Category: WOMEN’S HEALTH

Discovering Love Beyond Depression

~ womeninlivingness

by Julie Ferguson, Mackay

Why would sitting in a room full of women feel so difficult? 

To sit in a room full of women and feel that I belong has not been an everyday experience for me. In fact, I’ve become increasingly aware of the discomfort and competitiveness that I’ve felt when I’ve been in the company of any woman. The constant comparison has created obstacles in the way I’ve conversed with them – as I distracted myself with feelings of envy or pity, depending on where I judged others to be in relation to me. Thankfully, this was not in force during Mackay’s Esoteric Developers Women’s Group (EDWG) and has since lessened enormously in my day-to-day living. Continue reading “Discovering Love Beyond Depression” →

My Experience with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, Hair Loss and Wig Shopping

~ womeninlivingness

by Linda, Brisbane, Australia

After reading Rachel Mascord’s inspirational post, LOVE – falling in love with my own hair, I felt to write about my own experience.

I lost most of my hair several years ago with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and Androgenic Alopecia. PCOS is a complex hormone disorder that may be defined by symptoms such as irregular or absent periods, acne, hair loss, hirsutism, insulin resistance (diabetes) and fertility issues. Women diagnosed with PCOS can present with a unique combination of symptoms at varying levels of severity. Continue reading “My Experience with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, Hair Loss and Wig Shopping” →

The Invitation Breast Cancer brings – a Deeper Self-examination

~ womeninlivingness ~ 3 Comments

Adrienne Ryan, BEd, Brisbane, Australia

I am a 46 year old woman and have watched women in my family and at work undergo treatment for breast cancer, including mastectomy. It is a particularly distressing illness because the thought of losing a mother, daughter, partner, sister, child, aunty, grandma, friend, colleague or even an acquaintance to breast cancer is deeply devastating. Its increase, along with ovarian cancer, is something to be talked about at every opportunity – Why is breast cancer killing and affecting so many women?

In an article referring to Angelina Jolie’s double mastectomy it was noted that: “Currently, women facing a strong likelihood of developing breast cancer have only two real options – to have both of their breasts removed (a double mastectomy) or hope that it will never actually happen”. (1) Continue reading “The Invitation Breast Cancer brings – a Deeper Self-examination” →

Mastitis – Experiences and Observations on Women’s Health – Part 2

~ womeninlivingness ~ 3 Comments

by JK, UK

I am a woman who has experienced a number of women’s health issues (see Part 1 on Endometriosis). One of those women’s health issues was mastitis. I also have a curiosity about women’s health statistics and articles on the state of women’s health today.

Around 10 years ago I had very sore lumpy breasts, much sorer than they were around the time of my period. I went to my GP and I was quickly referred to a local specialist Breast Clinic. On arrival at the Breast Clinic I underwent a series of tests and investigations, including what I experienced to be an uncomfortable mammogram. For those of you who have never experienced a mammogram, it is like having your breasts squashed and pressed between two cold, hard metal plates in the most awkward of positions, whilst standing half naked in the middle of a cold, clinical room. As I was standing there I was nervous as I was also wondering ‘do I have breast cancer?’. This specialist Breast Clinic offers a ‘one-stop’ shop in that over a couple of hours you have many x-rays, tests, examinations, and then you wait in a corridor of chairs to be called in and given your ‘diagnosis’. Continue reading “Mastitis – Experiences and Observations on Women’s Health – Part 2” →

Endometriosis – Experiences and Observations on Women’s Health – Part 1

~ womeninlivingness

by JK, UK

I am a woman who has been a women’s health statistic – I had endometriosis for over three decades, which I found was an extremely painful and debilitating condition.

I recently re-visited some statistics on endometriosis and found that approximately 176 million women and girls worldwide suffer from endometriosis; 8.5 million in North America and 2 million in the UK and rising. ‘Endometriosis; the presence of tissue, histologically similar to endometrium outside the uterine cavity and the myometrium, is one of the most common gynaecological conditions in women of reproductive age, but it remains one of the most complicated and baffling’ (Rizk & Abdulla, 2003). I too had found the condition baffling…

I started my periods at age 11 in my first few weeks of starting senior school. I knew something didn’t feel right within my body not long after I started my periods, given the amount of pain and discomfort I had each month at the time of my period. I found it debilitating and sometimes had time off school (or work), lying on my bed with a hot water bottle and taking painkillers. My tummy was sore, my breasts were sore and my period cramps were extremely painful; with often no painkillers touching the pain, to the point that on a couple of occasions I went to A&E even in the middle of the night, desperate for some pain relief. I would sometimes nearly pass out with the pain. I remember walking home from school one day and having to lie down on the pavement as I was in so much pain I couldn’t walk. I would have hot sweats and feel nauseous from the pain as well as having thick clotty lumpy dark brown period blood. I would get bowel pain at the same time, diarrhoea and lower back or right hip pain. I knew some of my friends had painful periods but they didn’t seem to have the other symptoms, and often for them a painkiller would do the trick.  Continue reading “Endometriosis – Experiences and Observations on Women’s Health – Part 1” →

The Mystery of the Migraine and Me

~ womeninlivingness

by Francene Cartaar, Australia

Have you ever felt you were going a little crazy? – well, I have. My world shook in September 2001 when I started experiencing migraines with such force and power that I felt like my head was going to split open. This was the beginning of a decade of searching for answers and cures. Each time I would ‘plant’ myself on the table of a doctor or health practitioner with the belief that they could ‘fix me’.

Then I had an appointment with Serge Benhayon at Universal Medicine about 3 years ago. As well as being eager and nervous at the same time, I must confess to going to the appointment with the hope of being ‘fixed’ and ‘told the answers’. Never before had I experienced a consultation like this. Continue reading “The Mystery of the Migraine and Me” →

A Letter to my 13 year old Self

~ womeninlivingness

by Rebecca Baldwin, 31 years, Australia

Dear Me,

If there was one thing I could tell you when you were 13 years old it would be this – drug taking is not rebellious; it is not just ‘experimentation’; it’s not really even defiance – it’s just compliant. It is one of many things in this world that is engineered to keep you from your power and your beauty. You are not the first person to think that smoking a cigarette is cool and you won’t be the last. You are not a rebel. You are walking a well-trodden path paved by all the other bright kids and teens who thought they were breaking the rules, only to play right into them. But I know there is more to it than that. I know that your bravado is just that and I know that you miss yourself. You miss the easy way you were with yourself when you were a kid, before the onset of all this intensity. And for the time being and for many years to come, the thick smoke in your lungs will make you feel for a moment that you are full. At the top of the drag there will be a split second, a fleeting moment where you feel there is an end to the empty feelings; the vague but persistent anxiousness; and you will feel at peace. Of course, and you already know this, it is then that you have to breathe the smoke out again, and your predicament will be the same as it was before. Continue reading “A Letter to my 13 year old Self” →

Healing Anxiety with My Own Loveliness

~ womeninlivingness

I look back over my life today and most of it doesn’t seem real to me anymore, as it is not part of my life now. I have come a long way and changed so much.

I have come from a life of severe anxiety and intense panic attacks with periods of agoraphobia (not being able to leave the house), and feeling like I had to grit my teeth and push myself to get through every day… to now, feeling like a calm and steady woman who is mostly guided through the day by a deep loveliness that comes from within. Continue reading “Healing Anxiety with My Own Loveliness” →

Being ‘Good’ or Being ‘True’

~ womeninlivingness

by Sara Harris, BHSc, Melbourne, Australia

For the most part of my life I have been very conscious of looking after myself. In fact, I used to pride myself on how healthy I was, even as a teenager. I went to the gym, played all sorts of sports, didn’t eat sugar and was careful about the amount of food I was eating. I was also one to do very well at school. Always on top of everything, producing quality and quantity and getting marks to confirm me as being a ‘good’ student. I was also involved in fund-raisers and the 40 hour famine each year… out to save the world!

Looking back now, it would be fair to say that I was living in a bit of a ‘drive’ – a drive to do well, to be good, to succeed and to be the best. It may seem as though there is nothing wrong with all of this, however my body was telling me that there definitely was. I would push myself through anything, constantly, at the expense of my body. Here I was thinking that I was looking after myself by doing all the right things, but I hadn’t considered that simply listening to my body ‘first’ was actually what was needed. I see now how I kept going to the gym when my body was tired, or how I was eating food because of what I had read or what I was told was good for me, without listening to what my body really wanted. And I would work until all hours of the morning to get things done, thinking that the work would be better the more time I gave it. But why did I not give the same consideration and dedication to my body, when it is the one actually doing all of the work? Continue reading “Being ‘Good’ or Being ‘True’” →

Knowing What’s Right for Me…

~ womeninlivingness

As a child, I was comfortable in my body and had never consciously considered the question “What’s right for me?”… it was just naturally how I was. When I was 12 or 13 years old, I went through a growth spurt and became quite skinny very quickly. Around the same time I felt to start eating differently. I didn’t want meat pies, pizza, fish and chips or Macca’s (McDonald’s) on Fridays or the weekends. And I didn’t want cheesy sauces on my veggies, or chips, or cheese and bikkies for snacks during the day. There were also many meals that I didn’t feel like eating at all and wanted to skip. I began to be more aware of what was ‘good’ and ‘not so good’ and what was right for me and my body in terms of nutrition and my health.

I also began to enjoy exercise and loved my daily walk/jog around our neighborhood, exploring all the parks and secret pathways. I had felt to start this little exercise routine because I had done a fitness test in school grade 7 PE which involved a 1.5km walk/jog. This was the first test I had done and my body felt really heavy, sluggish and sore; I’d been surprised I couldn’t do it, not having ever done an endurance exercise before, only sprints in running and swimming.

My body began to change – not just the shape, but also how I felt. Continue reading “Knowing What’s Right for Me…” →