The Menopause Manifesto: Own Your Health with Facts and Feminism Paperback – May 25, 2021

This book has so much information and while not all of it is relevant at the moment, having the knowledge makes me feel much more prepared.I think the first few chapters were my favorite as I love learning the history of how things came to be as they are now. It was enlightening and also rather depressing that even though women have gained confidence to advocate for themselves, we are still largely ignored and brushed aside.I have realized it’s the male fear of our (women) greatness and abilities that have caused men to constantly find ways to push themselves up while pushing us down. The key takeaway is that WE bring forth life and WE allow it to grow BECAUSE of our biology. Without Women experiencing Menopause men (humans) would never have thrived.We need to continue to speak up and celebrate how amazing the female body is through every stage of life.I was scared before this book of the uncertainty but now I feel equipped with knowledge and more importantly I am excited about the next adventure in my life experience.

I recommend Dr. Jen Gunter's book ("The Menopause Manifesto") to every woman. It talks about subjects such as follows:The history and language of menopauseThe biology of menopause (i.e. the brain-ovary connection)The evolutionary advantage of menopause (the strengths of menopause)The timing of menopause (i.e. understand the clock)Periods and ovulation stopping before age forty—why it happens and the recommended medical careMetamorphoses of menopause (change in strength, size, and shape)Connection with cardiovascular diseaseHeat flashes aka vasomotor symptoms and how to “quench the fire” (i.e. is it hot in here or is it just me?)What to do about abnormal bleedingThe basics of bone health and preventing fracturesBrain on menopause (i.e. brain fog, depression, and dementia)Genitourinary syndrome of menopause and the therapiesBladder healthThe complicated story of desire for sexSleep disturbance and how to tackle themMenopausal hormone therapy (both history and current) and what is right for youFacts and fads on phytoestrogens, food, and hormonesSeparating medicine from marketing (ex: bioidenticals, naturals, and compounding)What makes a healthy menopause in relation to eating habitsMenoceuticals (i.e. supplements)Contraception and the menopause transition (i.e. pregnancy prevention and menstrual management)The story of how an OB/GYN tackled menopauseSupplementary material which includes tables with scientific data such a bleeding patterns, common vaginal moisturizers, pharmaceutical grade vaginal hormones, and dose equivalents of different estrogens and delivery systemsIllustrations and figures throughout the book such as the life cycle of a follicle, sources of abnormal menstrual bleeding (ex: fibroids and polyps), and the menopause transition

It's definitely has more information than the average book on (peri)menopause. You will learn something. It's probably much better than the information you will get from your gynecologist who may know very little about (peri)menopause. It is without the usual misogynistic take, which is refreshing. But the books with a misogynistic take are generally written by men, and they can sometimes be very negative indeed, even though they may also contain some information. It is true this book can read as a lot of facts without interpretation. And I don't know that what every (peri)menopausal women is really looking for is a lecture on heart disease, rather than just an understanding of what is going on in their body, their symptoms, and possibly what to do about them. But it seems impossible to avoid in all books on (peri)menopause ever. So the average 40 something woman with perhaps nearly 1/2 her life ahead of her, is always not only suffering their symptoms and their stigma, but bombarded about all the ways one can die, and they wonder why we get depressed in the menopause transition: PS here are all the ways you will die!!!The reviewers that all pounced on one negative review in unison made me wonder if I would be reading a menopause book or joining some weird twitter cult. But the book is quite solid. As for the person they pounce on, well there is no single women's experience of menopause and desire anyway, any more than all women experience desire before (peri)menopause either.I don't know that I really agree with not testing hormones in perimenopause but I realize not testing hormone levels when prescribing HRT is standard medical practice. I suspect it's pretty easy in perimenopause, though not after menopause, to overdose hormones, as even the data in this book shows you may have hormones in perimenopause, just of course they are all over the place. And maybe that's why you end up with a lot of bad HRT side effects, some of which like breast tenderness increase risk of breast cancer as per at least one study out there. I've experienced the breast pain side effect of HRT, if your medicine causes pain maybe time to listen to your body, HRT in perimenopause is very tricky if anything. The author has been taking HRT since her final period but never really explains her reasoning, bad symptoms are reason enough at least for awhile, although the comparison to her mother who completed menopause before 45 don't seem that compelling, that's considered early (but not premature) menopause, it has a higher risk of osteoporosis than a more typical age of menopause of 45-55. I also wonder, given that she ended up taking hormones anyway, why she waited until 12 months past her last period rather take them during what is often the most symptomatic time leading up to menopause.

This is a very helpful book. It was recommended to me by my doctor and I am so grateful she shared this title with me.

This book provides helpful and practical information about pre-menopause and post-menopause changes and symptoms.

So far the book is a disappointment. The 1st 24 pages read like an angry rant about how menopause was named along with a complete history of every name & description over the past few hundred years. I skipped ahead to the chapter on hormone replacement therapy which is also very wordy without saying much of anything. At this point I might just read the end of chapter summaries & call it a day.

Maybe a bit more information than you need, but very down to earth writing and I appreciate the normalizing approach to menopause. For some reason we don’t talk openly about menopause so this book made me feel like I was not alone. Some of my weirder symptoms are actual fairly common!