Customer Reviews

Hot Flashes, Hormones, and Your Health (Harvard Medical School Guides)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Not a bad review on HRT options. Really quite technical and full of details that anyone but a health care provider will have difuculty fully grasping, but for those laypeople motivated to read it, it will still be quite usefull. As a health care provider myself, I wish the book was less wordy and had more bullet point summary charts with just the facts listed about various treatment options. Still, good information overall, and once I get motivated enough to type up my own summary sheets, I will likely use the info quite a bit in practice.

Finally! A source of information about the Women's Health Initiative that presents the real numbers, then explains them in a neutral, non-inflammatory manner.

I admit, I believed the media sound bites about the WHI and hormone replacement therapy. After all, scientists stopped the study because of the dangers of HRT. My gynecologist tried again and again to convince me that the study had been skewed toward older women. I listened with skepticism, looked at the data and even tried to read the WHI report (daunting and much too detailed for me).

"Hot Flashes Hormones and Your Health" shows that the truth lies somewhere in middle. Yes the study has some flaws. And yes, HRT has some risk factors. And yes, the decision about how to handle menopausal symptoms is a highly individual one that should take into account dozen of factors - age, severity of symptoms, genetics, type of HRT, etc.

Whew! It's a lot to comprehend. But Dr. Manson and her co-author have managed to present a mountain of scientific data in a way that is as user-friendly a possible. And if you don't want to plow through the charts and graphs, there are succinct summaries at the end of each chapter.

I was pleased to see that while the book is primarily a review of the WHI data, Dr. Manson presents information about alternative treatments for menopausal symptoms, to the extent that scientific data is available on their effectiveness.

I especially liked the conversational tone of the book - surprising, given the complexity of the subject matter. Kudos to Dr. Manson and her co-author.

Bottom line: solid data from one of the architects of the WHI with supporting statistics from other relevant women's studies. I recommend it highly!

Although I am well educated in hormone replacement therapy and the associated risks and advantages, I didn't truly appreciate the loss of quality of life until I was in full menopausal symptoms. This book and resulting research helped me to chose low dose estrogen replacement therapy which has saved both my relationship with my husband and my sanity. Thank you!

This book is really helping me understand the changes my body is going through during menopause. I feel like I can take charge of my health now and make much more knowledgeable decisions about whether or not to take hormone therapy. The book helped me to understand the different options out there and really helped clear the confusion about bioidentical hormones, pills versus patches, and all the other choices. All women should read this book.

Interesting and informative book but didn't translate well to the Kindle. Tables of data were impossible to read on the Kindle and sidebars didn't appear as such so it seemed that the book was poorly edited.

The item was in great condition and arrived in good time.
I am happy.

This book was more about HRT than anything else. It could have been written by a pharmacutical company.