Being a contributing Her writer is an important part of my writing portfolio because of the opportunity it affords me to bring awareness to issues that are often under-the-radar.
Health is an integral part of each woman’s life from the first time she menstruates, through the changes that impact her body as she passes through menopause. When girls enter puberty, the pressure to conform to societal notions of who they should be and how they should look starts to impact their sense of self. Those lessons we learn early on about body weight, image, and sexuality, underlie the basis of our health identities as we enter adulthood.
It is important to remember that women’s reproductive issues are only a fraction of the total picture. Cancer, diabetes, heart disease, anorexia and bulimia, immune disorders, and psychological concerns shape the larger part of the health landscape.
With my monthly column at Empowher, my goal is to delve into a wide range of topics that fall on the health continuum. Check out my 5-part series on the HPV vaccine, my examination of cosmetic safety regulations, or why women need to have their partners use condoms!
Please feel free to contact me with topics you would like to see explored, or questions you may have. I look forward to the dialogue.
Marcia G. Yerman
With the year drawing to a close and a fresh beginning on the horizon, there is no better time to examine the attitudes and strategies we adopt to cope with the vagaries of daily existence.In her ...
December 27, 2011 - 9:50am
Six months after the birth of her first child, Chaunté Smith couldn’t get out of bed. She was in “excruciating pain.” At first she thought it was the result of being an “older mother,” having ...
November 27, 2011 - 9:40pm
In 1986, at the age of 18, Cassaundra StJohn joined the Air Force. She had grown up in a military family. Her father was a Master Sergeant in the Army, and she respected the values and commitment ...
November 17, 2011 - 9:55pm
Since 1994, Lifetime Television has been a leader in promoting awareness and activism around the issue of breast cancer. Combining advocacy work with the medium of television, they have reached ...
October 10, 2011 - 7:51am
When I sat down with Jennifer Grey in New York City to talk with her about being the spokesperson for Partners Against Pain, I didn’t ask about Dirty Dancing. It wasn’t on the agenda. Yet it came ...
October 1, 2011 - 9:29pm
Notice: To sexually active women of all ages who have ever hesitated to ask their partners to suit up and wear protection. Fear no more! You now have an outspoken advocate on your ...
August 25, 2011 - 3:34pm
It’s getting down to the wire. On August 4, the window closes for comments on the Mercury and Air Toxics Rule. The feedback the EPA has received will set the stage for the next act in ...
August 3, 2011 - 10:23am
As the country continues to debate concerns on ways to protect our environment and natural resources, individuals are gaining greater recognition about how their lifestyle choices can make an ...
July 29, 2011 - 9:14am
In New York, the tag line for the lotto ticket that folks line up to buy is, “You have to be in it to win it.” It’s a fair assessment of most things in life . . . even clean air.
Right now, ...
July 20, 2011 - 8:17pm
She came on the radar as the woman who gave a voice to a previously unmentionable—the vagina. Today it might seem ridiculous, but as Pat Mitchell, President of the Paley Center and the host ...
July 1, 2011 - 10:02am
For whatever reason, there are private events that happen to public figures, which become watershed moments for the general population. They act as a litmus test for the national sensibility. ...
May 27, 2011 - 3:42pm
I was watching cable television when the phone rang. A friend was on the line to tell me that President Barack Obama would be addressing the nation with an important announcement within the ...
May 9, 2011 - 8:54am
My mother used to joke that giving birth to me put her into shock. I never got many details. Just that she had lost a lot of blood and they had to call in a second doctor to stabilize the ...
May 5, 2011 - 8:13pm
Despite the fact that the Safety in Cosmetics Act of 2010 didn’t get traction, there are still plenty of products available for those who want to go the “natural” route.For a month, I sampled ...
April 3, 2011 - 10:44pm
At a time when men’s concerns around their aging penises get constant print and media attention, women are sometimes woefully unsure about the changes that are taking place with their genitals. ...
March 4, 2011 - 12:34pm
At the recent TEDwomen conference in Washington D.C., one of the presenters was Dr. Deborah Rhodes, an internist who has become a leader in assessing breast cancer risk. She delivered her talk in ...
January 29, 2011 - 7:59am
With the buildup to Christmas over, all that remains are the days until the New Year makes its entrance. This time can be equally stressful. During the final leg of the holiday season, ...
December 27, 2010 - 12:40pm
Thanksgiving kicks off a six week period that can put people in a state of anxiety about potential weight gain, loneliness, unresolved family relationships, and a generalized, “It’s the end of ...
November 21, 2010 - 10:35pm
With people out of work, the economy in a slump, and competition for jobs at a premium, is staying visibly younger the solution to surviving in the contemporary job market? This is one of many ...
October 29, 2010 - 10:04am
Stacy Malkan is the spokesperson for the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. She has been involved in chemical safety policy reform for ten years and is the author of Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly ...
September 9, 2010 - 9:22pm
Most Americans would be astonished to learn that of the approximately 12,500 individual chemical ingredients in personal care products, the overwhelming majority has never been reviewed for safety ...
September 8, 2010 - 12:40pm
You’ve heard the term before. “Shopaholic.” The reference is usually to someone always on the hunt for a new item, a bargain, or the quest to have the latest and the best. But oniomania—the ...
July 31, 2010 - 9:50am
Most American women might presume that the dangers of maternal mortality are a concern and problem only in developing nations. They’re wrong. A March 2010 report put out by Amnesty ...
July 1, 2010 - 9:38am
With the state of the economy at the top of everyone’s list of concerns, women are looking hard to find beauty solutions that are gentle on the pocketbook. One of the answers they are turning to ...
June 2, 2010 - 3:59pm
When the story broke, the tabloid headlines screamed that Hall of Fame football star, Lawrence Taylor, had been arrested on Thursday, May 6, 2010 for having sex with a 16-year-old-prostitute. One ...
May 14, 2010 - 5:17am
Mother’s Day used to be simple. It was a holiday when I would strive to come up with an original gift for my mother. When I was very young, part of the ritual included marking the occasion with ...
May 10, 2010 - 11:12am
NPH is the short form term for a three-word disease misdiagnosed all too frequently. I first learned about Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus from a colleague. She told me how her life had ...
April 29, 2010 - 1:59pm
Every family has a story. Some are more complicated than others. In Tom Murray’s documentary, Dad’s in Heaven With Nixon, narrative threads are woven together to create impressions and nuances. ...
April 21, 2010 - 4:46pm
After my mother died, I went down to my all time flyweight of 115 pounds. At 5’10”, I knew I was way too thin. For my whole life I had been in the fashionable size 6/8 mode. I could always eat ...
March 29, 2010 - 11:16am
It wasn’t until 1990 that the Office of Research on Women’s Health at the National Institute of Health was founded. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland) teamed with Senator Edward Kennedy ...
February 27, 2010 - 11:06am
I have to start off with an admission. I haven't watched the Super Bowl in over twenty years. Bone crushing violence does nothing for me. I prefer the cerebral match up of a pitcher and a ...
February 5, 2010 - 2:30pm
When I originally named the final installment in the Empowher Gardasil series, the title was “A Mother Speaks Out.” Yet, I found that that one woman’s story was reflected in the ...
January 28, 2010 - 3:38pm
December 1st marked the 21st Annual World AIDS Day. Life for those diagnosed with the virus has changed tremendously since the first case or AIDS was reported in 1981. Then, a diagnosis had ...
January 4, 2010 - 1:43pm
Throughout my examination of the Gardasil vaccine, there has been a steady flow of information, disinformation, and new developments. In my opening article, I wrote about the mandatory ruling in ...
December 23, 2009 - 11:23am
As parents contemplate whether or not they should have the Gardasil vaccine administered to their daughters, one of the first people that they turn is to their doctors. In this segment, I posed ...
December 8, 2009 - 9:35am
On the second day she was embedded with Marines during the invasion of Iraq, journalist Mercedes Gallego was approached by several service women. They cautioned her that it was not safe to be ...
November 13, 2009 - 3:05pm
Click here for more on this series
Merck is the developer of the HPV vaccine Gardasil. The company has an independent website, www.gardasil.com, devoted to explaining the product, complete ...
October 29, 2009 - 9:43am
As the nation’s attention is focused on the discussion about healthcare reform, another debate is taking place. Ironically, it crisscrosses with elements found in the larger conversation ...
October 16, 2009 - 9:40am
This week, Marrying George Clooney: Confessions From a Midlife Crisis by Amy Ferris, is hitting the bookstores. On the back will be my blurb of recommendation.
"Amy Ferris has successfully ...
September 8, 2009 - 10:59am
With First Lady Michelle Obama leading the charge to put the struggle for work/life balance front and center, the issue is finally getting top-level attention.
Although both men and women in ...
September 1, 2009 - 1:47pm
“What would you do if you woke up tomorrow and you were beautiful?” That question was asked of comedy star and actress Margaret Cho when she was a guest on a radio show. The person posing the ...
July 14, 2009 - 10:05am
In 2007, the dollars spent on breast augmentation surgery in the United States was $1.5 billion. By 2012, the numbers are projected to top 2 billion per year. Statistics from The American ...
June 16, 2009 - 3:07pm
Women are getting proactive about their health needs and rights. The financial downturn has made it crystal clear that women’s economic status is intertwined with the health care equation.
On ...
April 29, 2009 - 1:42pm
An issue that I strongly believe must be factored into any conversation about women and work, is recognition of the time and services women devote to caregiving.
At some period during a woman’s ...
March 31, 2009 - 10:10am
In 1564, renowned Italian physician Gabriele Falloppio wrote about the syphilis epidemic of 1490, documenting the use of condoms. In those days, condoms were sheaths made of linen that had been ...
March 26, 2009 - 10:23am
On March 5th, in honor of International Women's Day, there was a call to action on behalf of women and girls - who comprise the most impoverished demographic around the globe. Discrimination, ...
March 16, 2009 - 12:45pm
With the economy in a major downward spiral, not-for-profit organizations are being hit in a major way. I recently received an e-mail from Rachel Lloyd, the Director and Founder of
Gems Girls. ...
March 5, 2009 - 5:03pm
On February 2, approximately 300 women gathered for the first Fem 2.0 conference in Washington D.C.
A pro bono project of Turner Strategies, the event was convened by fourteen women's entities ...
February 16, 2009 - 12:19pm
Six months after the birth of her first child, Chaunté Smith couldn’t get out of bed. She was in “excruciating pain.” At first she thought it was the result of being an “older mother,” having ...
Marcia G. Yerman commented on Marcia G. Yerman's post Rheumatoid Arthritis: Chaunté Smith Shares Her Story