Older Women

This summer one of the most prescribed group of drugs in the U.S. has become one of the most controversial. Two weeks ago, the American Heart Association issued new guidelines recommending that women not go on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) solely to prevent heart attacks and stroke, a change from its former position. Earlier this summer, an editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association made national news by questioning whether estrogen helps prevent fractures caused by osteoporosis in older women.

Chances are the Realtor who helped you buy or sell your home recently was close to this demographic: She was 52 years old and married, had a gross personal income of $47,700 and worked about 43 hours per week. These were among the findings revealed by the National Association of Realtors Member Profile - a survey of 40,000 members with a 19 percent response rate. Among other findings: The typical Realtor works for an independent, non-franchised firm with one sales office and 19 sales associates.

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.

WASHINGTON - Life is often grim for granny. The typical woman over 65 lives alone, usually having outlived her husband. She has spent half her life caring for children and aging parents. She is almost twice as likely to be living in poverty than a man her age. She makes do on an income of about $15,000 a year, compared with an average of about $27,000 for elderly men. She spends about a fifth of her income on medical costs - largely prescription drugs which are not covered under Medicare.

On a bright May afternoon, 20 women in straw hats and summer suits of pink and yellow and green have gathered in a sprawling New Jersey home to honor this year's recipients of scholarships awarded by the Women's College Club of Princeton. With few exceptions, the women presenting the awards are well past middle age. Some have been club members for nearly 50 years. The nine high school graduates, overachievers off to such institutions as Wellesley, Yale and Rutgers, perch politely on a couch, waiting to be called.

For several years, a congenial bunch of older women has toiled in relative obscurity, meeting weekly to paint under the moniker of The Lunch Bunch Canvas Crew. Its members are unknowns no more. They are having their public debut at the Howard County Board of Education, where they will have a display through Aug. 7. It might not have been a huge New York opening, but it meant a great deal to the women who have faithfully gathered every Wednesday for food, fun and fellowship. "We have hung our things up in church before, but never something as big as the Board of Education building," said Canvas Crew member Jane Doyle, 73. "This is the first time we have ever had anything this elaborate."

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.

WASHINGTON -- The latest hot idea -- to let workers put part of their Social Security savings in personal investment accounts -- could be a high-risk proposition for older women, who disproportionately depend on the government's guaranteed safety net.Because they generally have lower wages, spend fewer years in the work force, live longer, and tend to be less confident money managers than men, women could be hurt by proposals that put more risk in Social...

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.