Heather Little-White, Ph.D., Contributor

The celebration of International Women's Day on March 8 brings into sharp focus the status of women around the world and to identify strategies for future advancement. The women's movement is marked by subtle lifestyle changes and more open communication about health and sexuality issues. Women are learning to apply standards to their own bodies to become educated consumers, especially in reproductive and sexual health.

Women's shapes and sizes are influenced by ethnicity and genetics. Black women age beautifully, due to the melanin in the skin which keeps them free from wrinkles, compared to their white colleagues of the same age. As black women age, their wrinkle-free skin gives them more personality and attitude as they get spunkier and sexier.

Several black sisters are late bloomers, coming into their own in their 50s and 60s, or getting a second wind and career change in later life. Celebrated poet, Maya Angelou, at the age of 64 became the 'first poet' for the United States presidential campaign in 1993.

Silver hair

Today's black women have debunked the term 'crone' which meant a wrinkled, hunchbacked old woman, unwanted and unloved. Women who were advancing in age were described as useless hags with nothing to celebrate. As times change, women are embracing their sexuality and womanhood, demonstrating that they can be feminine and sexy at any age.

No longer are women dying their silver hair or hiding their mid-section bulges. Mature women sport the very latest fashions, even showing 'belly skin' with pierced navels and responding to 'cat calls' from younger men. Some women even dare to enter into sexual relationships with younger partners.

Data from the National Center for Health Statistics indicate that more than 30 per cent of the black population is overweight and about 45 per cent of black women are obese according to their height, frame and age. Many die early due to the onset of lifestyle diseases. While women's large sizes are celebrated in the black community, heart disease, stroke and diabetes continue to be deadly among blacks. Though preventable, these diseases continue to loom large among black women who are too busy taking care of everyone else except themselves. This is identified as the 'quicker and sicker' syndrome because when black women decide to go for medical care, they go in sicker and die more quickly than they should.

Optimism

Women's positive response to a diagnosis of ill-health can create opportunities to get treated quickly and get back to a normal life. Taking this positive approach is what psychologists call dispositional optimism, which motivates women to take action through health-enhancing practices.

There is no reason why black women should continue to be victims of serious debilitating illnesses which impair their sexuality. The tendency is for women to put essential medical tests on the back burner instead of putting themselves first to determine the state and future of their health and sexuality. There are certain check-ups and tests that women should have on a regular basis. Some 'must-have' tests include the mammogram, which every woman should have once every two years after age 40 and then yearly after age 50.

Mammograms

If your family has a history of breast cancer, mammograms should be done more frequently. Unfortunately, woman do not take advantage of the saving power of mammograms, which are x-rays of the breast, to check for lumps or abnormal cells.

Another critical test is the pelvic examination and pap smear, to be done annually by women 18 years or older, or by younger women who are sexually active. Black women are three times more likely to develop cervical cancer and twice more likely to die from cancer compared with white women. A pap smear is done to test for pre-cancerous and cancerous cells, as well as to detect viral infections like herpes and vaginal warts; bacterial infections as in bacterial vaginosis, and protozoan infections, including trichomoniasis, or 'trich'.

A sample of tissue is taken from the cervix during the pelvic examination and sent to the lab for analysis. Depending on the results, your doctor will call you for a follow-up visit. During the pelvic examination, your doctor will check for abnormal growths, cysts and malformation of organs.

Urinalysis

Routine physical examinations should be done every two years, depending on age. Your doctor will check height and weight and test your vital signs - pulse, blood pressure, respiration and sometimes temperature. The eyes, ears, nose and throat are also examined. Urinalysis is done to detect the presence of blood, sugar and abnormal protein and acids in the urine. Urine tests are also used to diagnose kidney, bladder and liver infections.

In further celebration of their sexual health, women must learn to tune into their senses, recalling what they experience during moments of pleasure, and find a rhythm to carry out techniques for improved sexual intimacy. Tuning into your senses and going with the flow help you enhance your sexual experience instead of focusing on the orgasm as the only reason to be intimate. Women should learn to enjoy the other pleasures which lead up to orgasm.

Books

It is important for women to take on the challenge to see how intimately they can get to know their partners' bodies. During the process, women should make a mental note of how it feels when caressing with your fingertips or lips. Be sure to listen to what your partner's body is telling you, and if it does not feel right move to something else that pleases both of you. Books on sexuality keep women informed as they celebrate female sexuality and womanhood. The books include favourites like My Secret Garden, Kama Sutra and Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Sex.

The poem by Maya Angelou's, who radiates self-esteem and is an expression of positive sexuality, says it best in her poem Still I Rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?

Why are you beset with gloom?

'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells

Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,

With the certainty of tides,

Just like hopes springing high,

Still I'll rise ...

Does my sexiness upset you?

Does it come as a surprise

That I dance like I've got diamonds

At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame

I rise ...