"There is a residue of experience in life that continues to shape us long after the actual experience has ended. We stretch and grow and learn a lot while living through it. Then we learn a little more after we've had some distance. We carry from such experiences indelible memories, and if it was a particularly bad experience there's usually some unfinished business."

So writes Pamela Mahoney Tsigdinos in her book Silent Sorority  the story of her journey through infertility, and finally her coming to terms with childlessness.

At 46, Pamela is two years older than me. Like me, she is coming to the end of her reproductive years, which for both of us were scarred by infertility treatments and failures. 

I have never met Pamela, but she contacted me a few weeks ago and asked me to read her book. I doubt she knew my story. Over my years of infertility I have honed my journalistic skills into an expertise in reproductive medicine - writing for both physicians and the public. But I rarely write about my personal battle.

Last week I wrote about the high rate of depression among asthma patients and its connection to frequent visits to the doctor.

Dr. Paul Walters and his team from the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London followed more than 11-thousand asthma patients for 10 years and noticed they had a 63% increased risk of developing depression compared to people without asthma.

They also noticed that the depressed asthma patients made more trips to the doctor each year compared to asthma patients who weren't depressed.

I've written before about how difficult asthma is to treat, and how more than half of asthma patients struggle with poorly controlled symptoms. No wonder many of them get depressed, and keep going back to their doctor! 

At the recent meeting of the North American Primary Care Research Group, I listened to a British mental health expert discussing his recent findings about the high risk of depression among people with asthma. It was a surprising discovery, he said, with the first clue in one of his previous studies which revealed asthma was the third highest reason for antidepressant use in the UK. "We suspected chronic illness would be linked to antidepressant use, but not specifically asthma," said Dr. Paul Walters, from the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London.

In his latest study, Dr. Walters followed more than 22-thousand asthma and non-asthma patients over a 10-year period and found that asthma patients were 63% more likely to develop depression, and 87% more likely to die.

Those numbers are worrying, but not completely surprising. Many chronic illnesses are linked with depression.

What's less well understood is why that might be.

Decisions about breast cancer screening just got tougher for women in their forties. On Monday, the U.S. Preventive Services Taskforce (USPSTF), a government-sponsored panel of clinicians and preventive medicine experts, released new guidelines that for the first time recommend against annual mammography for "normal risk" women in that age group.

Instead, it recommends they have the test every two years. Sounds pretty straightforward, right? The problem is that the recommendation conflicts with those of almost every other major U.S. health organization. They include the the American Cancer Society, which is strongly critical of the USPSTF. Why the disagreement?

In 1998 my daughter was diagnosed with celiac disease at the age of 2. She had been sick for about 6 months - losing weight, vomiting, and so tired she wanted to be carried everywhere. We were stunned by the news - particularly because we knew no one else in the family with the illness.

Celiac disease is a genetic condition characterized by the inability to digest gluten - a protein found in wheat, rye and barley. Because gluten is found in so many foods, the first weeks after our daughter's diagnosis were terrifying, as food after favorite food was struck of her "safe" list.

Cereals, pasta, bread, cakes, cookies - even some soups and medicines - all of these are out of bounds for people with celiac, who must follow a lifelong gluten-free diet.

Thankfully, we mastered the gluten-free diet, and our daughter is now a healthy and happy 13-year-old.

But, since it's a genetic disease, what about the rest of the family?

It's a delicious but vicious cycle: Food, particularly high-sugar and high-fat foods, can bring acute relief both from physical and emotional pain, studies show. But in the long run, overeating may make your pain worse.

"My patients say when they hurt they have to eat," says Dr. Francis Keefe, Ph.D., professor in the department of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University, Durham. Unfortunately, pain relief from food is usually short-lived, and the long-term consequence is weight gain. And that can make your joints hurt, not to mention your self-esteem.

The Caster Semenya controversy has brought about a flood of questions revolving around intersexuality and gender. None of the questions have easy answers. As we try to understand the complexities of the issue, journalist Kate Johnson shares a different perspective - the cultural perspective. Here's an excerpt from her blog:

Unfortunately, in Western society, intersexuality - meaning a physical condition, as opposed to a life choice (transsexuality) - is often regarded as a problem that has to be fixed. While the Intersex Society of North America and other groups have made great strides in educating the public otherwise, westerners, in general tend to react with shame and secrecy to this phenomenon.

Continue reading: Caster Semenya: Sex and Gender - When the Twain Don't Meet

Have something to say about what you've read? Share your thoughts on one of the YourTotalHealth message boards.

My husband comes from a long line of herniated disks. Two of them are painfully present in his own spine, and several others have shown up in the spines of his father and brothers. Breaking free from genetic inevitability, my husband is the only family member to refuse spinal surgery - so far. (In case you're wondering, that's NOT him on the left.)

He prefers a sometimes stubborn approach which involves living with what he feels is an acceptable level of constant pain, spending liberally on osteopathic and athletic therapy, pursuing high-level athletic goals which force him to stay fit, and swallowing a very large daily dose of denial along with his ibuprofen.