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Living with Metastatic Breast Cancer Means the Pandemic Isnโt ‘Over’ for Me
Read More: Living with Metastatic Breast Cancer Means the Pandemic Isnโt ‘Over’ for MeAs told to Jacquelyne Froeber October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I was in the produce aisle of the Winn-Dixie when a grown man coughed on me. Loudly. I froze โ a ripened tomato in my hand. I felt the weight of it and noted the subtle spray of the cough on its bright red…
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I’m Proud to Be the Founder of Moms on Mushrooms
Read More: I’m Proud to Be the Founder of Moms on MushroomsAs told to Jacquelyne Froeber In 2019, my best friend/business partner and I took our very successful โparentally incorrectโ live comedy act, โThe Pump and Dump Show,โ to the next level. After touring the country for six years and performing in front of thousands of mothers, we decided it was time to grow the show…
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My Endometrial Cancer Hid in Menopause
Read More: My Endometrial Cancer Hid in MenopauseAs told to Erica Rimlinger As far as I knew, I wasnโt going through menopause. I was going through โthe change.โ Like many women in my generation, I was raised in a household, community and society that spoke vaguely about โthe changeโ and the โproblemsโ that crept up when you reached โa certain age.โ I…
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My โSmallโ Cancer Turned Out to Be Stage 4 Breast Cancer
Read More: My โSmallโ Cancer Turned Out to Be Stage 4 Breast CancerAs told to Jacquelyne Froeber October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. December is my birthday month. It was also the month I scheduled all my yearly health exams, including my mammogram. But December 2014 was busy, I guess. (I burned all my journals from that time โ but thatโs another story.) I donโt remember why…
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I Was “Too Young” to Have Colon Cancer
Read More: I Was “Too Young” to Have Colon CancerAs told to Shannon Shelton Miller I was thrilled to be pregnant with my first child at 29. Everything went well for about eight months โ until the day I went to the restroom and the toilet was full of blood. I immediately called my OB-GYN because I was scared something was wrong with my…
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It Wasnโt Just a Pain in the Neck. It Was Fibromyalgia.
Read More: It Wasnโt Just a Pain in the Neck. It Was Fibromyalgia.As told to Jacquelyne Froeber I was lifting weights at the gym when I felt something rip in my neck. I wanted to scream, but the sudden burst of fiery pain took my breath away. โDonโt panic,โ I told myself. It was probably just a neck strain or a pinched nerve. I went home and…
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After a Traumatic Vaginal Birth Two Years Ago, I Live with Bladder Leakage
Read More: After a Traumatic Vaginal Birth Two Years Ago, I Live with Bladder LeakageThis educational resource was sponsored by Poise, a brand of Kimberly-Clark. As told to Nicole Audrey Spector Iโm small in stature. But you wouldnโt guess that Iโm a petite woman if you went only by my sneeze, the sound of which resembles the war cry of a goose. And observers donโt get to hear just…
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After Years of Living with Postpartum Bladder Leakage, I Was Able to Successfully Treat It
Read More: After Years of Living with Postpartum Bladder Leakage, I Was Able to Successfully Treat ItAs told to Nicole Audrey Spector After giving birth, vaginally, to my first child, I experienced bladder leakage. It happens, I was told by my medical team. It would likely go away. And it did. But after the birth (also vaginal) of my second child, the bladder leakage came again. Only this time, it didnโt…
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Bladder, Bladder health, Bladder leakage, incontinence, Real women real stories, Urinary Incontinence
Bladder Leakage Can Feel Like a Full-Time Job, but I Know I’m Not Alone
Read More: Bladder Leakage Can Feel Like a Full-Time Job, but I Know I’m Not AloneAs told to Jacquelyne Froeber A few years ago, I was at home when I had the urge to pee. I made my way to the bathroom, but about halfway there, I started to go. I picked up the pace but some of the pee didnโt make it into the bowl. I was surprised โ…
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Taking Charge of My Finances Gave Me Strength During Loss
Read More: Taking Charge of My Finances Gave Me Strength During LossAs told to Jacquelyne Froeber and Noelys Mendez August 14 is National Financial Awareness Day. I grew up in the countryside of Cuba in a traditional Cuban household. My father was the provider for the family. He worked โ a lot โ on the small farm we owned and he took care of all of…
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My Sister, My Mom and I Were All Diagnosed with Breast Cancer Within 18 Months of Each Other
Read More: My Sister, My Mom and I Were All Diagnosed with Breast Cancer Within 18 Months of Each OtherAs told to Erica Rimlinger When my sister received a diagnosis of stage 2 breast cancer, she โ and all of our family members โ were shocked. She was healthy. She was young, in her early forties. There was no family history of breast cancer. But our initial shock would be followed by a series…
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As a Mom, I Always Put My Needs Last โ Until Stage 4 Colon Cancer Showed Up
Read More: As a Mom, I Always Put My Needs Last โ Until Stage 4 Colon Cancer Showed UpAs told to Erica Rimlinger As my mind groggily surfaced from anesthesia-induced sleep, my mom sounded far away as she delivered the news. โThe doctor couldnโt do the operation,โ she said. โThere was too much cancer.” The next thing I remember was a kind chaplain entering my hospital room. Her presence made me feel at…
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Iโm Turning Anxiety into Art
Read More: Iโm Turning Anxiety into ArtAs told to Jacquelyne Froeber July is National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. I couldnโt catch my breath. I ran into my parentsโ bedroom clutching my chest as I gulped for air. The look of panic on their faces only made breathing harder. Sitting on their bed, it felt like an eternity before I began…
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Thereโs Nothing Normal About Uterine Fibroids
Read More: Thereโs Nothing Normal About Uterine FibroidsAs told to Shannon Shelton Miller July is Fibroid Awareness Month. For too long, I was told my painful period cramps and heavy bleeding were normal. As a teenager, I was put on iron supplements, which should have been a sign I was bleeding too much. But growing up in Mississippi in the 1980s and…
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POTS Stole My Energy and Everything That Made Me, Me
Read More: POTS Stole My Energy and Everything That Made Me, MeAs told to Jacquelyne Froeber About 15 years ago, I got really sick. It started with strep throat. Then mono. I was trying my best to power through as a busy mom with two young kids, but then the fever started. For days, I was out of commission, lying in sweat and unable to cool…
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I Was the CEO in a Male-Dominated Field When I Came Out to My Company as a Trans Woman
Read More: I Was the CEO in a Male-Dominated Field When I Came Out to My Company as a Trans WomanAs told to Jacquelyne Froeber June is Pride Month. I remember pulling into the parking spot, turning off the car and just sitting there for a minute. My office is in the suburbs on Long Island, so itโs quiet. It was just me and the nervous click of my French manicure on the steering wheel.…
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When It Came to My Breast Cancer, I Did It My Way
Read More: When It Came to My Breast Cancer, I Did It My WayAs told to Erica Rimlinger For 42 years, Iโve been living with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), a disorder that causes non-stop intense pain. In that time, Iโve had doctors call me crazy, delusional and a liar. One doctor was so abusive, he told me I should โjust shoot myself in the head.โ Itโs no…
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Prolapse Changed My Life for the Better
Read More: Prolapse Changed My Life for the BetterAs told to Jacquelyne Froeber June is Pelvic Organ Prolapse Awareness Month Sitting in a waiting room with mostly 80-year-old men, I wondered how I got here. I was 50. Active. In good health. But apparently my bladder thought I was twice my age. The urge to pee was taking over my life. No matter…
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Thanks to TikTok, I Was Able to Afford the Anti-Obesity Medication That Changed My Life
Read More: Thanks to TikTok, I Was Able to Afford the Anti-Obesity Medication That Changed My LifeAs told to Jacquelyne Froeber When my sister turned 13, I bought her a ring that said, โI hope you dance.โ I cried the first time I heard that song. The lyrics said everything I wanted for my sister. I want her to be confident and strong. I want her to take chances and live…
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Finding Silver Linings Through My Work as a Health Advocate Has Helped Me Live with MS for 38 Years
Read More: Finding Silver Linings Through My Work as a Health Advocate Has Helped Me Live with MS for 38 YearsAs told to Nicole Audrey Spector A few weeks after college graduation, I was in a bad car accident. I had a concussion and a gaping wound that required 16 stitches. I donโt remember the accident, but I do remember a truly odd sensation that haunted me for a while after โ my feet were…
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Positivity Was My Secret Weapon Against PCOS and Infertility
Read More: Positivity Was My Secret Weapon Against PCOS and InfertilityAs told to Jacquelyne Froeber April 21-27 is National Infertility Awareness Week. When I turned 38 in 2018, my biological clock started ticking. Loudly. This was a surprise. My husband and I were planning on being child-free. I also have polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and I knew PCOS could cause difficulties getting pregnant. But that…
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After Years of Suffering, I Got to the Root of My Migraine Attacks and Am Finally Free of Them
Read More: After Years of Suffering, I Got to the Root of My Migraine Attacks and Am Finally Free of ThemAs told to Nicole Audrey Spector It started right after I graduated from law school. Piercing pain โ not a throb but a shooting knife from one side of my head down to my shoulder. Sometimes it was so bad Iโd throw up. Sometimes Iโd be bedridden in darkness for days, wide awake in agony.…
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Obtuve el trabajo de mis sueรฑos. Un poco despuรฉs me diagnosticaron cรกncer de vejiga.
Read More: Obtuve el trabajo de mis sueรฑos. Un poco despuรฉs me diagnosticaron cรกncer de vejiga.English Tal como se relatรณ a Jacquelyne Froeber Hace aproximadamente tres aรฑos, obtuve un nuevo trabajo como vicepresidente de contrataciones para una compaรฑรญa de servicios legales. Estaba emocionada de hacer algo que me encantaba en una nueva compaรฑรญa. Sentรญ menos emociรณn, sin embargo, por lidiar con sรญntomas de una infecciรณn urinaria (IU). Tenรญa las seรฑales…
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Anti-Obesity Medication Stopped My Obsessive Thoughts About Food and Helped Me Become a Stronger Woman
Read More: Anti-Obesity Medication Stopped My Obsessive Thoughts About Food and Helped Me Become a Stronger WomanAs told to Jacquelyne Froeber March 4-8, 2024, is Obesity Care Week. โIf I donโt get food in the next two minutes, Iโm going to die.โ This is how my brain works. Every day, at various points throughout the day, panic seeps into my thoughts and consumes me. I think of nothing else but food.…
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I Started My Dream Job. Then I Was Diagnosed with Bladder Cancer.
Read More: I Started My Dream Job. Then I Was Diagnosed with Bladder Cancer.As told to Jacquelyne Froeber About three years ago, I started a new job as vice president of recruiting for a legal services firm. I was thrilled to be doing something I love at a new company. I was less thrilled, however, that I was also dealing with symptoms of a urinary tract infection (UTI).…
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โLupus is A Cruel Disease โย But Through Living With it, I’ve Found Balance and Grace
Read More: โLupus is A Cruel Disease โย But Through Living With it, I’ve Found Balance and GraceAs told to Nicole Audrey Spector I was in my late twenties and working a demanding โ but wholly fulfilling โ job at a large nonprofit in New York City. In addition to dedicating myself to my career, I was also going full force with physical exercise, had an active social life and was deep…
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My First Dry January Was Overflowing With Criticism, but I Learned to Listen to Myself
Read More: My First Dry January Was Overflowing With Criticism, but I Learned to Listen to MyselfSix years ago I woke up with a bad headache attack. My mouth felt like sandpaper. So did my eyeballs. I was hungover. My family and I went to a lot of parties that holiday season โ Iโm not complaining โ but around New Yearโs Eve I was craving a reset. So I decided to…
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Doctors Said It Was Probably Just a Stomach Bug โ It Wound Up Being C. Diff
Read More: Doctors Said It Was Probably Just a Stomach Bug โ It Wound Up Being C. DiffAs told to Nicole Audrey Spector Last January, I came down with a bad sinus infection, so I went to urgent care. The doctor looked in my ears for approximately two-tenths of a second and told me there was fluid in them. I needed antibiotics. I was relieved. The antibiotics would cure me! But the…
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With Metastatic Breast Cancer, I Canโt Control Much โ But That Only Makes Me Fight Harder For a Cure
Read More: With Metastatic Breast Cancer, I Canโt Control Much โ But That Only Makes Me Fight Harder For a CureAs told to Erica Rimlinger My grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer in her 40s, and my Ashkenazi Jewish heritage is a risk factor for breast cancer. So I started getting mammograms when I was 40, back before that was the recommended age for everyone. The second mammogram I had, at age 41, found cancer:…
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Soy inmunodeficiente y un ensayo clรญnico cambiรณ mi vida
Read More: Soy inmunodeficiente y un ensayo clรญnico cambiรณ mi vidaTal como lo relataron a Nicole Audrey Spector Cuando era bebรฉ, me diagnosticaron talasemia ฮฒ, un trastorno sanguรญneo infrecuente que hace que no puedas producir suficientes glรณbulos rojos. En ese entonces, la รบnica forma que tenรญa para sobrevivir era recibir transfusiones de sangre en forma regular. La primera fue cuando tenรญa ocho meses y tuve…
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I’m Immunocompromised and a Clinical Trial Changed My Life
Read More: I’m Immunocompromised and a Clinical Trial Changed My LifeEspaรฑol As told to Nicole Audrey Spector When I was a baby, I was diagnosed with beta thalassemia, a rare blood disorder that makes you unable to produce enough healthy red blood cells. Back then, the only way for me to survive was to receive regular blood transfusions. I had my first one at just…
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EMDR Therapy Helped Me Heal from Trauma. Now I Use it to Help My Clients.
Read More: EMDR Therapy Helped Me Heal from Trauma. Now I Use it to Help My Clients.On the first day of my trauma retreat the therapist went directly from โDo you prefer to cook or eat takeout?โ to โLetโs make a list of the worst things that have ever happened to you.โ I knew from the intake process to anticipate this exercise as prep for eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)…
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For Nearly a Year, Doctorโs Dismissed My Bladder Cancer Symptoms as UTIs
Read More: For Nearly a Year, Doctorโs Dismissed My Bladder Cancer Symptoms as UTIsAs told to Nicole Audrey Spector In 2013, I was at an amusement park with my family when I started experiencing sudden and frequent urges to urinate and a burning sensation when I peed. At first I chalked it up to getting older. I figured, โWell, maybe things arenโt working as well as they used…
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HIV, Hivaids, Prevention, Preventive health, Real women real stories, Sexually transmitted diseases, Sexually transmitted infections, Stds, Sti
After Being Sexually Assaulted, I Started Taking PrEP โ and I Plan to Be on It for Life
Read More: After Being Sexually Assaulted, I Started Taking PrEP โ and I Plan to Be on It for LifeAs told to Nicole Audrey Spector In 2020, I met a man and invited him over for tea. We were attracted to one another and I was prepared to have sex with him. Once we started making out, I took out a condom. He refused to put it on, pinned me down on the bed…
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My OB-GYN Told Me It Was Nothing to Worry About โ But It Ended Up Being Ovarian Cancer
Read More: My OB-GYN Told Me It Was Nothing to Worry About โ But It Ended Up Being Ovarian CancerAs told to Nicole Audrey Spector I noticed something was off when, despite tons of cardio, I started gaining weight. I also felt pressure in my lower abdomen โ like there was a golf ball pressing inside my right side. And I could feel something when I pressed down on the area. Concerned, I made…
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Doctors Told Me It Was Just Perimenopause. It Turned Out To Be Uterine Fibroids.
Read More: Doctors Told Me It Was Just Perimenopause. It Turned Out To Be Uterine Fibroids.As told to Nicole Audrey Spector July is Fibroids Awareness month. I was on birth control pills for most of my adult life, and in my early 40s, I had my tubes tied to prevent pregnancy. After the surgery, which is called a tubal ligation, I began having extremely heavy and painful periods. They were…
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A Doctor Talked Me into Getting a Hysterectomy to Cure My Endometriosis. She Was Wrong.
Read More: A Doctor Talked Me into Getting a Hysterectomy to Cure My Endometriosis. She Was Wrong.As told to Nicole Audrey Spector The chronic fatigue and migraine attacks began in high school. Some days I was completely unable to function. Because I had a history of depression and anxiety, it was impossible to know whether the fatigue and migraine attacks were stemming from a mental health issue. My family and I…
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Losing Many Women in My Family to Dementia Inspired Me to Donate My Brain to Science
Read More: Losing Many Women in My Family to Dementia Inspired Me to Donate My Brain to ScienceJune is Alzehimerโs and Brain Awareness Month. As told to Nicole Audrey Spector โWhy would you donate your brain to science?โ Itโs a question Iโve been asked a lot since I decided to, well, donate my brain to science. The answer? It begins with love. In my case, itโs my love for the 13 women…
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I Grew Up Thinking I Was Immune to Skin Cancer Based on My Ethnicity. I Was Wrong.
Read More: I Grew Up Thinking I Was Immune to Skin Cancer Based on My Ethnicity. I Was Wrong.As told to Nicole Audrey Spector I grew up in a family where wearing sunscreen wasnโt talked about and was rarely used. Quite the opposite actually: We doused ourselves in suntan oil and baked in the sun. The more sun, the better! As a Hispanic woman with brown-colored skin, I enjoyed watching my skin shade…
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Crecรญ pensando que era inmune al cรกncer de piel por mi etnia. Estaba equivocada.
Read More: Crecรญ pensando que era inmune al cรกncer de piel por mi etnia. Estaba equivocada.Tal como lo relataron a Nicole Audrey Spector Crecรญ en una familia en la cual no se hablaba acerca del uso de protectores solares los cuales se utilizaban muy infrecuentemente. De hecho, sucedรญa lo opuesto: Nos baรฑรกbamos en aceite bronceador y dejรกbamos que el sol nos tueste. ยกEntre mรกs sol, mejor! Puesto que soy una…
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HIV, Hivaids, Real women real stories, Sexually transmitted diseases, Sexually transmitted infections, Stds, Sti
I Was Diagnosed with HIV When I Was 15. Itโs Been a Journey of Learning to Love Myself Enough to Take My Meds.
Read More: I Was Diagnosed with HIV When I Was 15. Itโs Been a Journey of Learning to Love Myself Enough to Take My Meds.As told to Nicole Audrey Spector I became sexually active when I was really young โ just 13 years old. I probably wasnโt emotionally mature enough for sex, but I had a boyfriend I trusted. We used birth control, but not condoms, so we had no protection against sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Though I didnโt…
