The start of a movement: to get everyone talking about menopause in every home, GP surgery and workspace I thought perimenopause was just the run-up to the menopause and not a treacherous passage in itself. I had no idea it would make me so furious – or give me surprise periods like tsunamis. In the kitchen at various times during my deranged perimenopausal mood swings I threw: 1) a butternut squash, 2) Nigella Christmas, 3) broccoli, 4) a full butter dish, and 5) blue poster paint at the wall. No one was injured. Indeed, the missiles actually released family tension – and at least the dog began to treat me with more respect. I had no idea that progesterone and oestrogen drained erratically but inexorably away over the course of years in perimenopause, and that symptoms could be mental as well as physical. Nevertheless, Menopausing does serve a crucial purpose in dispelling the isolation that women often feel when grappling with the myriad of symptoms associated with perimenopause and menopause. The book provided me with valuable information and a sense of relief about the numerous symptoms that I was unaware were associated with my perimenopause. The book not only assisted me in identifying the symptoms directly linked to my perimenopause, but it also aided me in untangling the intricate connection between hormonal changes and the impact of my past trauma on my overall well-being.

That’s how this book has come about. We are going to tell you the truth, so you can make an informed decision about your life and your body … mic drop. At the time of listening, I am 45 and not experiencing any signs of being peri menopausal or menopausal. However, this book was a fantastic introduction to the topic and very easy to listen to and to understand. Davina MaCall is incredibly likable and does a great job of putting the listener at ease and telling it like it is, with plenty of giggles along the way. Lisa Milton, Executive Publisher at HQ, added: ‘Since the launch of HQ, we’ve been looking for the right menopause book for a general audience. Davina’s Menopausing is the perfect book to bring menopause into the mainstream. For far too long, there’s been too little information, now we want to bust the myths, remove the taboo and create the book that every woman wants, and every man should read.’ One further thing to note is that parts of this book refer specifically to dealing with the menopause in the UK, for example how it is treated by the NHS and the types of treatments that are available in the different parts of the UK. These sections will obviously be less useful to those living outside of the UK. But, there is still plenty of information in there that would apply to any person interested in learning more about the menopause. The menopause gave me my voice’: designer and campaigner Karen Arthur. Photograph: Claire Pepper/That's Not My AgeThose tests were clear, thankfully, but I dumped the compounded HRT and went cold turkey until a friend recommended Dr Louise Newson, a campaigning menopause specialist with a clinic in Stratford-upon-Avon employing 40 doctors and there’s still a three-month waiting list – most of the patients are women who have been refused HRT by their GPs. Dr Newson solved my problems in an instant and prescribed plant-based body-identical hormones, made from yams. These are also available on the NHS – micronised progesterone and transdermal oestrogen gel or patches – which the British Menopause Society says have “no or lower risk of breast cancer” compared to the old oral combined pills. I just wish my GP had told me about body-identical HRT in the first place. For too long, women have had to keep quiet about the menopause – its onset, its symptoms, its treatments – and what it means for us. Menopausing will build an empowered, supportive community to break this terrible silence once and for all. By exploring and explaining the science, debunking damaging myths, and smashing the taboos around the perimenopause and menopause, this book will equip women to make the most informed decisions about their health… and their lives. There are oestrogen receptors in every part of your body and if fluctuating hormones are sending erratic electrical signals to your heart and internal thermostat, what messages might they send to your mind? Not long after my mother died after a long haul with Alzheimer’s disease, and I’d juggled going up to Glasgow to help care for her, a full-time job as the Times film critic in London, and raising three children, I suddenly needed to escape all responsibility. I got divorced and I changed career. I just couldn’t cope, waking up at 3am sweating and anxious. It wasn’t just the menopause but midlife unravelling, too, or as psychotherapist Susie Orbach puts it: “The menopause arrives, seeking out our vulnerabilities like a guided missile, just as we need all our strength to cope with daily life.” For too long, women have had to keep quiet about the menopause—its onset, its symptoms, its treatments—and what it means for us. Menopausing will build an empowered, supportive community to break this terrible silence once and for all. By exploring and explaining the science, debunking damaging myths, and smashing the taboos around the perimenopause and menopause, this book will equip women to make the most informed decisions about their health…and their lives.

For too long, women have had to keep quiet about the menopause – its onset, its symptoms, its treatments – and what it means for us. Menopausing will build an empowered, supportive community to break this terrible silence once and for all. By exploring and explaining the science, debunking damaging myths, and smashing the taboos around the perimenopause and menopause, this book will equip women to make the most informed decisions about their health... and their lives. Winner of The British Book Awards 2023 Overall Book of the Year‘We can’t wait for this.’ RedMenopausing is more than just a book, it’s a movement. An uprising.Menopause affects every woman, and yet so many approach it with shame, fear, misinformation or silence. The compounded oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone worked brilliantly at first – within four days my hot flushes and palpitations disappeared forever, my memory returned and – unexpectedly – my mood lifted and my joints became supple. Oestrogen was the oil I needed in my engine, but a year later, I got a bad batch of the compounded hormone lozenges, which turned out to be from an unregulated pharmacy, and ended up having bleeding and then cervical and uterine biopsies.

The start of a movement: to get everyone talking about the menopause in every home, GP surgery and workspace. I believe the book should perhaps have been titled "Menopausing: How HRT Can Help". Okay, that's a terrible title but something in a similar vein to reflect its heavy focus on hormone replacement therapy being the be-and-end-all solution for some women. For too long, women have had to keep quiet about the menopause – its onset, its symptoms, its treatments – and what it means for us. Menopausing will build an empowered, supportive community to break this terrible silence once and for all. Dr Nighat Arif, the BBC Breakfast GP and menopause specialist, tries to reach out to her underserved community by doing TikToks in Urdu. The #MakeMenopauseMatter campaign is aiming for 150,000 signatures on a petition to parliament demanding mandatory menopause training for all GPs, and menopause policies in every workplace.

For women of a certain age this is a godsend. It’s a wonderfully informative coffee table book (Yes! Put it on there! For far too long we have kept quiet about this subject!) that you can dip in and out of. It’s frank, it’s fascinating and it debunks so many of the horror stories around HRT. It covers the peri menopause in detail too, so the minute you get a hot flush, experience brain fog, feel like you’re going crazy, then you need to read this - you won’t feel so alone.Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne (Faber & Faber) Book of the Year – Children’s Fiction Menopausing will also celebrate the sharing of stories, enabling women to feel less alone and more understood, and talk openly and positively about menopause. The more I found out, the more I got incensed by the ignorance, discrimination and disregard for older women’s quality of life. I’m now helping Dr Newson launch The Menopause Charity, and it turns out the safer body-identical HRT isn’t available in all parts of Britain. Micronised progesterone isn’t licensed on the NHS formulary in Scotland, Darlington, Doncaster and most regions in the north, while it’s much more easily available in London. It’s yet another injustice tossed on the pile. This audiobook has been very useful for learning about the wide range of menopausal symptoms and the treatments available. I have definitely taken away useful information for when the time comes. For example, personally, it is useful for me to know that hypothyroidism can trigger early peri menopause. And, I knew very little about HRT.