I Won’t Let My Changing Body Keep Me Down

LEAVE A COMMENT 2014 July 1

The way I see it, we’ve got two clear choices whenever we’re confronted with (icky) changes in our bodies as we age:

A) Approach them head on, with a dose of humor, and deal with them or B) Ignore them and permanently sulk.

I’ve opted for A. When I entered the postmenopausal era, changes to my body came fast and furiously. The once beautiful, curly hair on the top of my head was thinning. Examining my balding scalp, with horror, every time I looked in the mirror, didn’t strike me as something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Instead, I decided to get a fabulous hairpiece to cover the only thin thing on my body.

My tummy started pooching out. I could shriek every time I passed the full-length mirror, undressed, or I could cut back on the carbs, as well as wear clothes that helped me minimize the pooch, which is exactly what I did.

And, heaven help me, my vagina also was getting pretty dry. I could suffer in silence and tell David I had an ongoing headache or I could actually bring it up at my next visit to the doctor and see if there were any treatments. I did and there were.

As many of you already know, I’ve been part of an alliance for the last year, called GLAM™ (Great Life After Menopause), sponsored by Novo Nordisk, a company that cares very much about women’s health and wellbeing.

GLAM™ is made up of outspoken women, like me, who want to empower women like you (bet you didn’t know that 75 percent of us, postmenopausal, have vaginal dryness?) to talk to your partners, talk to your health care providers, talk to your friends and know that there are therapies to take care of your ED.

Yes, you read it right. I said your ED. The other ED, as in Estrogen Deficiency, the cause of vaginal dryness in the first place. Besides, isn’t it time for the men to stop hogging all the attention with their ED?

And now you can turn to a fun new website, aptly called The Other ED, to learn every single thing you need to know about menopause, estrogen and vaginal changes. Yep, you also read that right. TheOtherED.com makes it really enjoyable to learn about a condition that isn’t especially amusing when you’re experiencing it. The site is smart, it’s great looking and it’s fun. Just like you!

As I said at the top of this blog, you can be woebegone (a cool word, eh?) about the changes in your body. Or you can confront them, with a dose of good cheer. Start doing the second, right this minute, on TheOtherED.com. Ladies, you owe it to yourselves!

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Praise These Panties

LEAVE A COMMENT 2014 July 1

“Well, this is depressing. I love sugar snap peas but just discovered that I can’t tolerate them anymore,” FOFriend, LaDonna Hale Curzon, posted on Facebook.

“What happened? Getting older is not for sissies,” she added, in her usual no-nonsense attitude.

If LaDonna’s tummy told her to modify her diet, my bladder notified me to change the style of my panties! I’ve written about many subjects during my long career as a writer and journalist, but in my wildest dreams, I couldn’t have imagined I’d be writing about underwear I’ve found for my stress incontinence. Not a very sexy subject, but an important one, since the condition (also lovingly known as LBL, light bladder leakage) affects one in every three women over the age of 40, most commonly after multiple births or during menopause.

When muscles weaken in and around the bladder, activities or movements like exercising, sneezing or laughing usually will trigger a trickling of urine. Other causes include damage to the pelvic region or sphincter muscle. I had a hysterectomy at 44, part of the reason I have this pesky problem two decades later.

Although I take a drug to control the situation, once in a while—if I wait too long to pee—my muscles don’t work like they once did. So it was nice to discover panties with an inner lining and slim, hidden pad built into the crotch that wick moisture away from my body, and quickly absorb it, so I stay comfortable.

The panties I’m wearing are from Wearever. It may not be an especially romantic name, but the styles are definitely pretty and include soft prints, solids, and lacy numbers. They’re made of fabrics such as nylon, cotton blend and polyester and will hold their own for up to 250 washes, the company says. At $15.00 for a single pair, and less per pair for a pack of three, I save an average of $500 a year compared to the cost of disposable pads, panty liners or adult diapers. That’s a big savings!

From L to R: Wearever’s Lace Trim & Cotton Panties, Lovely Lace Trim Panties, and Floral Fancy Panties.

No matter how fit and ravishing you are today, chances are that you won’t be the first woman ever to completely escape the aging process. You’ll do yourself a world of good If you can approach it with a bit of levity. Thank goodness, companies like Wearever are helping us stay dry while we’re laughing.

P.S. Don’t take my word alone. Read more real reviews by other real women, just like you and I, on Wearever’s Facebook and Pinterest pages.

Ready to buy? Enter code 10off at checkout for 10% off your Wearever purchase, good through the end of the year. Click here.

The Power of Love When Tragedy Strikes

LEAVE A COMMENT 2014 June 30

I heard three things this past weekend that unnerved me, yet again made me understand the power of love in families.

The 38-year-old son of a former colleague died after fighting metastasized colon cancer for almost three years. I never met the young man, Chris Budd, but I worked closely with his father, Mike, who was an executive at Norelco, the company where I was public relations director when I was 26 to 33. I remember Mike as a man of great integrity, patience and understanding. I had lost contact with him but his wife, Linda, and I started playing Words With Friends earlier this year. Although we IM’d a number of times during games, Linda never once brought up her sick son. I didn’t know Linda well, but I remember meeting her when she was pregnant with Chris, and thinking she was a beautiful and classy woman.

It wasn’t until Linda’s posts recently started appearing on my Facebook newsfeed that I learned about the extent of her son’s illness and about the depth of love that surrounded him during his grueling treatment. “Mike and I were very fortunate to have been able to spend the last 10 days with Chris.

“There were many tears, but as many of you know Chris, there was laughter, too. Oh, how we will miss him! Thank you for all your prayers.” Linda touchingly wrote.

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A Dry Run

LEAVE A COMMENT 2014 May 14

Alex and I took the train to Boston last week, where I was invited to participate in a panel called “Booming Tech,” presented by Washington Post Live, as part of its continuing event series covering pressing issues involving Washington and the world.

I’ve always enjoyed taking moderately long train rides, because I can pull out my laptop and work, but I wasn’t looking forward to this almost four-hour trip, because I’m not fond of restrooms on public transportation. Although I try to avoid using them, I now worry that I might have ‘little leaks,’ which can be induced by doing something as harmless as laughing hard. Making frequent visits to the bathroom usually can keep these occurrences to a minimum, but I preferred not to do that.

Alex and I love working together, and we also enjoy laughing, so I figured I’d have to make a four-hour, no-laugh vow. And if, heaven forbid, I was going to sneeze, I’d have to do my best to suppress it since that also can bring on those pesky little leaks. (By the way, I’ve learned this is a pretty common condition, affecting about 33 percent of women, and is officially called LBL, for light bladder leakage.)

Visiting the drugstore a couple of days before our trip, I spotted a Poise product called Microliners. The package says the “surprisingly absorbent and incredibly thin liners provide discreet protection and quickly lock away wetness and odor.” The package of 54 individually wrapped liners cost $5.99, which would last me months, so I decided to buy them.

The small and thin liner easily and firmly adhered to the crotch of my panties. I tried it. I liked it. And Alex and I had a few good laughs, to and from Boston.

By the way, I greatly enjoyed the “Booming Tech” event, which, as you can surmise, addressed how our generation is shaping the future of technology. I invite you to have a look, especially at P.J. O’Rourke and Bill Aulet. And, of course, yours truly.