tongue flicking and eyebrow raising’.  Some drug. I don’t know about you, but I know I’d be out of my mind with desire if my husband came home flicking his tongue, presenting his rump at me and wagging that remainder of a tail we as humans have (called the coccyx). Yes, I’m being fascitious. The eyebrow raising would be mine.

I know I’d love to improve my libido, perhaps I could stand the smallest chance of remotely matching my husband’s desires, but LOVE, respect and genuine affection for one another doesn’t come in the form of a pill!

         “The new drug stimulates the release of Type 2 gonadotropin (only a man could invent that name) and makes a man not only capable of having sex, but wanting to have it, too. And with his wife. After 20 years! Forget penicillin, this could be the miracle drug of the 21st century”, writes Amanda Platell of the Daily Mail in the UK.

I’m sure most men are thrilled to pieces about this new pill, about being able to show off their prowess yet again. But what many of them might forget, or conveniently leave out of their reasoning, is that what we women need most is romance. Not necessarily mind-blowing, middle-aged sex. We need to feel recognized, loved, appreciated and most of all we need the man to HELP OUT. THAT is an aphrodisiac. THAT might get you in bed with us. A pill making you feel like you’re 25 again while we still feel our age, is only a recipe for disaster.

Amanda Platell continues to say: “You don’t have to be a marriage counsellor to realize the pressures sex drugs place on marriages. No pun intended, but the rising number of Viagra divorces is well documented.”

Amen, sister.

Perhaps inventing a pill that makes the man more helpful and attentive at home would be money better spent.

Maternal death rates and the curse of senseless morality

For some reason there exists today a resistance towards openly discussing human sexuality and sexual and reproductive health in the world. Coming from a European country myself, and living in the United States since 1996, I am frequently stunned to see how taboo the subject is. The religious fanatics around the country have made sex a shameful subject. Yet, at the same time, there’s hardly a product advertised on tv without some half-naked woman gazing at you in an alluring way. It’s made all the more funny when she’s selling monistat or something. Nothing sexy about a yeast infection!!!

Some values and traditions hinder many organizations working on getting information out about sex, healthcare for mothers and mothers-to-be, advise on protection against STDs and pregnancy and the prevention of aids.  All this contributes to an encompassing and devastating discrimation of women and girls.

Millions of women around the world are denied the right to their own bodies and sexuality.  They are not given the right to decide if, how and when they will have sex, or how many children they are going to have. Case in point right here in the US with the polygamists in the west.  This inequality kills millions of women. Despite repeated promises, actions and goals on an international and national level, the mortality rate for mothers has only been marginally reduced in low income countries during the last 20 years. Every day, EVERY DAY, around 20,000 women and children die, from poor or non-existent healthcare for mothers. That’s about 7.5 million women and children every year.

The lack of political goodwill, resources and effective action, result in the majority of the women of the world being subjected to unacceptable risks where their lives are at stakes during each pregnancy. And yet, we know what needs to be done!

Today, there is an International forum in Stockholm, Sweden regarding this issue. They have 3 major goals with high priority that they want to accomplish:

Strengthen women’s positions. A great number of the women in the world today live in poverty and are at a social and economical disadvantage. Girls must have access to education. Women must be given the opportunities to own land and property, to earn money and participate in the business world and politics. Politicians, authorities, companies, organizations and religious groups must, to a much greater extent, pass on the message of womens’ rights.

Increase the availability of sexual and reproductive services. According to calculations done by the World Bank, the number of women who die during pregnancy and labor could be reduced by 74% through extended healthcare for mothers, and if women were given access to much needed birthing care, such as bloodpressure reducing medication, antibiotics, suction tools during birth, c-sections and blood transfusions. Abortions are of course never a preferred method of birth control, but those women who do not have access to other types of birth control or are victims of rape often see abortions as their only last resort. These abortions are often done under dangerous conditions. In some countries these dangerous abortions are responsible for about 40% of the maternal death rates.

Increase the availability of preventive birth control. Access to birth control could reduce the maternal dealth rates by 25-35%. Every woman must have access to, and decide for herself, which birth control method she is most comfortable with. Young women must also be given access to confidential information and advice.

With the help of well thought-through and goal oriented measures, the maternal death rates could even be almost irradicated.  Numbers and experiences from countries in Europe show this.

People must have the opportunity to have their voices heard. We cannot let morality and destructive cultural practices decide the fate of women and children. 

The maternal death rate of today is simply unacceptable. As women, we have to make our voices heard for our sisters in countries where their voices are silenced, and where their worth is lower than the animals on their farms. We need to educate the men in their societies and make them see sense.

Contact your state representatives today and ask them what they are doing to help the mothers of the world.

Well-educated women have less satisfying sex

If you have a good education, a bachelor’s degree perhaps, or a master’s. Perhaps even a Ph.D, kudos to you. Unfortunately, however, you may be one of the many well-educated women who have a hard time climaxing in bed.

In a recent study, 62% of those women who had been to university reported having difficulties with orgasm, compared to only 38% of the women who had not been educated at university.

The reason? Apparently the well-educated women think too much and can’t relax enough to enjoy the activity.

Heh. I never knew thinking too much was my problem.

Health myths you might not know about

MYTH YOU SHOULDN’T MIX ANTIBIOTICS AND ALCOHOL

FACT: It is always wise to try to avoid drinking alcohol when taking medication, since there is a possibility the combination will make you feel unwell. But doing so while taking antibiotics is unlikely to have any effect. 

It’s likely the myth came about since there are many drugs which can interact with alcohol, and either increase in potency of the medicine, or make you get drunk quicker.

The only exception is Metronidazole, an antibiotic used for a variety of infections. When mixed with even small amounts of alcohol, it causes vomiting.

MYTH BREAST EXAMINATION SAVES LIVES

FACT: The idea that regular breast examinations prevent women from dying of cancer was discredited by a major American study. But screening programmes and mammograms have been shown to improve survival.

In a survey of 266,000 women by the prestigious Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle, the death rate from breast cancer was the same in the group taught to check their breasts as in the group given no information.

The researchers also found that self-examination led to an increase in anxiety and needless biopsies.

Breast examination may not have an effect on mortality, but being quick to respond to any noticeable changes such as a lump, any puckering or pain, may reduce the need for more extensive treatment.

MYTH BRUSH TEETH AFTER EATING SWEETS TO AVOID DECAY

FACT: You should never do this, a dentist says.  Whenever you eat something acidic or sugary it causes a temporary softening of the enamel. So if you brush straight away, you are scraping off this protective coating and, in effect, spitting your teeth down the sink.

Wait at least an hour before brushing with a flouride toothpaste, as the enamel will have hardened by then.

MYTH LUNG CANCER IS A SMOKER’S DISEASE

FACT: Although smoking is the main cause of lung cancer, one in eight cases are not linked to smoking. Second-hand smoke and contact with some substances such as asbestos will increase the risk, though the disease can occur in those who have not had any obvious exposure.

An American study found around eight per cent of men and 20 per cent of women who are diagnosed with lung cancer have never smoked. Even if you are not an obvious candidate, it is always wise to see your doctor if you experience symptoms such as a prolonged cough or unexplained pain and weight loss.

And finally… a man does not run a higher risk of having a heart attack during sex. That excuse is obsolete. Research shows that the chances of a 50-year-old, non-smoking man suffering a heart attack is about one in a million in any hour.  Having sex increases these odds to two in a million. Sex, like any other form of physical exertion, does raise the heart attack risk in men with heart disease, or who experience severe chest pains regularly, have very high blood pressure or have a weak heart muscle or heart palpitations.

Sex raises your heart rate to around 130 beats a minute, which is roughly the same effect as climbing stairs for 15 to 20 seconds – so if you feel comfortable climbing the stairs, sex shouldn’t be a heart attack worry.

Daughter of incest monster “never wants to see his face again”

Understandable, don’t you agree?

While Josef Fritzl is now facing life in prison for the murder of his baby son (who died three days after being born and who did not get the medical attention he needed because Josef did not want to be near his daughter as she gave birth, and whom he burned in his furnace), Elisabeth is making tremendous progress every day, spending time with her children and her mom. One of the first things she said to her rescuers, however, was “I never want to see his face again.” For her sake, I hope he is locked up for the rest of his life, and in solitary confinement for that matter.

What is going through her mother, Rosemarie’s head at this point? How do you reconcile the fact that you have spent your entire adult life married to a monster? How does Rosemarie cope with the fact that the man she married raped and abused her own daughter, right below her feet, for 24 years without her knowing? Does she look back, realizing the signs were there all along, or can she truly say she was completely in the dark all those years?

These women, and the children, are going to need some serious help for many years to come. I just hope it’s not too late.

 

Are cellulites and hairy armpits really news-worthy?

Well, that’s the question, isn’t it? Are we REALLY that petty that we have to read about and revel in celebrities having the same problem most of us “commoners” do? 

Reading the newspapers over the last few days and weeks, I’m struck by how horribly hypocritical they are. On the one hand they lament the negative body image the celebrities impart on us lesser women and how young women (and some not so young, even) end up anorexic as a result. In those same articles they go on to campaign for more pictures of normal women, and how we should stop perpetuating the image of skeletal people as being something to aspire to.

Then, often in the same paper, they hand out a whallop in the other direction. “Check out Mischa Barton’s Cellulite!” one paper screams. “What is wrong with Mischa, how can she have cellulite?” is the message from another.

I just want to scream myself. What is wrong with THE MEDIA??? Cellulite is a COMMON thing.. you don’t have to be fat to suffer from it!! Stretchmarks are another common thing.. slim people deal with them too. 

And what is the deal with saying “Nice pout, shame about the hairy armpits“??? Hair grows there naturally, folks. Not too long ago, nobody would have batted an eyelid at its existence. Men have it too, do we go around gasping in horror seeing the tufts of clumped and sweaty hair (I know.. ewww, right?)poking out from their armpits?? Well… of course not! Because men don’t buy into the “I need to make an effort to look good for everyone else” that we women unfortunately do. Nowadays, it would seem that any body hair on a woman, except for the hair on our heads, is taboo and something to wrinkle our noses and lift our eyebrows at.

We need to take a stand against this two-facedness of the media. We have to acclimatize people to the fact that we all have our flaws, we all deal with our own little burdens and it’s nobody’s dang business but our own. If the Mischa Bartons of this world want some downtime, catching a few rays and just letting it all hang out, then they should be allowed to do so without having to deal with zoom lenses working overtime to catch that miniscule little flaw that actresses and celebrities are supposed to be immune to. Leave them alone, media!

And stop perpetuating in one mouthful the unhealthy ideal that’s won so much acclaim while in your next mouthful berating those of us who do not desperately cling to the trends as they shift and shimmy. BACK OFF!!

Phew. Another thing I can check off on my to-do list of pet peeves that need addressing.

Could cancer be beaten with starvation?

Scientists have discovered that a 48-hour fast seems to protect the body’s healthy cells against the toxic effects of chemotherapy drugs.

This could solve a problem scientists have been grappling with for quite some time – how to target chemotherapy so it only destroys cancer cells, leaving healthy ones intact.

The scientists have found that it might be possible to deprive the healthy cells of food, needed for energy, which sends them into a state similar to survival mode, thereby becoming highly resistant to stress or damage. Similar to hibernation, almost.

Cancer cells, on the other hand, carry on growing and remain vulnerable to the effects of chemotherapy, so the starvation does not seem to have the same effect on them.

The result COULD be that doctors can cure more cancers by using higher doses of chemotherapy drugs to shrink or destroy tumours. Human trials have not yet been done, however.

These latest findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that depriving the body of calories in this way could also transform cancer care.

For the study, mice with cancer were starved for two days before being given a high dose of chemotherapy. As expected, the healthy cells survived the treatment with little damage, the tumor cells, however, were destroyed. Meanwhile, a separate group of mice were allowed to eat normally with the results that some actually died, and those who survived suffered severe weight and energy loss.

However, scientists warned: “Until these findings are confirmed in human trials, we strongly advise people undergoing cancer treatment to eat a healthy, balanced diet.”

I think that’s excellent advice, but let’s keep an eye on these developments and hope that there will be good news in the near future for cancer patients.