Word: bones
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When I told my wife, who is also 52, about my day-long physical, she wondered if she would have had the same experience. Not exactly. A mammogram, pelvic exam and Pap smear are obvious differences. The effects of hormonal changes associated with menopause, like hot flashes or bone loss, would also be tested. Beyond these, says Dr. Richard Lang, "the issues are the same, but modified by gender...
Another difference: every woman, pre- or postmenopausal, has a bone scan to determine evidence of osteoporosis, because of hormonal changes a very real threat to those in their 50s. Most men don't go to the bone-densitometry lab. I did so only because of the association between kidney stones and bone loss. Mild bone loss in both men and women begins in the late 20s. But with the onset of menopause, women begin losing 1% to 5% of bone mass each year...
Appropriate treatment is the big question. Estrogen replacement to stem the loss can increase the risk of breast cancer and, unless progestin is added in, endometrial cancer. A new medication, raloxifene, appears to stabilize bone loss while reducing the risk of breast cancer. Unlike traditional hormone-replacement therapy, however, raloxifene doesn't ease other menopausal symptoms, like hot flashes...
Proper diet and exercise are the most effective ways of avoiding or alleviating osteoporosis. So women taking the clinic's physical receive more focused advice from registered dietitian Cindy Moore than do men. First, she would want to know if any factors other than hormonal changes have contributed to bone loss. An eating disorder during adolescence, for instance, or chronic inadequate calcium intake diminishes total bone mass. Steroids taken for asthma and immunosuppressants reduce bone density. Even a lack of vitamin D, which is most easily acquired through exposure to half an hour of sunlight a day, diminishes the ability...
...female Frank McCourt. While she's no slouch at depicting old-sod poverty--sleeping with a scrap of sheet to keep her father's overcoat from scratching her chin and dreaming of a place to hang her ragged clothes--her real strength is in her close-to-the-bone rendering of the sadness lurking at the edges of every adult life. She understands how the most contented of us can still be overwhelmed unexpectedly by regret for the life not led. She's had torrid affairs but lacks "one single friend from all that ardour." She wishes she had been...