Everyone should read this book. If you are a woman (or not a cisgendered man), or if you love any women and want to understand what they have to endure, you should read this book.

Perimenopause is a window of opportunity for Maisie Hill: ‘Perimenopause is a window of opportunity for

It's not a book to read cover to cover, as I did, but in doing so I found myself increasingly bothered by inconsistencies in the writing style and the incursion of personal biases on the author's part. Much of the content is presented factually and clearly in a popular science style, but these sections are interspersed with profanities (f**king is liberally used, quite unnecessarily - there are far more effective ways of creating emphasis), infantilised language (e.g. wee and poo instead of urine/urinate and faeces/defecate - seriously, what are we, 5 years old?) and little feminist diatribes against the patriarchy. While the last may be justified as a sentiment, it's not what I wanted from the book, which is subtitled 'Navigating your hormones on the journey to menopause'. I found it detracted from the strength of the book for me. The author is vastly in favour of going with a natural cycle and I found it odd that someone so pro MHT/HRT is so anti hormonal contraception - I didn't really see a good reason for this, other than an unreferenced statement that 'having a menstrual cycle is good for the heart, bone and breast health, and has many other benefits too'. Given the history of medicine in relation to women, and how underserved women still are by the medical community, it is no surprise that data and research on perimenopause, menopause, and post-menopause is limited.Almost every woman I know of my age is feeling confused and in a state of transition even as most of us are at the top of our game in our careers, financially stable and pretty comfortable with being parents,” said Yvette, 43, a Californian who is the COO of a video game company. “I spend a lot of time with other friends of my age. We talk about the fact that we are widening and softening where we don’t want to and don’t know if it makes us shallow or not feminists to do something about it; the fear that we don’t know how to monitor our children’s screen time; the fact that we don’t really like or need sex very often; our worry that we are losing time to try our ‘dream’ job.” After taking our children to see the latest Star Wars, a friend and I sat at her dining table while the kids ran around. “It’s just too hard,” she said. “This has ruined my life! Two years without sleeping through the night! Two years with hot flashes! Two years with no energy.” If you were born with a uterus, Perimenopause Power: Navigating your hormones on the journey to menopause by Maisie Hill is a great introduction to why your body is suddenly betraying you as your approach middle age. This book really breaks down everything aspect of the menstrual cycle, how they change, and why it is important to understanding the symptoms you may be experiencing. It also includes a number of non-prescription methods of dealing with symptoms. It is written in an accessible style and doesn't come across as a reference book. Right, number six, true or false. Women are at highest risk of suicide around the time of menopause. This one is very sadly true. Between the ages of 50 and 54 is when we are at greatest risk of suicide. We often think about the menopause transition as in perimenopause and then going into our postmenopausal years as being a time when we experience physical symptoms like hot flushes, headaches, breast tenderness, and changes to our cycle, and changes to our periods. But it’s important to consider mental health too.

Menopause - NHS

If you're anything like me, you'd rather feel prepared for it, and Perimenopause Power will absolutely equip you with a lot of knowledge. Mood swings, irritability or increased risk of depression may happen during perimenopause. Sleep changes But I mean we’re doing the whole online learning thing at the moment with my son. And one of my son’s teachers when she’s teaching them phonics, because he’s four years old, she’ll come up with what they call alien words, words that aren’t actually real just so that they can practice sounding them out. And when she does an alien word we have to say, “What a load of nonsense.” Join me this week as I share some facts and resources about the menopause transition and how it might affect you. I’m busting some myths and sharing some truths about perimenopause, premenopause and menopause, and explaining how your hormones affect you during these times. Another reason for having it in book format is that the beginning is full of science. I'm creative, not scientific and I found that hard to follow and it nearly put me off reading the rest. However, if you love science and have a better grip on it than me, it's full of information and knowledge.That’s how Good Morning America got the story. Everybody went insane,” she continued. “In that week, every American woman went to her cabinet and took out her hormone prescription and flushed it down the toilet. Which, of course, was ridiculous, because the WHI Part One was the only study that was stopped at that point. That was the oestrogen plus progesterone. The oestrogen-only went on for another two years. It eventually showed a decreased risk of breast cancer, not an increased risk of breast cancer. Ik had echt een haat-liefdeverhouding met dit boek. In dit boek wil Hill je handvatten bieden wat hormonen doen in je lichaam. Ze neemt je mee door je puberteit, menopauze en perimenopauze. In hoofdstuk drie gaat ze in op welke voeding ons kan helpen met bijvoorbeeld een te hoog oestrogeengehalte. Misschien TMI, maar goed, ik heb hier zelf last van en ben daar dankzij dit boek achter gekomen. In het laatste hoofdstuk gaat Hill dieper in op wat er mis kan gaan door bijvoorbeeld PCOS, Overiumcysten en vleesbomen.

Perimenopause Power: Navigating your hormones on the journey Perimenopause Power: Navigating your hormones on the journey

Referring to 30 mins of a certain type of yoga affording the same benefits as 2 hours of deep sleep Mom,” I said. “Did you just call the Bounty paper-towel company to complain about these teddy bears?” I have been socialised to be good and polite; rewarded for being compliant and kind; trained to desire praise for being a good girl. And I am utterly ill-equipped to express the rage that I feel. It scares me and I fear what happens next I am stepping out of the parameters of my being and inhabiting that anger. I am on fire....I am embracing my peculiarities, moving from self-improvement to self-love. I am standing in the mirror and appreciating everything I bring to the world. I am stepping into my power and owning it like I never have. I am finding my Perimenopause Power." Aside from the embarrassment, we are getting less help than we should from our doctors. A 2013 Johns Hopkins survey found that only one in five American obstetrics and gynaecology residents had received formal training in menopause medicine. That’s 20% of gynaecologists. Forget about general practitioners. Enter for a chance to win one of three free annual memberships to my online community, The Flow Collective.

The menopause gave me my voice’: designer and campaigner Karen Arthur. Photograph: Claire Pepper/That's Not My Age It also helps simply to understand what’s happening, which is why those delineated phases of perimenopause can be a light-bulb moment. ‘I think it’s helpful when we can name something, and say, “Maybe you’re in this phase, these are the common things that can happen, and this is what’s going on.”’ In 1993, as the menopause was becoming a hot topic, the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), a national, long-term study on the possible benefits of hormone treatment for postmenopausal women, was launched in the US. But, in July 2002, the premature termination of the oestrogen-progesterone part of the study was announced. The reason given was an apparent rise in the risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, blood clots and breast cancer. Treating hot flushes can help alleviate some of the sleep disturbances. Having a slightly cooler room to sleep in often helps. Turn the radiator setting lower, or let in some cooler air through the window before bedtime. Otherwise following good sleep hygiene advice is sensible. Use a lubricant

Perimenopause Power: Navigating your hormones on the journey

The blood test often used measures the levels of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH). It is advisable to do 2 tests at least 4-6 weeks apart. This test is unreliable if a woman is using combined hormonal contraception at that time. If the level is over 30 IU/L, it is in the menopausal range. I started my periods when I was 10, and so while I'm only in my mid 30s now, I really wouldn't be surprised if I started perimenopause early too - based on what I've learned about perimenopause recently (and what I've unlearned because what I thought I knew isn't true) I may already be experiencing it. Hill herself says that many of us dismiss the idea of the menopause as something that will “happen in our fifties”, but knowledge is power, and understanding your body and its hormones can pay dividends when the perimenopause (the lead up to the menopause), starts. “The average age of menopause in the UK is 51, and it’s sometimes called a second puberty,” Hill says. Second puberty? All the more reason to understand it ahead of time. Menopause is actually just a single day Dr Wulf Utian, founder of the Nams, wrote an editorial calling the manner in which the study was ended “poorly planned, abrupt and inhumane”. In 2017, Professor Robert D Langer, one of the original WHI investigators, said that errors in the 2002 report led to a lot of unnecessary suffering for women.

During perimenopause three quarters of women will experience symptoms such as mood changes, insomnia, hot flushes, and night sweats, but there is little in the way of evidence-based information out there to help and guide us. Perimenopause Power is the essential handbook to understanding what the hell's going on and to empower us to improve our experience of the dreaded 'change'. This makes them vulnerable, Dr Thielen said, to controversial things like subcutaneous hormone pellet therapy, inappropriate ovary removal, or pricey “vaginal rejuvenation”, which can cost a fortune and may involve shooting lasers into your vagina – one more thing I guarantee you our mothers did not have on their to-do lists. The average age of the menopause is 51 years. However, perimenopause or menopausal transition occurs in the years before periods stop so is usually from the 40s into the early 50s.