Tag Archives: womens health

25 Percent Of American Women Take Mental Health Medications

Stefanie BlejecNovember 18, 2011 //
Explaining Depression
What does it really feel like to suffer from depression? Read More »
I Have Bi-Polar Disorder
A personal essay from a woman who is bipolar. Read More »
Celebs On Depression
Celebs open up about coping with depression. 10 Photos »
depression photo

According to Medco Health Solutions Inc., more than 25 percent of women took at least one drug to treat psychiatric conditions in 2010, most prominently for depression and anxiety. The use of drugs to treat psychiatric and behavioral disorders has risen by 22 percent since 2001, and today roughly 20 percent of all Americans hold such prescriptions. In the 20-44 age bracket, the use of ADHD antipsychotic drugs and treatments has more than tripled, and the use of anti-anxiety medications such as Xanax and Valium has risen by 30 percent. The most common users of antipsychotic drugs today are women aged 45 or older. 

The statistics go on and on, though they share a common trend: a dramatic increase in consumption in all age and sex brackets. Are we becoming crazier, are diagonses becoming more succinct, or are drugs simply becoming more accessible? Keep reading »

More Women Having Sex Out Of Obligation

Stefanie BlejecNovember 11, 2011 //
Ridic Sex Products
weird sex toys
You won't be needing these ridiculous sex products. 14 Photos »
5 Sex Moves
sex photo
Five sex moves women love in bed but can be too afraid to ask for. Read More »
Sex Injuries
sex injuries
The craziest sex injuries ever. 8 Photos »
woman having sex photo

A long-term study at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital in Scotland found tha women who had sex four or more times a week were rated as looking 10 years younger than their actual age. (More sex leads to a youthful glow? I can dig that!) But the research, cited in a new study by WomenTALK, also found distressing news: of the 1,031 surveyed, many are increasingly having sex out of obligation to their partner — not their own pleasure.

Limerence: A Psychological Condition To Describe A Crush That Won’t Go Away

Amelia McDonell-ParryJuly 18, 2011 //

My senior year of college, I fell head over heels in love (or so I thought) for the first time. Aaron* and I had an on-and-off friends with benefits type situation that I kept hoping would evolve into more. It didn’t and I probably should have stopped hooking up with him because it really wasn’t benefitting me mentally. But I just couldn’t. Not being with him literally made me sick. I thought about him almost constantly, completely involuntarily. The obsessive thoughts continued even after I graduated and moved to New York, when having a FWB relationship wasn’t even possible. I would think about him while I was at work, while I was on the subway, before I went to bed at night, all the time. In total, my mind and heart’s obsession with him lasted for three goddamn years. Sounds kind of crazy, right?

Turns out, my crush may have actually been a sign of a rare psychological disorder called “limerence,” in which someone “is in a constant state of compulsory longing for another person.” Keep reading »

How Indiana’s Planned Parenthood Will Cope With Defunding

Jessica WakemanJune 21, 2011 //

In the past few months, three states have enacted new laws to strip their Planned Parenthod clinics of funding. State and federal funds never paid for abortions because they are prohibited to do so by federal law. Alas, conservative politicians in Indiana, Kansas and North Carolina want to punish Planeed Parenthoods for providing abortions at all.

What are the consequences of this low-down, dirty, anti-women move? Employees lose their jobs and other services get cut. The Indianpolis Star checked in with the Planned Parenthood clinics in Indiana and the $1.3 million in budget cuts — about 1/10th of its budget — are depressing. Keep reading »

Girl Talk: My First Sex Partner Gave Me Herpes

M. AlexanderJune 21, 2011 //

“I have to introduce you to my cousin Logan*,” my childhood friend told me emphatically one weekend when I was home from college. “He’s really good looking—if he were taller he could be a model.”

“… OK,” I answered with trepidation. I was 19, and my freshman year of college at a small, cloistered university in the middle of the Bible Belt was not going well. My stomach turned to knots. I was trying so hard to fit in without fitting in that it was driving me crazy. For some reason it felt like if I got involved with a guy it would fix things. Logan was 24 and seemed nice enough.

The problem was, I was a virgin when we met, and at 19 I was among the last of my friends. Virtually inexperienced, I felt it was time to get it over with. In hindsight I should’ve listened to my gut. Keep reading »

Mommyrexia: When Moms Fight To Stay Thin While Pregnant

Amelia McDonell-ParryJune 14, 2011 //

Ahh, new parenthood. Full of excitement, late nights, priceless memories, and small joys. But for some women, motherhood comes with a hefty price — MOMMYREXIA. An article in today’s New York Post explores the, ahem, important issue of moms — specifically on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, so specifically white and upper middle class/wealthy — who are obsessed with pregnancy weight gain. This fear of being a, well, fat mom (fat by completely bizarro standards, BTW) is so overwhelming, that the mommyrexics struggle to stay thin while knocked up and don’t waste any time before hitting the gym once their little one is no longer in their taut bellies. Keep reading »

Girl Talk: My Ladyparts Hurt

Sally McGrawMay 16, 2011 //

Two years ago, I was sitting in the bathtub cheerfully shampooing my unruly mop of hair and engaging my morning ablutions. When the time came to wash my privates, a sudden, sharp, stinging sensation arose the second I touched soap to vulva. I actually cried out, causing my curious cat to peek over the tub rim at my submerged body. I rinsed the soap off quickly, but the burning sensation lingered.

And I remained both in pain — and dumbfounded — for the next 18 months. Keep reading »

Girl Talk: Why I Stand With Planned Parenthood

Angela TungMarch 3, 2011 //

This is not a story of how abortion is right or wrong. Nor is it about what other people are doing with their bodies, or what I think about that (as though it’s any of my business). No: this is just my story of how Planned Parenthood made some hard times a little easier for me, and how “real” healthcare (i.e., via insurance plans) can make things difficult. Keep reading »

The Possibility Of Wrinkles, Not Cancer, Gets Women To Quit Smoking

Joanne HinkelDecember 14, 2010 //

The irony is that vanity is what gets a lot of us ladies to start smoking. We take it up most likely ’cause we think we look sultry while puffing away, or we like that lighting up keeps us from snacking so our jeans look sexier on our rumps. Well, according to a study just published in the British Journal Of Health Psychology, said vanity is perhaps the most effective tactic for getting women to quit smoking, too. Staffordshire University researchers used state-of-the-art age progression technology to show 47 women, between the ages of 18 and 34, what their faces would look like in the future if they continue to smoke. The horrifying sight of smoking-induced wrinkles on their future faces prompted two-thirds of the subjects to vow to quit. Keep reading »

I Got Rolfed And I Liked It

Wendy AtterberryMay 11, 2010 //

This year I finally crossed off something I’ve had on my to-do list since I was 20: I got Rolfed. Rolfing, for those who are unfamiliar with the term, is a type of bodywork “that reorganizes the connective tissues, called fascia, that permeate the entire body.” If massage therapy addresses the muscles, and chiropractic work addresses the joints, Rolfing focuses on everything in between, literally. It’s thought to greatly improve posture, release tension, alleviate pain, restore flexibility, and generally help someone feel more energized and comfortable in his or her body. I first heard of Rolfing in one of my college acting classes. Or maybe it was “movement” class. Did you know that’s a class you can take in college? Basically, for two hours a day, two days a week, you get to stretch out, dance around, roll on mats all over the floor and pound on your classmates’ backs in warm-up circles. Hell yeah, I was a theater minor. It beat the hell out of taking classes that might actually prepare me to make a living. At least, it did at the time. Keep reading »

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