In 1974, Betty Ford changed the breast cancer game by announcing that she was battling the illness, introducing breast cancer as an acceptable conversation (and possibly spiking that year's then-record increase in women seeking breast cancer screening). In 1979, Tamoxifen changed the game by providing an...

What is it about breast cancer?

What makes it so disgusting on the one hand, and yet so compelling on the other? Why is it so difficult for a woman to tell a man that she's had breast cancer -- without blushing? Why is it so difficult to tell...

It started out awesome: "Boston. Fucking horrible."

More than 252,000 people liked Patton Oswalt's Facebook update regarding Monday's horrifying Boston Marathon attack. More than 48,000 people clicked "like" on The Huffington Post's reprint thus far. Obviously, Patton Oswalt's sage words are helping many to heal from the...

My father died today.

He was 70, and despite two brushes with cancer in the past 15 years (first prostate then lung), he had been healthy and vital right up until two months ago when some vague neurological symptoms led to a devastating diagnosis: leptomeningeal carcinomatosis, a...

I'm a married, heterosexual, middle-aged woman who supports same-sex marriage.

Yawn, right? I'm aware that this revelation is hardly noteworthy, particularly from where I am sitting -- here in a liberal-leaning suburb just north of New York City. What I do think worth noting is why.

Woody Allen once said that the most beautiful words in the English language are not "I love you" but "It's benign." I'm not sure I agree, but then, I have had only limited experience gazing into the eyes of a doctor and hoping for those two words that every neurotic...

If anyone has been wondering why I haven't written anything here lately, it is because I have been working for a theatrical production since January: Bite Your Tongue (an Actors Equity Showcase currently playing at Theater for the New City):

Bite Your Tongue explores the notion that...

My goals were set in stone. My plans meticulously laid out.

On Sept. 8, 2002, I would ride my first "century" -- an endurance bike ride of 100 miles. I had always been a "high achiever" (let's not be judgy and call me an "over achiever," all right?), so I...

This week marked the winter solstice -- the day of the year on which the sun appears at noon at its lowest altitude above the horizon, which also makes for the day of the year with the shortest duration of sunlight. But just as it is always darkest before the...

"You can thank me later," I thought to myself, as I peed on my brother's running sneakers.

So far, I'm still waiting for my family to thank me. This is despite that I'm fairly sure that the only reason we're back in our comfy house in Westchester County, New York...

Breast Cancer Awareness Month is upon us, and nothing says "awareness" like a couple of fit, 20-something men riding their bicycles roughly 7,000 miles (from Anchorage, Alaska to Cartegena, Colombia), wearing jerseys bearing the logo of the HERS Breast Cancer Foundation (HBCF). HBCF is a charity based in...

Well, it's that time of year again: the end of the 10-day period that began with Rosh Hashanah (what many know as the "Jewish New Year") and that ends with Yom Kippur (in Judaism, the "Day of Atonement"). This 10-day period is known by many as "The High Holidays" or...

For two young men from Anchorage, Alaska, the journey to a better life after breast cancer begins today, August 23, 2012.

Best friends since childhood, Neil Walsky, 25, and Jesse Frechione, 23, have committed the next four months, the next 6,690 miles, several canisters of bear-repellent and all this...

Ten years ago, on Aug. 3, 2002, I was mindlessly applying apricot scrub in the shower, thinking it was going to be just another forgettable summer weekend day. Instead, my hand froze on a spot just above my right nipple. An electric jolt of fear coursed through my body and...

It's a complicated world, and every day we are inundated with messages on how to make our way through it successfully. These messages often come to us via Facebook or Twitter, distilled from the books and lectures of self-appointed self-help gurus and life coaches. And these messages are often in...

When I need to "reset" my mood, nothing works better than doing a few "sun salutations."

A sun salutation is a sequence of yoga postures performed with each posture coordinated with a particular breath (inhale or exhale). For every school of yoga thought, there is another form of sun salutation,...

Researchers at the University of Kansas found that people were able to accurately assess a wide range of personality traits in strangers just by looking at their shoes. Granted, the study was small (63 subjects looking at 208 pairs of shoes), and some of the observations were obvious...

In one of the early episodes of the fifth season of Mad Men, Roger Sterling asks the question that stated a major theme for the entire season: When are things going to go back to normal?

When it comes to Don Draper and his third wife, Megan, the answer may...

Is there a woman alive who hasn't fantasized about taking some of "this stuff down here" and "moving it up there"?

Let me just say, I'm living the dream.

Truth be told, the dream started out as a nightmare in 2002 when at age 36 I was diagnosed with Stage...

Back when I was in school, a male friend confessed that his fantasy woman -- the woman he would marry someday if he met her -- would have tiny hips and large breasts. Fast forward to him marrying a woman to whom he had given the nickname "Mudflaps" in honor...