Sometime in my 40s, I started waking up with pain in my fingers. The joints ached, and I had to negotiate with them first thing in the morning before they would fully straighten. It wasn’t just my fingers. My back carried a dull, persistent ache when I got out of bed, and my ankles felt… less trustworthy. Those days of bounding down the stairs two steps at a time? Gone.Now I reached for the handrail and descended carefully — and, uncomfortably, images of my grandmother flash

Okay—picture this. I’m standing in the grocery store with my arms crossed over my chest. Slowly, I start swaying left to right, arms still folded. I glance over my shoulder to make sure no one is watching. To an outsider, it probably looked like I was rocking myself, deeply unsettled by something in the frozen food aisle. A woman confidently stands with arms crossed in the freezer aisle, amidst the neatly organized frozen goods. This photo was generated by AI. A dance move?

What is it? Progesterone is a steroid hormone made in the adrenal glands, the ovaries (and the testes in men), and—during pregnancy—the placenta. After ovulation each month, the ovary releases progesterone to prepare the uterus for a possible pregnancy. If the egg is fertilized, the placenta eventually takes over progesterone production. If not, progesterone levels fall… and your period begins. Structural representation of progesterone, a steroid hormone with the chemical for

As we head into Thanksgiving week, I’ve been thinking about what I’m truly grateful for. The list is long, but here are a few things that rise right to the top: 1) Hormone replacement therapy. The conversation around perimenopause is finally changing, and honestly, I think we can thank Gen X women for that. For a generation branded as apathetic, we sure banded together when it came to demanding better care. After 2002, menopause management basically evaporated. Women were tol

During the pandemic, a man named Josh Wardle invented a game for his partner, Palak Shah who was fond of word games. His game, Wordle became a world-wide phenomenon with people texting their family and friends the results every morning, encouraging some competition and a lot of camaraderie. My family and I joined the Wordle craze and then sought out other similar games. Taylordle, Quordle, Heardle and WORLDle- to name a few. One of my kids found another game called Framed. Th

The Night Shift- when you can't sleep