ARE YOUR HOLES ALL CLOSING UP?

I recently overheard on the street the other day two young women conversing.

"I would, like, have 20 piercings" the prettier one said to the other, "Except I have to keep taking out the jewelry." She explained that she felt it prudent to remove her multiple mini hoops and studs for job interviews she was going on, and also when she deigned to visit her parents. "My body keeps rejecting the piercings anyway and my holes keep closing up," she said, gloomily. I ducked my head and looked straight ahead as I walked past. It's a tad embarrassing, but lately, I've been experiencing similar difficulties.

It's true that the hole in my right ear lobe -- pierced at the tender age of 13 -- has been giving me some trouble, i.e. whenever I wear a stud earring with a post for more than a few days, the hole become sore, slightly swollen, irritated, painful. Then when I take the earring out, hahaha, it takes me days (and repeated applications of a mild cortisone-based ointment) to get another one in. Every time I have to go through the jab afresh and it's not something you enjoy dealing with. Today I am wearing one tiny gold and diamond earring, but only in my left ear. Sort of reminds me of my hippie-dippy days when I walked around sporting a single feather.

The hole that concerns me more, however, is the one placed You Know Where. It's a sad fact of getting older that things tend to close up. My gynecologist warned me a few years back that things were getting tighter and she wasn't off the mark. It's been a struggle to stay open and lubricated. And I know I'm not the only one with this problem.

A friend who lives in Florida emailed me with this very question. Because she is a breast cancer survivor, her doc says No Can Do to hormone treatments. What, she asked, can she use to keep things moist and open? I suggested she give sweet almond oil a fair shake. It's available in most health food stores and certainly aromatherapy shops.

Don't know if sweet almond oil would help with the hole in my ear (or that girl on the street, either). But it does help with That Other Hole. Absolutely, try it!