By Ashley J. WennersHerron
CNN Medical News Intern

Breast cancer runs in my family; even my dad had it. I routinely do self-checks, always terrified that I'll find some indication of my worst nightmare.

Two weeks ago, I did. I found a lump the size of a pea buried in the skin between my right breast and my armpit. I paled, I cried, I panicked about the future, and then I did the sensible thing. I searched the Internet. Typing "Right Breast Lump and 20-Year-Old Woman" into Google didn't reveal anything. Neither did "Breast Cancer in 20-Year-Old Girl." I fruitlessly searched every site I could think of, turning up contradictory results.

An hour into my self-diagnosis, it occurred to me to call a doctor.

Living away from home and my usual doctors, I called my insurance provider. After 45 minutes on hold, an operator listed four doctors in Manhattan that would accept my insurance. The first three were booked through November. The fourth could see me the week before Thanksgiving.

The thought of not knowing for nearly a month was unbearable. Tears welled up in my eyes and fear was obvious in my voice when I confirmed a time with the receptionist. She must’ve heard how scared I was, she told me that they could squeeze me in early the next day.

The next morning, after arriving an hour early, I was told that the doctor’s office was out of network for my insurance. They’d take me, but I’d have to cough up almost $200 just to be seen, and I’d have to pay out of pocket for testing –up to $3,000.

I was shocked. Something was wrong with me and I was getting it checked. I was being responsible. I had called my insurance company, thinking they would send me somewhere I could afford. Not only was I worried about a potentially serious health problem, I was also concerned that I wouldn’t be able to have it looked at because it was too expensive. It turned out that the doctor’s office was willing to work with me. Maybe they just wanted to get me, crying and hyperventilating, away from their other patients out of their waiting room. But they took me; they didn’t turn me away.

The doctor examined the lump and sent me for a battery of tests.  After being poked and prodded and monogrammed and sonogrammed, I waited.

Eventually, I was told the good news—a benign cyst and an inflamed lymph node. Two completely harmless conditions that I could have agonized over for weeks and weeks, if I hadn’t known what it could have been.

If you are truly concerned that you might be sick, get it checked out.  A lot more doctors’ offices than you might think are willing to work out payment plans. It’s worth knowing what you are facing.

Hopefully, it’ll end up being nothing, but if it is something worse, catch it as early as possible.

Have you ever ignored a health problem, because you thought you couldn’t afford to get it looked at? Are you putting off going to see a doctor because you don’t want to know if you are sick?

Editor's Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

By Andrea Kane
CNNHealth.com  Producer

September is National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. Each year in the U.S. about 21,500 women are told they have it; approximately 14,600 die of it. Detected early, it has a five-year survival rate of almost 94 percent, according to the National Cancer Institute. Unfortunately, only 15 percent of ovarian cancers are found when the disease is still localized.

A good friend of mine died of ovarian cancer six years ago. She was only 41. We weren’t talk-to-you-every-day best friends, but when we saw each other, we connected.

After I had a baby, we had less time to spend together. Still, she faithfully came out to visit the baby and me.

In 2000, shortly after my daughter turned 1 and my friend turned 39, her doctor found an ovarian cyst. Unfortunately, in the Russian roulette game of health and disease, she lost: Her cyst contained a malignant tumor – a one-in-a-hundred chance, she was told. The good news was that it was “only” stage 2 (In stage 1, the cancer is still contained in the ovary; stage 4 is considered terminal). But even stage 2 was not good enough.

Everyone agrees that ovarian cancer needs to be found earlier, but the question is how? Part of the problem is, the symptoms of ovarian cancer– bloating, increased abdominal size, changes in bladder and bowel function and a feeling of pelvic fullness or pain - can be also caused by a number of other maladies. And there is no accurate blood test.

For my friend, surgery was followed by chemotherapy, and more chemotherapy. Still, she found time to visit my daughter and me, and we found time to talk about motherhood, religion, relationships, life. Our parallel but sometimes intersecting lives went on.

At the end of 2001 I had a second daughter, and her cancer returned. I drove her to a couple of chemo appointments; she had more surgery and some radiation. We talked about dying, but only in the abstract – because neither one of us wanted to think it would happen to her.

But her worsening condition cracked our carefully constructed illusion. The drugs made her terribly sick — not that they were actually helping - and surgery was just a temporary fix. She knew her options were limited; she desperately looked to get into a trial for a new drug.

The last time she came to visit me, she told me that she recently had realized that this thing could actually kill her. But she still held some hope.

Then, before she could go into remission again, the complications started in earnest.

Her parents arrived from Florida to take care of her. The morphine made her sleep 20 hours a day. She stopped communicating with all but a very small group of friends; they gave the rest of us e-mail updates.

I desperately - and selfishly - wanted to see her, to talk to her one last time. And then I got my chance: My husband prepared some legal documents for her that required signatures. He asked her parents whether I could be the one to drop off the documents. They obliged.

I was nervous before seeing her; I didn’t know what to expect. On the appointed day, I headed over with my younger daughter.

Seeing her wasn’t exactly a shock, but she didn’t look like her old self: Her skin was yellow, her face looked gaunt and she sported a feeding tube. She didn’t smile – not even once. She and her mother both looked exhausted. I tried to be cheerful enough for the two of us.

After she signed the documents, we all sat on her back porch and chit-chatted about trivial matters: my daughter’s sandals, her nap schedule, my other daughter. Blah, blah, blah. We talked about everything except the pink elephant in the room. What I really wanted to ask was how she was doing emotionally: Was she afraid? Bitter? Angry? Or had she come to terms with dying? Was she at peace? I could not tell.

Impulsively, I asked her mother to take a photograph of us with a camera I saw sitting on the nearby table. Her mother snapped two photos and then my daughter and I left. The visit had lasted 15 minutes.

Maybe I couldn’t talk to her about the things that mattered most because her mother was there, or maybe because I didn’t want to upset her by openly acknowledging something she never had: She was dying. In any case, I will always feel that I missed my last chance to talk to her honestly and openly, to hold her close to me and whisper “Goodbye, I love you.”

Two weeks later Jennifer Lisa Bertoni died.

A while later I received an envelope in the mail: the two photos. As it turns out, they were the last ones taken of her. Surprisingly, in both of them, she gazes back at me, smiling.

Editor's Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

By Naaz Malek
CNN Medical Intern

Kudos to my generation of women for being Empowered Patients! My generation is different from my mother’s. Young women today have resources, such as the Internet, that allows them to do their homework before a doctor’s visit and push harder for answers. Combine that with advancements in technology and the chances of detecting a problem earlier are greatly improved.

Take my 22-year-old friend for example. Let’s call her Sue. Her periods had recently gotten very painful. Her mother also had painful periods when she was young, but she never went to the doctor. Sue wasn’t going to sit this one out. She was miserable and she wanted answers. So she went to the doctor and after a sonography she found out that she has a small fibroid.

A fibroid is a tumor that grows inside a woman’s womb. In most cases it is non-cancerous. It’s common to see women in their 40s and 50s get a diagnosis of fibroids. But my friend is only 22! I didn’t think that was normal.

It turns out, I was wrong. I called Dr. Joanna Cain, chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology for Warren-Alpert Medical School at Brown University. She says fibroids are caused by increased levels of estrogen, and as young women are “at the height of hormonal activity” it is not uncommon for them to have this condition.

Dr. Melinda Miller-Thrasher, a doctor on the clinical faculty at Emory University, says she has been diagnosing fibroids in more females in their 20s in the past decade. Miller-Thrasher says this increase isn’t because more young women are developing fibroids. It is because they are going to the doctor as soon as they notice something unusual.

Because of the small size of the fibroid and her young age, my friend’s doctor asked her to just observe her period for time being. Thrasher says that sometimes the risks involved in removing a fibroid outweigh the benefits. Therefore in some instance not doing anything to the fibroid can be the best alternative.

So all Sue can do now is wait and watch to see whether her symptoms get worse. But at least she knows what’s wrong with her.

I’m proud of Sue for taking the initiative to find an answer, even though her mother didn’t.

Do you know anyone who benefited from going to the doctor as soon as he or she suspected a problem?

Editor's Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

By Jennifer Pifer-Bixler
CNN Senior Medical Producer

Attention all mommies and daddies-to-be. Apparently there is a test you can now buy at the drug store that will predict the gender of your baby. Since Sanjay reported on the test Tuesday it's been a hot topic around the newsroom. Sanjay's producer even called and asked whether I wanted to take the test.

You see, I am having a baby in October. We haven't found out the gender. At least not yet.

At first, I was all for finding out if little TBD (that's what I call the baby) was a girl or a boy. The Type A producer in me wants to plan, plan, plan. How should we decorate the nursery? Should we save all the princess costumes and Hannah Montana gear? (Before you get the wrong idea, I should mention we already have a 5-year-old daughter.) Finally – and most importantly – as my belly expands and I begin to feel TBD flutter around, I want to give the baby a name, an identity. It would help me bond with TBD.

But now, I am having second thoughts. One of my friends is due in June and she doesn't want to find out her baby's gender before it’s born. A colleague who had her son a few months ago did the same thing. One of my editors feels so strongly about this that she begged me to reconsider. Twice. "It's one of the few surprises left in life!" she says with great passion.

Maybe it is the pregnancy hormones, but now I feel conflicted. I even put the question to my Facebook friends. Should I find out or should I wait? The next ultrasound is right around the corner. What do you think?

Editor's Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

By Jennifer Pifer-Bixler
CNN Medical Senior Producer

My husband just got back from a long trip. And while I missed him terribly (hi honey, in case you are reading!), I have a confession: There was an upside to his absence. I went on a "girlfriend-palooza." From dinners to extended phone calls, it was nice spending quality time with friends. Now don't get me wrong, we have an active “couple” social life. But ladies, let's be honest, there is something different about just hanging with the girls. Laughing and dishing can do wonders for your mood.

Reseachers at the University of Michigan say there is some science behind the high we can get from hanging out with friends. Here's how they figured it out: The researchers took saliva samples from 160 female college students. Then, the women were put in pairs. One group performed an emotionally neutral task: proofreading a botany manuscript together. Then the other pairs played a “get-to-know-you” game, where they shared intimate information with each other. Afterwards, both sets of pairs played cards together on the computer. Then they gave another saliva sample. And here's what researchers found: The women who spent time talking and getting to know each other had higher progesterone levels. Other research has found that progesterone acts kind of like anti-anxiety medication, according to lead researcher, Dr. Stephanie Brown. On top of that, the study also found higher levels of progesterone were linked to a greater willingness to sacrifice for another person, even if it could mean danger to them.

Researchers say this study could help explain the connection between biology and social behavior. "These links may help us understand why people in close relationships are happier, healthier and live longer than those who are socially isolated," says lead researcher, Dr. Stephanie Brown.

I want to know what you think. Do you find hanging out with your girlfriends makes you feel better? Also – this study didn't look at guys- but I would be curious to know from our male readers – does your mood improve after hanging out with your friends?

Editor's Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

By Danielle Dellorto
CNN Medical Producer

I was on the phone with my friend the other night having ordinary “girl talk” when I heard an exaggerated gasp on the other end of the line. “Are you OK?” I immediately asked, worried something awful had happened. “I’m fine,” she said. “I was just looking in the mirror and realized my hair is getting so thin! I’m going to be bald before you know it.”

The truth is, my thirtysomething friend is not going to end up bald like her shiny-headed husband, but she is joining over 50 percent of women who’ll experience hair loss before age 50.

That number may seem high but doctors say “female-pattern balding” occurs all the time - but women just don’t like to talk about. “It can be embarrassing for some women so they’ll just style their hair differently try to hide it,” says Dr. Paradi Mirmirani, a dermatologist in Vallejo, California and spokesperson for the American Academy of Dermatology.

Hair loss patterns in women are different from those you’d see in men. Most women experience thinning on the top of the head, or around the crown. Rarely do women experience receding hair lines or develop patches of total baldness, according to dermatologists.

It’s normal to lose about 100 strands of hair a day. If you notice your hair loss increasing, it’s important to talk to your doctor because while often hereditary, it can also be a sign of a serious medical condition, or a side effect from a prescription drug. (find a dermatologist in your area) 

I was surprised to learn not all 'hair loss' is created equal. Turns out, women can experience three different types:

Thinning:  This is the most common form of hair loss and it's hereditary. “You can pretty much look at either your mom or dad and determine if you’re at high risk,” says Mirmirani.

The normal growth cycle for hair is every two to six years. But as we age, the growth cycle shortens and the new strands of hair grow in fewer, and thinner. There is no prevention for hereditary hair thinning, but there are treatment options.

For those experiencing hereditary thinning, an over-the-counter topical medication containing 2 percent to 5 percent of the drug minoxidil will slow down the thinning process and help to re-grow new, stronger hair follicles. “This is a great treatment option but a women need to keep using it because if they stop, the same thinning pattern will develop all over again, “ notes Mirmirani.

Shedding:  Shedding occurs for a number of reasons, most often in women post-pregnancy. When pregnant, elevated hormone levels in the body cause your hair follicles to take a nap essentially and not shed the normal 100 hairs a day. “This is why you’ll often hear women talk about how great their hair looked during those nine months,” Mirmirani added. “Post-pregnancy, your hair’s natural growth cycle plays catch up and sheds a lot of hair at once, but in reality it’s the same amount you would have naturally lost if you never got pregnant.”

Over 290 medications can also cause hair shedding, according to the AAD. Most common medications to impact hair loss are amphetamines, beta blockers, antidepressants and blood thinners.

Lack of a properly balanced diet, including getting enough iron, will also cause hair to shed. An over- or under-active thyroid is also a common factor.

“The good thing for a person experiencing hair shedding to know is that it’s absolutely not permanent–the hair will grow back the same as it was before.”

Experts say about six months after eliminating the reason for the increased shedding (example, after pregnancy, or once your thyroid is regulated), your hair will go back to normal.

Breakage: If you’re like me, it’s not uncommon to frequently use an extra hot flat-iron on your luscious locks. But do you ever wonder where all the hair on your bathroom floor came from afterwards? Frequent use of flat-irons and hot rollers can cause damage and hair loss. “The root or hair follicle isn’t being impacted, but the actual hair strands are damaged and will break off from the root with frequent use.” Note to self: cut back on the flat-iron!

How about you? Have you noticed your hair thinning out as you age? Is hair loss really a “taboo” topic for women? Are there any treatments or shampoos that worked for you? Share your story below!

Editor's Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

By Val Willingham
CNN Medical Producer

For four years, I dated a man who beat me. The first time was around Christmas of my freshman year of college. I had known him a couple of months. He was the first guy I had ever had a physical relationship with, and I was madly in love. But he had a dark side, a short fuse, and I was very vocal and told him what I thought. The problem was, instead of arguing with me, he just beat me up.

The episodes continued throughout our relationship. At one point, he actually put me in the hospital with a concussion, my face and body covered with cuts and bruises. My friends begged me to leave him. His fraternity brothers did an intervention of sorts and told me he was a no-good, nasty, SOB. But for some odd reason, which took hours of therapy years later to figure out, I just stayed with him.

It wasn't that I was unpopular or lonely. I had lots of friends, men and women. I was a good student, a leader on campus. I came from a loving home, with a father who never hit my mother, or me. But for years, I had a secret that only the closest of my friends knew about. I was an abused girlfriend.

According to a National Violence Against Women Survey, 22 percent of women are physically assaulted by a partner or date during their lifetime. I was one of them. The question was, why did I stay? The American Psychiatric Association finds that many women remain in abusive relationships for many reasons, lack of finances, poor self-esteem, children and even religious and cultural values. In my case, I felt I had done something wrong and deserved it.

It also might be because I was also raised in a family and at a time, when sex was a little taboo.  It was the ’70s and I was in school on a large rural campus. You just didn't do it unless you were married. So when I had sex at the age of 18 with this young man, I had pretty much made up my mind he was my future husband. So I put up with it. There was a strange bond I had with him, because when he wasn't beating me up, he was very nice to me. He treated me well, sent me flowers, took me places. We laughed, had a great time together. But periodically when we argued, he would just lash out with his fists. It was horrible. But what was even more horrible was that I blamed myself for mouthing off. I thought if only I could keep my opinions to myself, the beatings wouldn't happen anymore. How naive of me. How foolish.

The ironic part of this story is he ended our relationship because I graduated from college and he didn't. He threw me out. I guess he was jealous. He was definitely a jerk.

Six months after we broke up, I was coming home to my little apartment, carrying decorations for my first Christmas tree as a working woman, and I found him sitting on my doorstep. I have no idea how he found me. He asked to take me to dinner so we could talk. I reluctantly went. While chatting over the meal, he said he wanted to come back and that he "didn't realize how good he had it." I quickly answered back, "I didn't know how bad I had it, but now I do!" For once he didn't whack me. He got up and left me at the restaurant, never to see me again. I had to take a cab home. As I sat in the back seat I felt a sense of relief but also shame that I had let it go on so long. But I was no longer a victim: I was free. As I look back on it now, It was the best cab ride I ever took.

Are you the victim of domestic abuse? Do you know someone who is? How did you help? We want to know.

Editor's Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

By Val Willingham
CNN Medical Producer

For the past few years, I haven't really had good night's sleep. I've tried sleep masks, ear plugs, even evicting our Jack Russell terrier from the bed. I've taken mild sedatives, or a shot of Patron in the evening to make me sleepy but none of these seem to work. I can go to sleep at 1:45 a.m. and wake up at 2 a.m. wide awake. Sometimes I toss and turn; other times I get out of bed, walk around, read a book or fiddle with the Internet, until I get tired and then I go back to sleep. Doctors will tell you I have a classic case of insomnia. It could be because of my age, or maybe my weight. Some sleep experts say I might have an active brain, that doesn't need a lot of sleep. The problem is, my body does.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, many women in their late 30s or 40s are experiencing the beginning of menopause, better known as perimenopause. And during this time, sleep can be affected by many things, such as hormonal and lifestyle changes. During perimenopause and after menopause a woman's ovaries gradually decrease production of estrogen and progesterone, a sleep-promoting hormone. The shifting of these hormones many times contributes to the inability to fall asleep. Add hot flashes, slower metabolism and stress and it's no wonder older women can't get enough shuteye.

Sleep experts warn that getting into a pattern of no sleep or interrupted sleep is not good. Recent studies have found that a lack of sleep can lead to poor judgment, fatigue-related accidents and weight gain.

So what to do? Here's what the experts suggest:
Try to be consistent with your wake-up times and when you go to bed. Build a tight sleep structure you can live with every day.  Make your room dark and quiet.  Too much light can disrupt the secretion of melatonin, which can upset a sleeping individual's body clock. Keep it cool. The ideal temperature for comfortable sleep is around 63 F. Also, skip the alcohol and food a couple of hours before you go to bed. Alcohol may help you fall asleep quicker, but once it metabolizes in the body, it can wake you up in the middle of the night.  And if you exercise, do it in the morning. Most people become alert after an intense workout and may have a harder time falling asleep, so try to exercise at least three hours before you hit the sack.

If things don't improve, see your doctor. Poor sleep habits can lead to other medical issues, so it's best to get it taken care of before it becomes a bigger problem.

Do you have a tough time sleeping? What's it like and what do you do to make it through the night? We'd like to hear about it.

Editor's Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

By Caitlin Hagan
CNN Medical Associate Producer

Everyone is afraid of something. Some people are scared of heights. Some people hate small spaces. Some people can't stand snakes. Me? I'm afraid of having my blood drawn. Luckily (or unluckily depending on your perspective), I was able to dodge it for years. But that all changed at my annual physical last January. At the time my only concern was the needle going into my arm but days later when the doctor called with my results, I learned I had a much bigger problem: high cholesterol. Despite being a healthy non-smoking 24-year-old, my cholesterol levels were much too high. I had to lower my numbers or I faced a lifetime of medicine.

For a few months I made an effort to reduce my saturated fat intake. Most mornings I took a quick walk around my neighborhood for 30 minutes. I thought high cholesterol was an easy problem to solve if I just stopped eating cheese and exercised more. But another blood test four months later proved me wrong; not only had my numbers not changed at all, but my doctor wanted to write a prescription immediately. I needed to make some drastic changes but I had no idea where to start.

My parents don’t have high cholesterol and I was at a loss to understand how I did. What foods did I need to avoid? What foods did I need to start eating? What lifestyle changes did I need to make? What, exactly, is cholesterol anyway? Armed with all these questions I started researching and what I learned was pretty sobering. Research has shown that people with high cholesterol in their 20s and 30s are more likely to suffer from heart disease later in life. Women especially need to beware because heart disease kills more women annually than any other affliction. My goal became very clear: Get my heart in shape now and save myself from possible trauma later.

Fixing my cholesterol meant making some major lifestyle changes. I joined a gym and with my new membership came a new mentality. To keep perspective, I remind myself that I'm working out to elevate my heart rate, not to drop ten pounds. I love the instant gratification of leaving an hourlong cardio class knowing that I might not have lost any weight but I literally worked my heart out. On off days I walk a two mile loop around my neighborhood to soak up some sunshine while I exercise. My goal is to move my body and elevate my heart rate once every day, either through a cardio class, a weightlifting class, a yoga class, or hiking or walking outside.

Of course, you cannot keep your cholesterol levels in check without healthy eating. Over the last several months I have restricted my diet to portions of fruits and vegetables, lean meats, whole grains, and omegas 3s. I rarely drink soda or eat fried food (although I randomly indulge in French fries; I can't help it!) and I have learned to cook healthy meals at home. I am not a vegetarian but I have reduced the amount of meat I eat, especially processed deli meats. So far my efforts have made a difference; I dropped my cholesterol level 11 points over the past five months. There is still room for improvement but for now I am confident in the life changes I've made.

Do you know your cholesterol levels? What have you done to lower your cholesterol score?

Editor’s Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

By Jen Pifer
CNN Medical Senior Producer

After a particularly grueling editorial meeting a few years ago, one of my colleagues turned to me and said, "I need a drink." Now that's not an uncommon sentiment in many newsrooms, but in this case, it was kind of funny. My colleague was hugely pregnant and she meant it. We laughed, but I got the sense she felt a little bit guilty saying that. After all, who wants to be known as the pregnant woman who drinks?

Truth be told, I understood where she was coming from. Sometimes, a girl just needs a cocktail.

The issue of drinking while expecting comes up often with my other pregnant friends. One told me she asked her obstetrician about it. She says the doctor told her a drink now and then wouldn't hurt the baby. But he was quick to add that he was not recommending it. Another friend of mine was out to dinner when she was six months pregnant and ordered a small margarita. The waiter served her, but not before looking at her big old tummy.

There's a new study out today that is likely to get people talking. British researchers found that children whose mothers who drank up to one to two drinks per week or per occasion (for example at a party or on Christmas Eve) while pregnant are not at an increased risk of behavioral problems or cognitive deficits. It is important to point out that the study did not look at the physical problems associated with drinking while pregnant.”

The researchers are very quick to point out they are not out to set new guidelines; they just want to add to the debate. This has been a huge issue in England. Last year, the Royal College of Obstetrics said drinking one or two drinks once or twice a week is unlikely to harm your baby. (See Study) British public health officials say expectant mothers shouldn't drink, but if they do, it should be with great moderation. (See Study) In the United States, it's all about abstinence. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says drinking at any stage of pregnancy is a terrible idea. (Read More)

Now that the experts have weighed in, I am curious to know what you think. Is it ok to drink a little bit of alcohol while pregnant? Would you do it? Have you done it?

Editor’s Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.