Older Women

A new study billed as the most extensive analysis of pregnancy and birth outcomes among women 40 and older suggests that medical complications and interventions during delivery are more prevalent among such women than previously believed.The most significant finding, the researchers said, was that women who first gave birth in their 40s were twice as likely to have a Caesarean section as were first-time mothers in their 20s.Forty-seven percent of the first-time mothers in their 40s had a Caesarean section.

A new study billed as the most extensive analysis of pregnancy and birth outcomes among women 40 and older suggests that medical complications and interventions during delivery are more prevalent among such women than previously believed.The most significant finding, the researchers said, was that women who first gave birth in their 40s were twice as likely to have a Caesarean section as were first-time mothers in their 20s.Forty-seven percent of the first-time mothers in their 40s had a Caesarean section.

I'M OUT OF the child-bearing game. They've retired my number. They've hung my jersey from the rafters, and I now have a job in the team's front office. I left behind records that will stand for generations.But like many great athletes, I did not see the deterioration of my skills, and I had to be told my contract would not be renewed for a final season, that I'd lost a step. Maybe more than a step."Get over it," my doctor said to me when I expressed a desire for one more baby before quittin' time.

BOSTON -- Damn, what did I do with that T-shirt? The one that says "These aren't hot flashes, they're power surges." Where is it now that I've finally found just the right occasion?Ever since the boomers started hitting 50, the cutting edge of this ever vigilant, ever youthful generation has been trying to get us to think positively about the pause.A fleet of pop (or rather, mom) psychologists reminds us that the reproductive finale doesn't mean the productive end. A choir of HTC gender spinmeisters (or rather, spinmistresses)

In March, 55-year-old Gloria Smith will lead the first-ever commercial coast-to-coast bicycle tour exclusively for women 50 and older.When this silver-haired cyclist was working in San Francisco in 1989 as a designer and general contractor of custom homes, she fell from the attic in an unfinished house and damaged a disc in her lower back. After four years of therapy, her discomfort continued. In spite of that, she decided to join six other women on her dream vacation a coast-to-coast bicycle trip from Washington to Maine.

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.

As the number of patients with Alzheimer's disease continues to climb, researchers are studying the possibility that a common and already approved drug estrogen may help to prevent or delay it, and even reverse some of its symptoms.Though far from conclusive, the evidence so far is highly suggestive.Just last week, researchers at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City announced that in a study of 1,124 elderly women, only 5.8 percent of women who had taken estrogen developed Alzheimer's, compared with 16.3 percent of women who had not used the hormone.

With the presidential election a little more than a year away, political pundits are working overtime to predict whether a Democrat or a Republican will be inaugurated. Much attention will be focused on issues like the economy and foreign affairs and, as usual, the most reliable factor for predicting the winners and losers will be overlooked: the bottom line of women's fashions.You see, each time hems go down, Democrats lose. Women's fashions appear to be getting shorter this fall, but there are still plenty of long dresses on the racks.

Nearly one-fourth of the nation's elderly women are impoverished or nearly poor, and younger women face a similarly bleak old age despite a surge in recent years in the number who work, according to a report by the Older Women's League.The national advocacy group's "1995 Mother's Day Report" cites a litany of statistics showing higher rates of poverty among older women than men, especially among older single, divorced or widowed women; and older women of African-American or Hispanic heritage.

Nobody's perfect, not that you could tell it from the images in the fashion magazines. Anyone who has ever watched a model being transformed from a lanky kid to a glamour goddess would know that even these rare lovelies need the services of a dresser, makeup artist, hairstylist and a photographer with the talent to disguise figure flaws. All that for a split-second image frozen in time.The rest of us, who have to get through the day and on with our lives in full view of the world, need more practical help.

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.

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.

One woman was on her second career, married to a man who already had children and certain that she didn't want a child of her own. Then she hit 45, and suddenly having a baby was the only thing that mattered. Other women were busy with medical, law or graduate school and then long hours at the office. Their 40s just seemed to sneak up on them. Some of them spent years looking for a partner before choosing to become a single mother, or they needed time to get used to the idea of a lesbian couple having a child.

As with most of Washington's titanic battles, many of the casualties from the immigration debacle were unintended victims. Among those with the poor luck to be in the line of fire were Maryland's shrinking crab-processing industry and the mostly Mexican women who make up its seasonal work force. Congress should remedy this injustice as soon as possible by establishing a permanent program that allows such workers visas to come for a few months each year and then go home, without making them and their employers sweat through the 11th-hour theatrics of annual renewals.

Getting older is not something people like to talk about today. But Berkeley, Calif., author Amy Gorman still thought it was a great topic for a book. Aging Artfully (PAL Publishing; $20) is Gorman's look at the lives of 12 visual and performing women artists between the ages of 85 and 105, an idea she came up with several years ago. "I was in my early 60s at the time," recalled Gorman, 66. "I woke up one morning and decided I wanted to hang out with older women, particularly women artists, and see how the creative process evolved in older women."

The bell rang, and Dorothy Binder greeted the man taking a seat across from her. "I want to tell you that I'm very nervous, but I'm here to have a good time today," said Binder, a petite redhead in her 80s. "So, um, what do you like to do?" "Well, uh, I like to go to restaurants and go to the opera," said Clewell Howell, a retired lawyer. The 76-year-old rested his chin on his hand and smiled, his blue eyes warm behind thick glasses. Around the table at the "speed-dating" event last week in Timonium, other seniors chatted in pairs about hobbies and grandchildren, while nodding and scribbling notes.

We hear a lot lately about the retirement insecurity of American workers generally, but less about the fact that women are especially at risk. The demographics point to why we should care: By the time Americans reach age 85, nearly three-fourths (71 percent) are women. This segment of the population is expected to double, and possibly triple, over the next three decades. The result: Women will need more services from communities that are already overburdened and the target of cutbacks. Why?