Sunday 25 August 2024

Book Review: The Great Menopause Myth by Kristin Johnson & Maria Claps (Non-Fiction/Health)

The Great Menopause Myth
Kristin Johnson & Maria Claps
Fair Winds Press
10 September 2024
240
eBook - PDF
Non-Fiction/Health
ARC via Edelweiss

The Great Menopause Myth is your essential resource for optimized menopause care.

More than simply an end to fertility, menopause is a time when a woman’s health can spin out of control. The hormonal shifts of menopause impact everything from body composition and immune system function to increased risk of chronic health conditions such as cancer, diabetes, dementia, heart disease, and osteoporosis.

If you’re lucky enough to even be offered menopause treatment, traditional protocols, based on decades-old shoddy science and erroneous research conclusions, have gotten it wrong. Badly wrong. For years, conventional wisdom—and medical practice—have told women nothing needs to change in their lifestyle or healthcare at midlife, and they should just white-knuckle the discomfort of hot flashes, sleeplessness, weight gain and loss of muscle mass, mood swings, painful sex, joint pain, and incontinence as if it will all just (magically) go away in a decade or two.


The Great Menopause Myth shows you how to age wise and well at midlife and beyond. Learn actionable steps and guidelines to curate an optimized menopause regimen based on your unique health considerations. 


As a woman for whom menopause is only a few years off, and having heard some stories from colleagues already going through the transition, I decided to give The Great Menopause Myth a read to arm myself with a little knowledge in advance. My feelings towards the book after reading were mixed. On the plus side, it paints a view of menopause that is balanced: sending a positive message while acknowledging all the problems that can arise. It tries to give an objective view that looks at things from many different angles. However, as someone not scientifically minded (I'm a humanities girl through and through), I found the scientific content a little heavy. It is good to understand the science behind the changes taking place, but there were times when I would have liked to have seen that balanced out with some sections written more in layperson's language, with practical tips alongside the scientific detail. And, to be honest, the book left me more stressed about the forthcoming changes than I had been before reading it, as I learnt about all the ways my body would stop functioning properly when menopause hit, and all the negative side effects I could expect. That said, my view of menopause before reading was just that it meant periods would finally be a thing of the past, though I might get some hot flushes along the way. But I now know it's a lot more complicated than that, which is probably a good thing to be aware of. Overall, I am giving this book 3.5 stars. It certainly offers a lot of detailed and useful information, but it did leave me feeling overwhelmed at times due to the amount of unrelenting scientific detail in every chapter, so its utility may depend on the reader.

I received this book as a free eBook ARC via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

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