Women and health
(Last in a series)
By Mary Jane Gray, M.D.
BURLINGTON, Vt. -
(NEA) — Maturation is the
process of attaining full
development and perfection of
one's potential.
In achieving maturity, there
are certain tasks all of us
must face. Women, however,
have a particular course of
maturation, given their
nature as biological and sex
ual beings.
This does not mean that
women necessarily face
limitations. On the contrary,
women are coming to see that
the limits formerly imposed
by “biology” and society are
no longer acceptable. Perhaps
for the first time in history
women are striving to reach
their full potential.
In coming to maturity, the
present generation of women
is the first to be able to
separate sex from reproduc
tion by the use of reliable con
traception. Sex may be for
love or for recreation, for
communication or to assert
Current medical
opinion attributes
emotional
problems
occurlng at
menopause to the
emotional climate
surrounding the
menopause and
other stresses of
middle years In a
woman’s life
rather than the
decreasing hor
mone levels.
S.F. Wentz
completes
Navy course
Navy Air Controlman Airman
Apprentice Shirley F. Wentz,
daughter of Collett A. Britt of P.
0. Box 388, Griffin was
graduated from the Air Traffic
Controller School.
The 14-week course at the
Naval Air Technical Training
Center, Millington, Tenn.,
prepared students for future
duty in an air station control
tower. They studied flight data
processing, aids to aircraft
navigation, weather analysis,
and air traffic control rules and
procedures. In addition they
underwent Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA)
examination and received FAA
certification for control tower
operations.
She joined the Navy in
February, 1977.
Fake Art
DETROIT (AP) - “Fake”
may be a bad word to art mu
seums and collectors, but it’s
going to put money in the till of
the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Capitalizing on the public’s
interest in spurious art, the In
stitute is planning a display of
famous fakes as a fund-raising
promotion. The Institute of
Arts, which houses some of the
finest examples of genuine art
in the nation, will stage a one
night display Nov. 3 of fabulous
phonies, with tickets for $12.50
and $25 entitling patrons to see
Orson Welles’ “F-For Fake,” a
movie about art forgery.
Appointments
NEW YORK (AP) — The ap
pointment of Jeff Katzenberg
as vice president-programming
for Paramount Television Serv
ice has been announced by
Paramount Pictures Corp.
In another announcement,
Paramount said John Barry
had been signed to write the
score for the movie “First
Love."
Old trees
LOS ANGELES (AP) -
Widely known as the tallest liv
ing things on earth, the Coast
Redwoods are also among the
oldest.
The species dates back at
least 30 million years, and once
covered much of North Amer
ica, reports Rand McNally’s
“Traveler’s Almanac.” Today
these giants are found only on
the moist, temperate coast of
central California to southern
Oregon, with some individual
trees more than 2,000 years old.
Problems women must face when reaching maturity
oneself in a relationship. Each
woman needs to come to
terms with the sexual forces
within her and to integrate
these into the everyday
pattern of her life.
The use of contraception
and society’s recognition of
population pressure is casting
the traditional role of the
mature woman in a new light.
Only couples who want
children, and can love and
care for them, should be en
couraged to have them.
Every woman must take
part in this decision and also
take responsibility for the use
of contraception, recognizing
that even the best methods
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are still not always without
problems.
Choices involving abortion
or sterilization may be even
more difficult. More and
more, the modern world is
asking the mature woman to
find her identity apart from
exclusive involvement with
children.
As part of the maturation
process women must also
learn to live with the female
reproductive tract which,
along with its potential for
orgasm and pregnancy, can
cause pain, bleeding and even
death. As always, maturity
rests on the basis of
knowledge and understanding.
Menstrual periods may
reaffirm femaleness, but
they are often a nuisance and
frequently painful. Irregular
bleeding may mean a hor
monal disturbance, a
harmless irritation, or
possibly cancer. Only proper
medical tests can determine
the cause of the problem,
which must not be ignored.
Surgery on the reproductive
tract carries a threat to the
woman who does not under
stand the reasons for her
operation. As treatment for
some types of bleeding or
tumors, the need for surgery
is clear. The use of hysterec
tomy for sterilization or to
end menstrual problems,
however, is as much a
philosophical question as a
surgical one.
A woman ought to have an
informed voice in these
decisions and should feel free
to consult family, physicians
and friends. With a clear un
derstanding of the reasons for
an operation, a woman un
dergoing surgery should
emerge better physically and
emotionally than she would
have been without it.
The menopause remains a
worrisome time for women,
partly because they,do not un
derstand exactly what is
happening to them and partly
Page 21
because of all the conflicting,
if well-meaning advice.
Biologically, menopause is
the time when periods cease
because the ovaries make less
estrogen (female hormone).
During menopause a majority
of women will have hot
flashes — waves of heat much
like a blush. At this time, too,
irregular bleeding may be a
danger signal and should be
investigated.
In the past estrogen has
been widely prescribed, but
the routine use of estrogen
pills to replace the decreasing
amount of hormone in the
body is now under reevalua
tion because of a possible
—Griffin Daily News Thursday, October 6, 1977
relationship with cancer of
the uterus.
Nonetheless, severe hot
flashes as well as some types
of pain during intercourse can
be reversed with hormones,
and such treatment may be
well worth the possible risk to
the woman involved.
Current medical opinion at
tributes emotional problems
occuring at menopause to the
emotional climate surround
ing the menopause and the
other stresses of middle years
in a woman’s life rather than
decreasing hormone levels.
In reality, the menopause is
simply a stage in the aging
process that need have no
negative influence on a
woman’s happiness, produc
tivity or sexual satisfaction.
Thus the process of matura
tion for the woman involves,
in addition to those steps she
shares with men, an accep
tance of her particular sex
uality, her reproductive
potential, her reproductive
tract with its capacity to bring
joy and trouble, and the
menopause. The mark of true
maturity is the knowledge
that a woman’s gender may
influence, but need not limit,
the choices in her life.
(End Series)
