Cracking the Menopause: While Keeping Yourself Together

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It's high time we renovated and elevated this life change. Despite the centuries of speculation and propaganda, we are not overheating or inherently cold, we are not hysterics or boiling vats of toxic poisons, we are not dried up or washed up, we are simply menopausal.

It’s high time we renovated and elevated this life change. Despite the centuries of speculation and propaganda, we are not overheating or inherently cold, we are not hysterics or boiling vats of toxic poisons, we are not dried up or washed up, we are simply menopausal. Frostrup and her fellow crusaders, who are “real women, campaigners, politicians, menopause experts, celebrities and journalists”, are aiming to increase pressure on the UK government to improve access to hormone replacement therapy and promote greater understanding of the impact of menopause. I was wary about two authors – generally a journalist is hired to rewrite support the celebrity. But Mariella is a respected journo in her own right and having the two voices works well. It’s like a signpost to “Fact” and “Experience” rather than becoming blended into one. And one thing I’ve found in MenoLand is that anecdote and feelings are quite often read as “data” so there is a clear difference here. It delivers this over 12 chapters, beginning by destroying the myths surrounding menopause over the centuries and looking at the science and ideas behind menopause through symptoms, HRT, diet, exercises and relationships to facing the future post-menopausal (and it’s not bleak). The campaigners had called their online women’s health project The Menopause Manifesto, but Jennifer Gunter, the US gynaecologist and author of a book of the same name, published last spring, strongly objected.I loved that it doesn’t preach or assume I know nothing about menopause. Instead, it delivers the facts and information in a very accessible and inclusive way, talking to its readers as the grown-ups we are. Plus, neither one is a doctor, so this is no dry medical tome that takes the life out of menopause. Nor is it a moanfest or an aspirational read (although Mariella gets inspirational about changing how menopause is viewed). It’s honest, educational and fun. A fun menopause book? This friendly, feisty book has all the myth-busting facts, tactics and strategies we need to sail through menopause and not just survive, but thrive. -- Alice Hart-Davis, founder of The Tweakments Guide I was excited – especially when I got the offer of an advance preview to review. Did I want one? You betcha… A groundbreaking, no-holds-barred guide to the menopause - that combines a passion to enlighten and inform as well as entertain - from inimitable broadcaster, writer and campaigner Mariella Frostrup and award-winning health journalist Alice Smellie.

And it does it in a light-hearted way without dumbing down and without emphasising one factor or treatment over others. It is a thorough, complete guide that is a delight to read. Anyone who reads it will come away with new information and a fresh insight into the state of menopause today. It is unacceptable that you have used the name of my book,” tweeted Gunter this weekend. “Many people involved with your organiszation [sic] know it is the name of my book. ” I inhaled this book, it's fantastic. Women of all ages need to read it. It's genuinely helped me understand why I wake up at 5 a.m. and made me laugh along the way. -- Claudia WinklemanWhat I particularly like is that lifestyle is given just as much spotlight as hormone replacement therapy. Mariella talks about how she’s upped her exercise to support the impact HRT has on helping prevent osteoporosis, for example, and like many of us, grimaces when she remembers the amount of partying she’s done in the past when she thinks about the risk now of breast cancer. There are also first-person case studies from a variety of people who’ve gone through menopause, including celebrities, activists, politicians (or their wives), HR professionals…