In some of the most respected medical manuals, fibroids are referred to as little more than a pesky annoyance. On a legitimate medical Web site they are described as, “generally symptomless, rarely causing problems and seldom requiring treatment.” But that’s not the story whispered in late-night phone conversations, shared at sister circle support groups, posted…

-BOOK EXCERPT Passing for Black By Linda Villarosa Copyright © 2008. Dafina Books, Kensington Publishing Corp. In this excerpt from Passing for Black, a new novel by our columnist Linda Villarosa, magazine editor Angela Wright has broken up with her fiancé, Keith. With no place to live, Angela is staying with her best friend, Mae.…

I belong to a local parenting “listserv,” where moms and dads share information on everything from breastfeeding and circumcision to tantrums and teething. Over the past few weeks, there’s been a persistent topic of both curiosity and debate roiling through our group’s e-mails: vaccine slowdown. Vaccine slowdown, or spreading out the number of shots given…

From 1987 to 2002, Mark McEwen was the face of CBS morning television. The warm, roly-poly McEwen, with his big moustache and bigger smile, made a perfect television weatherman. His sunny disposition and first-thing-in-the-morning cheer were nice to wake up to. But two years ago, as he puts it, “there was a change in the…

Last year, when “Good Morning America” anchor Robin Roberts found a lump in her breast during a self-exam, her first thought was: This can’t be; I’m too young! Yes, at 46, Roberts was younger than age 55, when two out of three invasive breast cancers are diagnosed. But she’s also black. Though African-Americans are less…

Money’s tight. And as a recession looms, it’s getting tighter. So should you spend your hard-earned money — sometimes more than double the price —to buy hormone-free milk? More and more Americans are saying “yes.” Bowing to consumer pressure, last month Wal-Mart announced that its store brand milk will now come exclusively from cows free…

It was hard to miss the recent terrible news that 3.2 million girls have a sexually transmitted disease. Worse, blacks were infected at twice the rate of white or Mexican-Americans, with more than half of black girls and young women reporting at least one. Again and again, those stats were splashed across newspapers, trumpeted on…

In his 1995 book Rage of a Privileged Class, Ellis Cose noted that behind the external trapping of success—good educations, comfortable incomes, nice homes—middle-class blacks are angry and disillusioned. In her new book, Black Pain: It Just Looks Like We’re Not Hurting (Scribner) author Terrie M. Williams warns that over a decade later something’s still…

How does your daughter learn about her body? From magazines that feature nipped, tucked and airbrushed size-2 celebrity cover models? From X-rated authors like Karrine Steffans and Zane, and the “Gossip Girls”? From music videos? From her boyfriend? Or from you? This is a rhetorical question. Of course it should be you. Starting around school-age,…