by Patricia Sicilia

Created on: June 28, 2008

Women's Aging Issues: when Your Hairdresser and Gynecologist Retire

I Trusted My Hairdresser and Gynecologist so Implicitly, They Know Things About Me that My Mother, Husband and the IRS Don't

By Patricia Sicilia

Ladies, as we age, we experience many changes and traumas. Our children leave, older relatives start to die, menopause arrives, young men start calling us "ma'am," we are at constant war with our weight, our hair turns grey, and we start forgetting what we got up for before we even finish getting up!

But can anything be so traumatic as when our gynecologist and hairdresser retire on us? I don't know about you, but I trusted these people so implicitly, they know things about me that my mother, husband and the IRS don't. Just the thought of letting someone else give me a pap test, or get near my hair with shears is enough to drive me back to drinking! And so, when both of these people who were so much a part of my heart retired this year, I found myself, at age 56, dealing with yet another aging issue - having to search for a new gynecologist and hairdresser.

As a sweet young thing in my 20s, I was lucky enough to find Dr. Jay, an ob-gyn with whom I could bond. Let's face it, this person treats your most personal health needs and you need to be comfortable with him. He's been places even your husband hasn't! He would joke with me as he performed his examinations, taking my mind off the procedures, and afterwards in his office he'd give me the report, and ask if anything else was on my mind. And there always was. I could tell him anything. He was never judgmental, and always truthful with me. He was of the opinion that your general physical and mental health had a lot to do with your gynecological health. He watched me age from a flirty little wench to a jaded 50-year-old. He always elicited a smile from me, and I felt 25 in his presence. He got me through two operations, birth-control pill side effects, sex and emotional problems, weight gain, and was more in tune with all my physical ailments than any of my general practitioners. When I was tardy with my checkups, his office called and said "Doctor Jay said for you to get your butt in here." When my brothers died, he was more help than any therapist. And imagine my surprise when he personally called me out of the blue to see how I was doing after reports of my breast cancer treatment started trickling in to him from my other doctors.

Around the same time I found Dr. Jay, I found Bob, my hairdresser. My Mom

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>