By Patricia Yarberry Allen, M.D.

Mommie was waiting for us. I have heard that the dying do wait for those they love, and this has now happened to me twice. Once, when my mother-in-law Natalie was dying, she, too, waited for us as we drove the eight hours from Kentucky to Orchard Lake, Michigan.

Patricia Yarberry Allen, publisher of Women’s Voices for Change, is director of the Menopause Center at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Here, she takes on the question “If everything is normal on my exams, doc, why do I feel so bad?”

Alex Witchel, who overcomes any number of obstacles to grow up sane and stable, enjoys both a terrific career as a journalist and a great marriage (to author Frank Rich). But when her mother, Barbara, begins losing her mind, her daughter goes through the hell of watching her mother’s personality evaporate.

There are not enough stories about how women in the middle of our lives really speak and who we really are. The truth is that we are funny, dynamic, deep, sometimes raunchy, sometimes angry, sometimes sad, and sometimes scared. We are real women in the prime of our lives, with so much to say . . .

Last week I was talking to a friend—someone “our age”—who was lamenting her lack of a backbone when, years before, the man she’d been in love with for five years was dying. How intimidating others seemed when we were young! And how well we now understand the reality of most situations!

Eleanor Roosevelt sets the bar high as the first woman to speak at a convention; how First Ladies are alike; First Ladies past may not have been able to endure the media scrutiny of today; Barbara Grufferman redefines “crone”; Lynn Povich on the women’s revolt at “Newsweek” in the ’70s.

Filmmaker Timothy Greenfield-Sanders talks about his HBO documentary, “About Face: Supermodels Then and Now,” which explores cultural perceptions of age and beauty over the past few decades through the lens of past supermodels.

There is hope for women in the menopausal transition who are hot hot hot in the summer. Patients have lost patience. They don’t want to hear about cold water and cold cloths. Many doctors act as if low-dose, short-term systemic hormone therapy has a risk profile like that of heroin. It’s TIME for some balance here, people!

Was The Birthday responsible for these mishaps—these signs of falling apart—coming in such rapid succession? I had survived 35, weathered 50, and pretty much sailed through 60. But 70?

Multi-tasking is the enemy of mindfulness. Improve your cognitive function by avoiding thinking about (or trying to do) several things at once, for that is the cause of much avoidable injury.

Sorting out why a patient has poor balance is one of the most challenging tasks a physician can face. There are dozens of potential causes, many of which are treatable.

The world believes what the TV set tells it, and this affects the work we can do and the money we can make. But if we can become a sort of unofficial club, we could acknowledge, at least to each other, that we have a secret knowledge others can’t imagine. The knowledge of women who have seen much, lived much, survived much.

It is quite astounding how little awareness people have of the potential effects of UV damage on the eyes. Not only is it important to be aware of these effects, but also to know how to avoid letting those rays harm our precious eyes. Sunglasses, sunglasses, sunglasses! And choose them not for their eye appeal, but for their power of eye protection.

June is National Cataracts Awareness Month. In Part 2 of our series, we take you through the steps of cataract surgery.

June is National Cataract Awareness Month.  Cataracts are the most common cause of reversible visual loss in people over 40, and are the leading cause of blindness in the world. By age 80, more than half of all Americans either have a cataract or have had cataract surgery. Though very common, and an increasingly important [...]