The Hot Topic
A Life-Changing Look at the Change of Life
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
This humorous, candid, and well-researched book is a refreshing and accessible guide to menopause for today’s modern woman.
There has never been a better time to be a menopausal woman. After all, technology is such that sixty really is the new forty…
But, for Christa D’Souza, menopause created more questions than she had answers for: How can I get through menopause? How long does it last? Is hormone replacement therapy safe? What is the point of us now that we are officially biologically irrelevant? Is there a cut-off age for wearing braids?
In this fabulously confessional romp through the struggles of menopause, D’Souza shares her own insights on this phase of every woman’s life and the research that has brought her to some unexpected places—from meeting menopausal nuns in San Francisco to hunter-gathering with the Hadza tribe in Tanzania in her search for the answers to her menopause questions. She also delves into the latest science with experts around the world, discovering some surprising silver linings to this key milestone of maturity.
An insightful, empowering, no-holds-barred guide through the mysteries of menopause, The Hot Topic is a treat of a book that will demystify this phase of life and have you laughing the whole way through!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist D'Souza provides a firsthand account, crowdsourced opinion, and the latest in scientific and anthropological study in order to demystify the taboo of menopause, suggesting it be viewed as a "natural part of the aging process" rather than "a disease." She reports her own symptoms humorously "Overnight, apparently, I'd grown back fat" as well as her struggle to wade through conflicting medical opinions regarding the use of hormones. She provides some illuminating information on the rise of "bio-identical" organic hormones as an alternative to traditional hormone replacement therapy. Her friends candidly describe their emotional outbursts, infidelities, and feelings about changes in their appearance. D'Souza visits a convent with a brilliant young biotech entrepreneur to discuss hot flashes with nuns and travels to Tanzania to explore a theory suggesting that older women may be the linchpin of human evolution. There has been progress regarding the stigma, she writes, wryly noting the Victorian tradition of simply "chucking women in asylums." As a light at the end of the tunnel, D'Souza relates recent studies indicating the potential for a menopause "cure." Despite her best intentions, this depiction of menopause is pretty bleak, but D'Souza's sense of humor takes the edge off. This is an accessible guide for the wine-drinking, snarky woman of a certain age.