I always thought that divorce hurts families and based on the number of emails (if you want to share your story, please write to us) that we receive from women, it is devastating to them. They start to doubt themselves and their self esteem becomes low. Many women are severly depressed and find it very hard to date after the divorce. Some refuse to remarry or continue to have problems in their next relationship.

All this time, we all assumed that men just moved on, probably found a younger chick, and never looked back.

Not true. According to an analysis by Statistics Canada (and I am confident that the results are valid for most of us in the West), men are six time more likely to get depressed compared to happily married men. According to Michelle Rotermann, the author of the study, "On the one hand we know depression in general tends to be more common among women, but there is also a lot of evidence that shows that men have fewer social supports and social support does seem to play a role."

So if you are a recently divorced man and don't feel right, chances are you are depressed. So get some help. And friends and family members of men who have recently divorced, if you don't see things are right, please provide some support and ask him to get professional help.

And to all those women who might date just divorced men, be patient and don't judge too fast. If you think that he does not seem "normal," don't just dump him (though it is fine to end the relationship in a civil manner) but make sure that he meets with a therapist and gets psychiatric help. There is a reason Prozac is a bestselling drug.

Well there is some really bad news for sanitary napkin and leak proof panties manufacturers. We now have a birth control pill that not only is a contraceptive but also stops menstrual periods altogether. The pill Lybrel is made by Wyeth. This drug is different from Seasonale and Seasonique that reduce the number of periods to just four a year.

Like any other medication, this drug too has side effects though there is no evidence of a pregnancy occuring. Remember that Ortho-Evra patch caused some major complications and the company is being sued by many affected women.

It is also important to remember that birth control pills work best for couples that do not believe in open relationships (for instance, Hal Sparks and Samantha Humphrey). They do not provide any protection at all against sexually transmitted diseases. If you are seeing more than one man, you must use a condom.

Natalie is a single mom with two children in elementary school. She is separated from her husband of 11 years and has decided to seek a divorce. "Only recently I decided to date (check out our free dating website) and found a wonderful man. It was love at first sight. He was also separated, and like me, wanted to divorce his wife too, but they were still living in the same house. After dating for two months, he told me that he needs his space and time to figure out what he really wants. What should I do? I am giving him his space he asked for and he has told me that we did not breakup and that he just needs his space and time. How should I handle this development?" she asks.

Dating after divorce is somewhat complicated for both men and women and even more so when the divorce is not yet final. Both men and women completely change their thinking about relationships and marriage after divorce because they start looking at whole live very differently. In some ways, it is a good thing because they can now think before they act. And that is exactly what he is doing.

My advice to you would be to leave him alone for the time being by not pressuring him to go out on dates. It doesn't hurt, though, to occasionally email him politely to check up on him and share how you and kids are doing. If you push hard at this point, it will be frustrating for both of you.

You should also tell him that you would like to give him whatever number of days you feel comfortable with, say, 30 or 60 days, to come up with his plan forward. In the meantime, you should tell him that both of you are free to see other people. Imagine that he comes back to you 2 months later and tells you that after all he does not want a relationship with you. You would have wasted all this time particularly if you end up meeting someone nice. You can tell him that you are not breaking up with him either; you just want to keep your options open. It wouldn't be fair for him to expect that you will just wait for him even when he does not want to commit anything at all.

Options if you do not want to get married

Recently a group of divorce attorneys in Chicago were blasted for a very controversial billboard with the tag line "Life's short - get a divorce." The critics argued that marriage was not something to be taken lightly and by openly motivating people to consider divorce, the lawyers were sending a wrong message.

While it is often said that one out of every two marriages in the country leads to a divorce, some recent statistics suggest that the divorce rate may have actually leveled off and even declined. Is it true?

Yes, the numbers are right and that is why the divorce attorneys are seeking new clients, the real story is different. What is happening is that instead of getting married people are choosing to live together before marriage (if at all they do it) and even have children out of wedlock (in the traditional sense), though many of these couples are actually in long-term, monogamous, committed relationships.

According to statics, the number of couples living together without marriage has increased 10 times since 1960 and the marriage rate has plunged by 30% during last 25 years. Plus, Americans are marrying when they are much older.

So what is the message here?

If you are not absolutely convinced that you have found the spouse of your dreams, wait to get married. There are other options to be together. Remember, divorce is costly and painful.