Cracking the Menopause: While Keeping Yourself Together

Product Information

With thanks to NetGally.co.uk, the publisher and Mariella Frostrup and Alice Smellie for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. This is an intelligent, well-researched and comprehensive book that will get you rethinking what the menopause it and what life looks like during and after it. Starting with a fascinating account of how our views about the menopause have been formed over centuries (largely by men), we start to understand why there are so many preconceptions and misinformed views in society.

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 Winkleman

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

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. Optimistic, hilarious and informative. A rallying cry for women to love and look after themselves at any age. -- Susannah Constantine

My quest for inclusive information about the menopause continues. This book started well, as you might expect from a journalist Mariella Frostrup opens with a thorough and detailed description of what menopause actually is, including the difference between peri-menopause and post menopause, as well as detailing the hormones whet they do for us and how their changes affect us. It then began to lose its way a little and became much more of her own particular experience of the menopause and whilst that was helpful in understanding more about her particular issues insomnia, hot flushes and brain fog, there was less space for understanding the other numerous symptoms although some are mentioned, I would have welcomed an equally deep exploration of the full range of symptoms.

Mariella Frostrup is one of the UK's most respected broadcasters and columnists. Her contribution to arts and literature along with her advocacy on gender and social issues have placed her at the forefront of the cultural landscape. She made the groundbreaking BBC1 documentary The Truth About the Menopause and she currently presents her own daily show on Times Radio covering issues of the day, from arts and culture to politics. She lives in Somerset with her husband and two children. Menopause is the dark matter of modern medicine, until now almost totally neglected. This book shrugs off generations of silence and stigma. It's confessional, scientifically accurate and extremely funny. It's for anyone who will experience the menopause themselves or who knows someone who will . . . so that's basically everyone. -- Dr Chris van Tulleken Answering all these questions and more, Mariella shares her own journey through the menopause – along with the latest science and funny illustrations – to provide an informative source of wisdom, humour and enlightenment.

Summary

In this no-holds-barred guide, Mariella shares her own journey through the menopause, along with the latest science, advice from leading experts and humorous illustrations - to provide an informative source of wisdom and enlightenment.

Overall I would say the beginning of this book is a helpful exploration of menopause but for details of the full range of symptoms and an inclusive way of managing them, I would suggest you look elsewhere, although our search for that may be continuing. In this no-holds-barred guide, Mariella shares her own journey through the menopause, along with the latest science, advice from leading experts and humorous illustrations – to provide an informative source of wisdom and enlightenment.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.