Retrain Your Bladder

Retrain Your Bladder

Don’t let urinary incontinence dampen your life If you’ve experienced some form of urinary incontinence — the accidental release of urine — you are not alone. It’s an issue that affects 25 million people in the U.S., according to the National Association for Continence. And if you’re a woman, it’s twice as likely to be […]

Cancer and Bone Health: Important Questions for Women

Bone Cancer

DXA Scanner. Photo courtesy of Northwestern Medicine’s Bone Health and Osteoporosis Center For women facing a cancer diagnosis, there are countless questions that come to mind. From treatments and medications to the emotional journey of living with cancer, it’s easy for the mind to get full — and fast. The last question a woman is […]

Heart disease is a woman’s disease

Woman drawing a Heartbeat Diagram with chalk on a blackboard.

Environmental Nutrition In the U.S., 1 in 4 women will die from heart disease — almost half a million deaths each year — yet the perception that heart disease is primarily a man’s disease persists. An American Heart Association survey found that fewer than one-half of American women are aware that heart disease is their […]

Beating the Biological Clock

Single egg in carton

Eggs without an expiration date offer women fertile hopes Starting at age 30, women may hear their biological clock ticking. It ticks louder with each passing year; each tick a gradual decrease in fertility. By your mid-30s, it’s so loud that it’s tough to ignore if you’re hoping to have children. When women hit 35, […]

Why Do Women Sleep Worse Than Men?

By Kevin Sterne You lie in bed staring at the clock, trying not to count the hours until the alarm rings. Soon you turn over to face the wall. After a while, you reach for your phone. By 3 a.m. you’ve “liked” your whole newsfeed. Thinking about falling asleep only breeds frustration, keeping you awake. […]

What Doctors Know: The leading cause of female infertility

Waiting for pregnancy test results

By Bonnie Ward, UC San Diego Health As women, we’re used to hearing jokes about our fluctuating hormones causing problems. In fact, the expression “feeling hormonal” is commonly used (often in a tongue-in-cheek manner) to describe a woman in a particularly irritated mood. While most of us take such ribbing in stride, the truth is […]

When Everything Hurts

Drawing of women highlighting pain

Diagnosis and treatment of fibromyalgia are often elusive By Nancy Maes Diagnosing this disease isn’t easy. It usually takes years, following chronic widespread pain and fatigue and sometimes sleeplessness, depression, migraines, irritable bowel syndrome and brain fog. People who suffer from this disease often spend three to five years consulting one doctor after another seeking a […]

Institute of Women Today Maintains 40-Year Focus on Social Health

Mother and children

Photo courtesy of the Institute of Women Today By Megy Karydes When the Institute of Women Today (IWT) started in Chicago 40 years ago by Sister Margaret Traxler and a group of interfaith women, the goal was to advocate on women’s issues. The eclectic group, consisting of women from all walks of life—from attorneys and […]