How Old is Old

Age is a number too many people get hung up on. It’s not the number of years you pass on this earth that’s important — it’s how you choose to spend that time.

Getting older is only a problem when it starts affecting your daily life. Or, as we’ll discuss, your sex life.

Women, aging and sex

Women do experience a gradual decline in sexual responsiveness as we age. The production of hormones diminishes which can affect sex drive. In addition, these physiological changes take place:

- vaginal walls become more thin and rigid

- the vagina produces less lubrication

Both these changes can cause discomfort during intercourse (so be sure to choose a good, effective lube).

Here’s the good news: a woman’s capacity to achieve orgasm remains unchanged well into her senior years. (It may take longer to achieve orgasm, however.)

Menopause is associated with the end of fertility, menstruation and the production of eggs. Traditionally, menopause has been considered the end of a woman’s sex life. People who thought this also thought that the only reason women engage in sex is to have children. But recent studies have demonstrated that many women enjoy sex more after menopause! Their fears of unwanted pregnancies are completely ended. So, instead of being the end of your sex life, menopause can be a new beginning!

Age-related changes in a man’s sex life

The story behind the effects of age on a man’s sexual function is a little more grim. You’ve heard the often-repeated claim that a man’s peak sexual age is 18? Unfortunately, this is true. It’s a shame that most men are at their pinnacle of sexual capabilities at an age when they don’t know how to use them.

Every year after this sexual peak, a man’s steriod hormone (including testosterone) levels gradually decline. This decrease is measurable by the age of 30. Lower hormone levels mean two things:

reduced speed of physiological reactions (you get aroused more slowly)

increased refractory period (time after orgasm that it takes to achieve a second erection)

The former shortcoming is okay and can be overcome with sufficient foreplay. The second is more troublesome — like most women, I really really like round 2. Fortunately a friend of mine has found a solution that helps men get ready for round 2 faster: this product, he says, makes orgasms stronger as well as helping him get back in action.

After age 40, the urgency of sexual desire or “horniness” decreases. Men over 40 are harder to turn on and generally speaking don’t perform as well as younger men. (Don’t get your feelings hurt! There are exceptions.) This decline continues through the 50s.

Another effect of age that sets in around age 40 is a periodic inability to get an erection. It’s not that you’re not aroused — it’s just that you cannot get an erection. Many men are extremely anxious about this. Even worse, many women don’t understand this phenomenon and think that a lack of erection is a lack of excitement, arousal, and sometimes even a sign of ambivalence. That’s why pharmaceuticals that promise instant erections are so popular among men with anxieties and low self-esteem.

Despite these changes in a man’s body, recent studies have indicated that healthy men enjoy fulfilling sex lives into old, old age. Men are also fertile their entire lives, so age need not diminish one’s ability to father children.

Sex and age — the bottom line

All studies that have been done lately has indicated that many of our ideas about sex and age are just plain wrong. Women don’t lose interest in sex when they go through menopause. Men don’t lose interest in sex after 40 — they just need more enticement to get excited.

The best thing you can do for your sexual health is to be fit. Eat healthy foods in moderation and go to the gym. Avoid stress, or, if you can’t, learn to deal with it in a healthy manner. Above all else, talk to your partner about your concerns. Keep the lines of communication open.

And remember — you can enjoy a healthy, fulfilling sex life for as long as you want!

[Via http://intimacyrelationship.wordpress.com]

You Don't Have to Depend on Depends-Menopause and Bladder Control-

Some women begin to have problems with their bladder and experience overactive bladder (gotta go, gotta go right now) and urinary incontinence or loss of urine at inopportune times at the time or shortly after menopause.

Does Menopause Affect Bladder Control?

Yes. Some women have bladder control problems after they stop having periods (menopause or change of life). If you are going through menopause, talk to your health care team.

After your periods end, your body stops making the female hormone estrogen. Estrogen may help keep the lining of the bladder and urethra healthy. A lack of estrogen could contribute to weakness of the bladder control muscles.

Pressure from coughing, sneezing or lifting can push urine through the weakened muscle. This kind of leakage is called stress incontinence.

Although there is no evidence that taking estrogen improves bladder control in women who have gone through menopause, small does may help thicken the bladder lining and decrease the incontinence.  Your doctor can suggest many other possible treatments to improve bladder control.

What Else Causes Bladder Control Problems in Older Women?Sometimes bladder control problems are caused by other medical conditions. These problems include:

Infections

Nerve damage from diabetes or stroke

Heart problems

Medicines

Feeling depressed

Difficulty walking or moving

A very common kind of bladder control problem for older women is urge incontinence. This means the bladder muscles squeeze at the wrong time and cause leaks.

If you have this problem, your doctor can prescribe medication that can certainly alleviate that problem.

What Treatments Can Help You Regain Bladder Control?Your doctor may recommend limiting foods or fluids, such as caffeine, which are bladder irritants and increase the desire to go the rest room.

There are also pelvic exercises that can strengthen the muscles in the urethra and the vagina.   Life’s events, like childbirth and being overweight, can weaken the pelvic muscles.

Pelvic floor muscles are just like other muscles. Exercise can make them stronger. Women with bladder control problems can regain control through pelvic muscle exercises, also called Kegel exercises.

Exercising your pelvic floor muscles for just five minutes, three times a day can make a big difference to your bladder control. Exercise strengthens muscles that hold the bladder and many other organs in place.

Two pelvic muscles do most of the work. The biggest one stretches like a hammock. The other is shaped like a triangle. Both muscles prevent leaking of urine and stool.

Pelvic exercises begin with contracting the two major muscles that stretch across your pelvic floor. There are three methods to check for the correct muscles.

1. Try to stop the flow of urine when you are sitting on the toilet. If you can do it, you are using the right muscles.

2. Imagine that you are trying to stop passing gas. Squeeze those same muscles you would use.

3. Lie down and put your index finger inside your vagina. Squeeze as if you were trying to stop urine from coming out. If you feel tightness on your finger, you are squeezing the right pelvic muscle.

Do your pelvic exercises at least three times a day. You can exercise while lying on the floor, sitting at a desk or standing in the kitchen.

Be patient. Don’t give up. It’s just five minutes, three times a day. You may not feel your bladder control improve until after three to six weeks. Still, most women do notice an improvement after a few weeks.

Other treatments include inserting a device, a pessary, directly into the vagina to lift the urethra and the base of the bladder to its proper position behind the pubic bone.  And finally, if the conservative methods of medication, exercises, and dietary modification don’t work, then you should talk to your doctor about one of the surgical procedures that can lift the bladder into the proper position to prevent leakage

Bottom Line: No one needs to suffer the embarrassment of urinary incontinence.

Dr. Neil Baum is a physician at Touro Infirmary and can be reached at (504) 891-8454 or through his website, www.neilbaum.com

[Via http://neilbaum.wordpress.com]

Day Thirty-Nine

Dear Journal,

My brother called from Washington today.  He and Magenta =shudder= set the date.  I told him that the devil had some good deals, and if he wanted to sell his soul, he should really make sure he’s getting his money’s worth.

Anyhoo, right after I got off the phone with him, I started having hot flashes.  At first I thought it was because I was so mad at my brother, but then I realized it was a sign of my deteriorating health!  So I checked the roommate’s health book (she called about that the other day, by the way), and I came to the startling conclusion …

I’m suffering from menopause.

No, seriously.  Hot flashes are one of the leading signs of menopause.  That and lack of sexual interest (Although there’s plenty of interest on MY part… ahem).  Another sign is being unsuccessful at getting pregnant for more than a year (You know, I’ve been trying and trying to think about getting pregnant, but the whole no-sex thing is making this unsuccessful).

Also, there’s this thing called premature menopause, which fits me perfectly (I always knew I was mature for my age, but sheesh!).  Now this is possible if one’s mother or sister has experienced premature menopause (which I think is fact, because my sister has the worst kind of mood swings, and I’m pretty sure my Mom hasn’t had sex since 1992 … she is the worst kind of prude … shriveled and … wait, that’s a prune.  What’s a prude?  Oh well, the word still applies).

So, because of my menopause, I get to look forward to all those fun, old-people diseases.  Like osteoporosis, tooth decay, ovarian cancer and smelling like talcum powder (I know that last one isn’t a disease, but really, someone should do something about it).

So now I have to schedule to have my blood tested so I can prove to my mother that I have premature menopause, and that I got it from her, and how it’s all her fault that I’ll never give her any grandchildren, and she should really tell my brother not to marry Magenta =shudder= to compensate for it.

[Via http://hypochondriacproject.wordpress.com]

Menopause - Heart Disease and HRT

Image : http://www.flickr.com

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women, but because men have higher rates of heart disease it has long been assumed that estrogen is what creates that difference. Heart disease is more prevalent in post-menopausal women than pre-menopausal women, so this has also helped fuel the myth that estrogen has something to do with heart problems. Actually it is probably just due to the fact that post-menopausal women are older.

There has been a clear relationship established between amounts of natural estrogen and breast cancer, osteoporosis and endometrial cancer. The longer you have natural estrogen in you because of early menstruation, drinking alcohol, or certain medications the greater the risk of breast cancer and the lower risk of osteoporosis. However, no clear relationship has been established between natural estrogen and heart disease.

So what does put a woman at risk for heart disease? A family history of heart disease. Levels of lipids, the most common one is known as cholesterol, are also a factor. High levels of an amino acid called Homocysteine have also been shown to increase risk. (Good news is that can be lowered with vitamin B and folic acid.) High levels of C Reactive Protein produced during periods of inflammation increases heart disease risk and this protein is also increased by estrogen. Other factors that increase the risk for heart disease include personality type, diabetes, smoking, being overweight, having high blood pressure and having blood that clots easily.

In terms of Estrogen therapy and heart disease, this means that even though studies have shown that HRT reduces the risk of heart disease in women, the studies have been more observational in nature. Because the studies are observational they really have not yet answered the question if the issue is that estrogen lowers the instance of heart disease or if the instance of heart disease is lower because women who are healthy tend to be on estrogen in the first place. None of the studies done so far have been random controlled blind studies. All the women were of higher social and economic status, highly educated, thinner, non-smokers and also were more likely to have had a hysterectomy. They were more likely to have insurance coverage, therefore more likely to go to a doctor regularly and have had preventive healthcare, lowering their risk of heart disease anyway.

All in all, the evidence showing that HRT can lower the risk of heart disease is circumstantial and considering the recent studies showing links to Breast Cancer and HRT, it would seem that whatever unproven benefit of HRT does not outweigh the risk of taking it. And the American Heart Association recommends the same thing – women with heart disease should not be given HRT to prevent further occurrence and women already on HRT that have heart disease should only continue to take it if the have an additional reason to take it besides heart disease.

There are additional ways to prevent heart disease besides HRT than you can do, like lifestyle changes and drugs that can lower your cholesterol and blood pressure so if the only reason you are considering HRT is for heart disease, it’s probably best to pursue those other options first.

[Via http://vitaminbbenefit.wordpress.com]

Let's explore symptom # 3 "Irritability"

As we explore the 35 symptoms of Menopause together, I’m going to be taking them out of order.  Why?  Because that’s how they take me.

Symptom Number Three–IRRITABILITY

Normally, I am very kind to telemarketers.  Hey, they are just doing their job, right?  Trying to carve out a living.  Like me.  I get that.  But lately…I don’t know…I find myself somewhat irritated by them.  Probably because of symptoms #5 Trouble Sleeping Through the Night and #9 Crashing Fatigue.

Anyway, early this morning, the phone rings.  Right off the bat, symptom 3 rears its ugly head.  Caller ID says “MSL PROMO’  (402) 982-0420.  Huh?  “Hello?”

Silence.

Symptom 3 ramps up.  “HELLO?”

After another 3 seconds I hear a heavily accented voice say, “Hull-oo?”

“Hi, uh, listen, I don’t do business over the phone, so take me off you list, huh?  Thank you.”  Feeling good about my patient demeanor, loving my neighbor and all that, I hang up and roll back over for some much-needed sleep.

Ring.  Same caller I.D.  I don’t want any.  “Hello?”

Again, loooong pause.  “Ees dis Calo…Car…Curlolin…Cularlin…C.c.c…”

“Yes!  Please!  I don’t do business over the phone.  Take me off your list!  Thank you!”  I hang up and try to sleep.

Ring. 

I answer.  “WHAT?”

“Uhh… ees dis… Calr… Colin…C”

“Do not call here again.”

“Haas my cumpony call you more than woonce?”

“As of this morning, THREE TIMES!  BUZZ OFF!”

Ring, Ring…

This is where Symptom #3 possessed me like a scene from the Exorcist.  I picked up the phone and screamed until I was hoarse. 

Ring, Ring…  (I’m not kidding).  This time, I imagine my caller gathering his telemarketer buddies around the phone, all eager to see what I’ll do next.  It was early.  I had little time to prepare a show, so I improvised with another blood curdling scream.  Loud and long and window rattling.  The dogs dove under the bed.

Throat is raw and bloody.  But I’m feeling good about the way I handled it.  By now, I was awake enough to call the National Do Not Call Number to register my phone.   888-382-1222.  Call ‘em.  It’ll save your vocal cords.  And your sleep.

Calrolein…Carlyloln…C…C…Carolyn

[Via http://toohotmamas.wordpress.com]

What a pain in the butt!

So I got a hold of my OBGYN today to explain the dilemma with the wonder drug that has been discontinued. Apparently, there was no acceptable alternative to her.  She referred me to a pharmacy that would blend a medication just for me. Turns out they don’t submit to insurance and it would be anywhere from $75-$150 a month for me to have my medications. Now I don’t know about you guys out there, but I don’t have an extra $75-$150 a month because I am paying for insurance that is supposed to help with this kind of expense. *sigh* Thankfully, this pharmacy did some research and found a few alternatives (after I blubbered on the phone about having no money and that I feel I was robbed of my vitality, GAWD I am hormonal). So, we are going to try those. Good news, It was about $20 less than the Estratest! WOOHOO!! So hopefully this will work out! And hopefully that “sexual healing” will continue…. I am still impatiently waiting for a woman’s version of “the little blue pill”.

Now if we can just get the other stuff straight, we will be good. Did I mention my other doctor just got my blood work back, and it was CRAZY!? I have to go in  for a 2 hour blood sugar test, and they are re-submitting my blood for further review of my thyroid function and iron levels. *sigh* I hate going to the doctor. I swear once I get healthy I am not going back. Anyone out there who is on the brink of being obese…..PUT THE CHOCOLATE DOWN!!! PUT THE FRIED CHICKEN DOWN!!!! GET UP OFF YOUR BUTT AND TAKE A WALK AROUND THE BLOCK!!!  EAT A CARROT OR SOMETHING!!! Being fat IS NOT worth going through this kind of crap! Having that serving of homemade macaroni or those enchiladas is not worth risking your life. Because essentially, that is what you are doing (as I type while sitting on my 283 lb ass). I am trying to change my perception. I haven’t been successful yet ( I want chocolate or something really fattening SO BAD), but what do they say “Try Try Try again!” I will be successful it is just harder and going to take longer than I was hoping. But ultimately, I have no choice. My family is worth the world to me and I need to be healthy for them.

I took the day off to spend some needed time with my youngest child today. We had a blast (when I wasn’t blubbering about my medical crap). We even took a nap together. He paints an awesome volcano! The laundry still isn’t done, and it still looks like a bomb went off in my house, but I don’t mind. I wouldn’t give up my day with him for that stuff anyway! AND my 8-year-old had an AWESOME week! She is FINALLY not grounded anymore! PRAISE GOD! I am SO proud of all her hard work. I have been getting her cards. You have seen the commercials for Hallmark with the cards made just to cheer kids on. Well, I will have to say that I have bought a few, and on the days I gave those to her, she had a great day. She told me tonight that the cards really help. AND you can get one FREE at your local Hallmark! I am a BIG fan of free!

[Via http://gingbelle.wordpress.com]

crabby

   Oy, I am so crabby I can’t stand myself.  The dogs are hiding in their kennels, the cats have disappeared and poor Hubby will be home soon.  I just don’t feel like making soup today so I am cheating, I am taking chicken and ramen noodles and maybe some vegetables and going to call it soup.  I was going to make some sweet potato soup from a Rachel Ray recipe but I need to empty and wash the pot I used to make chili last week.  But I don’t want to.  Because I am crabby! 

Did you know that a can of diet pepsi can spray your walls and everything within a few feet and take forever to soak up, clean up and dry?  Well it does.  I don’t know how the damn thing fell either, I was working on my business plan and all of a sudden it spilled.  Must have ghosts or something.  It wasn’t very nice of them if they are the ones that did it.  GRRRRRRRR, more crabbiness.  So now my living room is messy because I had to throw everything out from the wall to get it dry.  Crabby, crabby, crabby.   

I got pink highlights put in my hair on Tuesday.  So of course I have to go to a funeral next week.  Isn’t that the way it usually works?  But my uncle would have just given me grief over it and that would have been the end of it.  So me and my crabby self will just head down there and enjoy seeing everyone, have a good cry because it is sad that my uncle is gone, and talk about how it just really sucks that we only get to see each other these days when someone dies.  Adds to my crabbiness today.  

Someday menopause will come.  And hopefully the crabbiness will go.  Sometimes it is worse than being a teenager and just getting it.  The mood swings just suck.  Suck, suck, suck!  More crabbiness.

Happy freakin thoughts for a happy freakin day! So there.  

[Via http://militarymommie.wordpress.com]