Adapted with permission from Relax, This Won't Hurt: Painless Answers to Women's Most Pressing Health Questions. Copyright 2001 by Judith Reichman, M.D.

Congratulations -- you're out of the "F" decades (forties and fifties) and into the "S's." At this point in your life, "S" stands for more than your age. You're self-assured, you have succeeded in reaching many of your goals, and should finally be savoring the rewards of decades of hard work. But society has programmed us (with its Medicare and Social Security programs) to think that 65 is a turning point when we automatically convert from being vital, contributing and independent (think: Madeleine Albright) to ailing, inactive and dependent (think: nursing home resident). Why women face this devastating ageism that negates our value, potential and sexuality, while men in their sixties still run for president, become CEOs of corporations and date younger women, is a sociological dilemma that I can't begin to address in this book. I'll leave that to Betty Friedan. But this belittling concept of who we have become should not become who we are. Let's not diminish our achievements. We've come a long way, women, and we should make a health commitment to go farther as we proudly enter our sixties and declare this the "I deserve to feel good" decade.