Older Women

Middle-aged Hollywood stars and their newborns may make it seem like a fountain of youth has been discovered for women's fertility. But researchers at Yale University School of Medicine  say these stars may be giving women the wrong perception.  Many women don't realize the consequences of delaying motherhood, the researchers found in a study published in the recent issue of Fertility & Sterility . They have unrealistic expectations...

It is no longer teenagers stumbling into pregnancy and parenthood about whom we should be fretting. Those numbers continue to drop, because the kids are having less sex and using more contraception. No, it is the 20-something women who are putting babies before marriage at a frightening rate - and not because they don't know any better. They are sure the good man and the picket fence are out of reach, but they still want children. Why wait for what they don't think will happen? That's the picture painted by a new study, "Knot Yet: The benefits and costs of delayed marriage in America," prepared by researchers at the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and the Relate Institute.

Often the only fit older women experience in the dressing room is one of frustration.Necklines choke. Zippers won't close. Even elastic waists can be too tight."

Scientists have always thought the HPV virus clears most women after a couple of years, but new evidence suggests it may linger in the body undetected and reappear later in life. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health followed 850 Baltimore women aged 35 to 60 who received regular cervical cancer screenings. They found that reactivation may increase in women around 50-years-old. Results of the study, which was conducted in partnership with researchers at Perdana University Graduate School of Medicine in Malaysia, were published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Women over 50 who have been putting off breast cancer and cervical cancer screenings because they couldn't afford the tests can now get them free.The Carroll County Health Department has obtained a $93,000 federal grant to cover cancer-detection screenings for low-income older women."

WASHINGTON -- Women in their mid-40s and older are far more likely than their male contemporaries to lack health insurance, either because they are more often employed in part-time work or because coverage stops under their husbands' policies when they are widowed or divorced, according to a new report.The report, by the Older Women's League, a Washington-based women's rights group, said that in the age bracket between 45 and 64, before women qualify for Medicare, only 55 percent of working women have health insurance provided by their own employers, as compared with 72 percent of men in the same age group.

Dr. Robert M. Barnett, an expert in gynecology for older women who was known for his pioneering work in developing telescopic techniques, died of a heart attack Tuesday at his home in Timonium. He was 66.The former head of obstetrics and gynecology at Harbor Hospital Center in South Baltimore treated more than 5,000 patients during his 29-year career at the hospital. His work in telescopics is credited with reducing the need for abdominal surgery.Several patients remember him as a great friend.

The Women's Wellness Center of the Carroll County Department of Health has started a program designed to help women age 65 and older gain access to mammograms for early detection of breast cancer. Known as the "Reaching Mature Women" program, its message will be sent in letters to women age 65 and older who have visited one of Carroll's senior centers. Reaching Mature Women is partially funded by a grant for more than $29,000 from the Maryland chapter of the Susan G. Komen Foundation, a nationally known organization that shares the wellness center's purpose: preventing breast and cervical cancers.

When it comes to changing diapers, breastfeeding and swaddling, 40 is the new 30. A recent national report found birth rates falling in virtually every age group of women in their childbearing years — except for those between 40 and 50. The group aged 40 to 44 had its largest birth rate since 1967. Benefiting from improvements in reproductive technology and the fact that most Americans are living longer, more women 40 and over are choosing to have children in later life, particularly after they've accomplished career goals.

Ellen Carpenter delayed marriage until she found Mr. Right, but by that time she was 38 years old, making it much more difficult to have children. After getting pregnant with the help of hormone injections, the Frederick County resident lost the baby — a girl with severe body malformations — in the first trimester. She explored other options and chose to use frozen eggs from a donor. Today, Carpenter is the mother of a rambunctious 18-month-old named Zachary. A growing number of women are turning to frozen eggs to solve their fertility problems as the controversial procedure that long raised safety concerns slowly gains acceptance.

Ellen Carpenter delayed marriage until she found Mr. Right, but by that time she was 38 years old, making it much more difficult to have children. After getting pregnant with the help of hormone injections, the Frederick County resident lost the baby — a girl with severe body malformations — in the first trimester. She explored other options and chose to use frozen eggs from a donor. Today, Carpenter is the mother of a rambunctious 18-month-old named Zachary. A growing number of women are turning to frozen eggs to solve their fertility problems as the controversial procedure that long raised safety concerns slowly gains acceptance.

Middle-aged Hollywood stars and their newborns may make it seem like a fountain of youth has been discovered for women's fertility. But researchers at Yale University School of Medicine  say these stars may be giving women the wrong perception.  Many women don't realize the consequences of delaying motherhood, the researchers found in a study published in the recent issue of Fertility & Sterility . They have unrealistic expectations...

When it comes to changing diapers, breastfeeding and swaddling, 40 is the new 30. A recent national report found birth rates falling in virtually every age group of women in their childbearing years — except for those between 40 and 50. The group aged 40 to 44 had its largest birth rate since 1967. Benefiting from improvements in reproductive technology and the fact that most Americans are living longer, more women 40 and over are choosing to have children in later life, particularly after they've accomplished career goals.

The first wave of slayings haunted Los Angeles in the mid-1970s. The killer slipped mostly unseen through the night, preying on older women who lived alone. He raped them and squeezed their necks until they passed out or died. Of the 17 who were killed, he placed pillows or blankets over their faces. The second wave hit a decade later in Claremont, Calif. - five older women raped and strangled, faces again covered. Even with at least 20 survivors, police never connected the two homicide-and-rape rampages nor solved either of them.

Older women can add to strength Most people can build muscle through strength training, it has long been thought - even people in their 80s who have never hoisted a dumbbell. But it may be time to tweak that idea. A new study found that women in their 80s who do resistance training might not boost their muscle mass. However, this doesn't mean older women are off the hook from working out - the study also found that despite the lack of muscle growth, the participants could lift more weight after the weight-training program.

Sandra Woodring has a soft spot for people with cancer. For a living, she works as an oncology registered nurse, and when she's off the clock, she supports breast cancer patients. "I just feel like I have to do something for women who have breast cancer," said Woodring, 40, of Street. "I wake up with an outlook on life on what a gift it is that I don't have cancer. Support for these women is something that's missing, and you can't put a job title on it." Woodring, who works at Bel Air Oncology, offers support through a program she helped start about six years ago called BCAUSE, Breast Cancer and U Support and Encouragement.

The birth of triplets to a 55- year-old woman this week is drawing attention to a small but growing phenomenon: older women becoming pregnant. Tina Cade, a university administrator in Richmond, Va., acted as a surrogate for her daughter, a Johns Hopkins doctor who couldn't conceive. Other women in their 50s - and even 60s - are becoming pregnant to have children of their own. But as more older women turn to science to beat their biological clocks and fulfill their desire to become mothers, it is raising a number of medical and ethical questions.

CBS COMMENTATOR and newspaper columnist Andy Rooney makes what I am sure is a pretty good living as an irascible old curmudgeon, but his trademark crankiness gets him into trouble, too. In 1990, he was suspended by CBS News for 32 days for inflammatory comments he made about gays to a gay newspaper that, in turn, ended up on a CBS news special. In 1992, he found himself in hot water for saying that American Indians should lighten up on the topic of sports nicknames such as "Redskins." In 1997, he angered that group once more by declaring that "so-called Indian casinos are a joke," and denouncing their owners as "sleazeballs."

BOSTON - Somewhere in the waning hours of this interminable primary, I found myself channeling Sen. Barack Obama as he began a long-overdue and eagerly anticipated conversation ... on gender. "Tonight, I want to talk directly with the women of America. "First, let me repeat what I said in Iowa about my deep respect for Senator Clinton. She has indeed 'shattered myths and broken barriers and changed the America in which my daughters and yours will come of age.' There is no one in this country who better understands Senator Clinton's tenacity, resilience and commitment to public service than I do. "So I want to thank the millions of women who voted for me without ever believing they were betraying the dream of full opportunity for women.

The millions of women who abandoned hormone replacement six years ago when research showed it increased the risk of serious illness are more likely to develop breast cancer than women who didn't take the hormones, research published today suggests. But the increased risk of heart disease associated with hormone therapy seems to dissipate, according to a long-anticipated follow-up study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Benefits of the pills, including decreased risk of hip fractures and colorectal cancer, also disappeared when women stopped the medications.