Or maybe you've even done it yourself, skipping dinner because

you're planning to go out drinking. Earlier this year, the New York Times introduced readers to a term for this behavior - "drunkorexia." My apologies to all offended at this seemingly light-hearted comparison to what can be a life-threatening eating disorder, but it's modern shorthand for the practice of starving yourself so as not to get fat from the calories consumed during a night of bar-hopping.

It's a dangerous game some women play to keep their waistlines in check while satisfying their thirst for booze. Of course, it makes no sense, considering how much faster you get drunk on an empty stomach. But then again, my partying days have slowed lately, so maybe I'm missing the point.

As one e-mailer wrote on a blog, "Our motto on drinking nights is, 'Eating is cheating.' "

Yeah, but there's nothing funny about having to pray to the porcelain god, as the old saying goes. Binge-drinking also increases a woman's chances of engaging in unprotected sex or some other risky activity such as driving while impaired. Just ask Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, Lindsay Lohan or any number of other celebs who garnered headlines for hard drinking while also establishing a police rap sheet. Besides, by now, everyone's heard the sobering reports linking even moderate alcohol consumption with diseases such as breast cancer, high blood pressure and stroke. Even red wine, which is supposed to be good for your heart, is suspect.

Women have always imbibed. There's nothing new about that. But there's increasing evidence that drinking has become a bigger problem for modern women. The newest study, conducted at Washington University, in St. Louis, has found that women born between 1954 and 1963 were more likely to consume alcoholic drinks than those born between 1944 and 1953. Researchers also found that the younger group is more likely to have drinking problems than the older women. The increase was most prevalent in white and Hispanic women in the United States.

The reasons for higher drinking rates are pretty predictable: higher disposable income, changing gender roles and more advertising subtly urging female drinkers to drink more alcoholic beverages. Even "Sex and the City," the HBO series that popularized the cosmopolitan martini, might have had some influence, since the show was such a style setter.

Surprisingly, researchers at Washington University didn't find the same increase in drinking and addiction among men born during the same periods. Comparatively speaking, their rates were stable, which indicates a "closing gender gap" in alcoholism, according to Dr. Richard Grucza, an epidemologist and the study's author. In other words, the "gal-coholic surge," as the New York Post termed it, is moving at a faster rate than the guys'.

It's yet another area where women finally are catching up to the guys. I'll drink to that - or, maybe, not. *

Daily News wire services contributed to this report.

Have you peeped a hot trend that hasn't been reported? E-mail heyjen@phillynews.com and let me know what you know.