#90 The 20 Best...

On my AOL home page today, there was a link to an article on the 20 best moments in women's health. Here they are listed below:

1. The (modern) tampon - 1929
2. The Pap smear - 1941
3. Mastectomy loses stigma - Shirly Temple Black revealed that she'd had a mastectomy and helped lift the disease's stigma, 1972
4. The epidural is born - 1940s
5. The Pill - U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Pill as a safe form of birth control. Forty-eight years later, it’s the most popular form of reversible birth control, 1960
6. Tubal ligation - until 1969, a woman couldn’t elect to have her tubes tied unless she fit a formula—her age multiplied by the number of children she’d delivered had to equal 120 or more. (What that means: If you were 30 years old, you would have to have had four kids before a doctor would have agreed that you’d done your share of "women’s work" and sterilized you, unless another pregnancy would have posed a health risk.) But in 1970, tubal ligation got the green light for all and is now the leading method of birth control.
7. Body Talk - before 1970 there weren’t any good resources. That year a group of Boston women published a stapled-together booklet—the precursor to Our Bodies, Ourselves. The book is now in its 8th edition
8. Body Talk for Girls too - Author Judy Blume writes about periods, flat chestedness, masturbation, and sex in Are You There God? It's Me Margaret, 1970s
9. Edith Bunker's change - menopause "goes public" on TV, 1972
10. Billie Jean King wins - she beats self-proclaimed male-chauvinist pig and ex–tennis champ Bobby Riggs. Coming on the heels of Title IX—which mandated that female athletes be given the same resources on a college level as male athletes—her win encouraged more women to go out for sports, 1973
11. The sports bra - Lisa Lindahl, a female grad student, (with the help of two classmates) sews together two jock straps for bounce-free jogging
12. Betty Ford opens up - about her addiction to pain killers and alcohol, 1978
13. Demi poses pregnant - she posed in Vanity Fair showing that you can be both sexy and pregnant, 1996
14. Marge Simpson makes Me Time - Marge loses it from stress and shows women that they are not alone, 1992
15. Trials include women - women are finally part of pharmaceutical trials, 1993
16. U.S. World Cup win - Brandi Chastain rips her shirt off after winning the women's world soccer cup against China, 1999
17. Kathleen Turner bares all - at 45 she goes nude on the London stage as Mrs. Robinson in the Graduate, 2000
18. Katie's colonoscopy - Katie Couric brings attention to colon cancer by having her colonoscopy on live tv, 2000
19. Post-baby bodies
20. HPV vaccine emerges

Of these 20, I can say that the following have "affected" me:

Number 1 [praise the lord!!! wearing a mattress between my legs was worse than cramps and breast tenderness as far as I was concerned], 2 [no news is good news], 4 [PRAISE THE LORD!!!], 5 [have just gone off for good last week], 7 [I owned this book and learned much from it], 8 [my synagogue in NY banned Are You There God? It's Me Margaret because of a parent complaint in 1975, just after I read it. I didn't get what the big deal was.], 9 [sadly or happily, depending on my mood {lol}, this is beginning to affect me], 10 [well, I've never and will never play professional tennis, however, it is my favorite sport to play as well as watch], 11 [I've worn one or two of these in my larger days], 13 [I'll admit that I have an almost nude photo of me pregnant with my first, and no, I don't look like Demi], 17 [that age is behind me], 18 [this test is just around the corner].

Thankfully, #3 hasn't personally affected me, but in the past couple of years, many of my close friends and acquaintances have gone through some type of breast cancer procedure[s].

Number 6, also thankfully, I haven't had to experience this because my wonderful husband took care of it from his end. Ironically, about 3 years after his operation, I went back on the pill to help with two new problems; adult acne and a period that didn't know if it was coming or going.

Number 12 - Well we all know what I'm addicted to..... it's dark and sweet and fattening in the quantities I like to have.....

Somehow, #14 never really affected me. I mean we all get stressed, but I've always been very good about making time for me. However, I feel stressed most when, truthfully, my "me time" is thwarted -- usually because of a sick child, canceled school, weather conditions, etc.

Number 19 - Still dealing, and I'm 17 years postpartum.
Number 20 - I have a 14 year old daughter... need I say more??

Anyone else want to share? If so, please go to "comment" at the bottom of this blog and write your comment. Or, you can email or facebook me and I'll post it for you.

Quote of the Day "You don't want to Mess with Anusara Girls" John Friend, Founder of Anusara Yoga