Is it Hot in Here? Or is it me? The Complete Guide to Menopause [Paperback]

Barbara Kantrowitz (Author), Pat Wingert Kelly (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 30, 2006

For significant milestones, significant books: first, Our Bodies, Ourselves, then What to Expect When You’re Expecting, and now, Is it Hot in Here? Or is it me? The Complete Guide to Menopause. Written with an uncompromising intelligence and wit by two award-winning Newsweek journalists, Is it Hot in Here? Or is it me? is the essential, comprehensive, up-to-the-minute, deeply optimistic book for the millions of women in their forties-to-sixties.

The menopause transition—so often mysterious—varies greatly from woman to woman. Finally, here is the one book that makes the full scope of it accessible and understood. It covers the role of hormones and the controversy over hormone therapy. The truth about hot flashes . . . and how to deal with one in the middle of a meeting. A top-to-bottom assessment of the aches, pains, and assorted ills that can afflict menopausal women. The impact on sexuality, and how to counteract that wavering libido. (Yes, it’s possible to buy a sex toy without the neighbors—or the children— finding out.) There are chapters on memory (how to protect it), moods (how to ride them out), and sleep (how to get it). And then an entire section on using this period as a springboard to staying healthy, feeling great, and looking beautiful for the next act in your life. A complete approach to losing middle-age weight (and tips on finding jeans that will make you look as if you’ve had a tummy tuck). The essential exercises to keep bones strong. Dealing with dry skin and thinning hair. Habits (and recipes) to begin to encourage heart health now.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Workman's enviable success with the classic pregnancy "bible" What to Expect When You're Expecting has no doubt sparked this guide, which claims to do for those at midlife what Heidi Murkoff's series has done for pregnant women. The company has tapped two respected Newsweek health writers for this map to everything a woman might encounter before, during and after menopause. An attractive, user-friendly format with sidebars, charts, illustrations and q&as guides readers through hundreds of pages of material. Chapters progress from the basics (types of menopause, onset and duration, testing); hormonal changes and their impact on sleep, sex, moods and memory; and lifestyle (diet, exercise, stress); to heart and bone health, cancer, treatment options and medications. As Wingert and Kantrowitz point out, we've come a long way from when symptoms associated with menopause included "uncontrollable peevishness" and "perversion of moral instincts," yet many women remain reticent about their experiences, fear aging and feel incapable of the new challenges presented by their bodies along with the rest of their obligations. Such readers will welcome Wingert and Kantrowitz's inclusion of suggestions for self-care and their positive focus on what, they say, can be a healthy and productive time in a woman's life. (Feb.)
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Review

"Dr. Spock for aging women... extremely well researched and presents cutting-edge science in a readable and comprehensive way. An excellent reference."- The North American Menopause Society. "Sympathetic, very readable, comprehensive... I highly recommend this excellent guide." - Isaac Schiff, M.D., Harvard Medical School. "Required reading for women wanting to maximize the second halves of their lives."- Wulf H. Utian, M.D., Ph.D., founder and executive director, The North American Menopause Society. "Bravo! This book should be a birthday gift for every 40-year-old (actually, probably earlier)."- Barb Malat, CPNP, PA-C, co-chair, Menopause and Hormone Therapy Committee, Association of Reproductive Health Professionals." --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 532 pages
• Publisher: Workman Publishing Company; 1 edition (December 30, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761138080
• ISBN-13: 978-0761138082
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #677,789 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #62 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Personal Health > Women's Health > Menopause

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Have questions and know you're getting older- Read this book!, January 7, 2007

By 

Judy Herr (Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Is it Hot in Here? Or is it me? The Complete Guide to Menopause (Paperback)

Wonder about why your body is acting the way it is? Prefer to read some background info first and then talk to your doctor about it? Yeah,... me too! This book was very helpful. It's more than about menopause. It's about women getting older and all the changes that occur in and around you. The writing style and layour were very accessible, and it was easy and efficient to locate info on a particular topic. The early positive press was right-- I've recommended this to my Women's email list and to my book club!

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Give this book to every woman you know!!!, January 2, 2007

By 

Menopausal Mary (Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Is it Hot in Here? Or is it me? The Complete Guide to Menopause (Paperback)

Finally, women get the definitive book about menopause--the book that all women of a certain age will embrace!! During your child bearing years, you needed a copy of What to Expect When You're Expecting. Now, when you are menopausal, you need Is It Hot in Here? You will use this book in the same way-after you read it thoroughly once, you can go back to it again and again for reference, and for reassurance that what you are going through is perfectly normal. I was familiar with the fine work of both authors, from reading their articles, mostly on health and education in Newsweek, and I am not surprised that they have tackled this exhaustive subject well.
They have clearly done solid research, and the book is chock full of easy to read and use charts, sidebars, and diagrams, however, the beauty of the book is its breezy and chatty tone. Most important, is the sense one gets, over and over, of how much menopause is not the end of life, so to speak, but should be viewed as the gateway, to a great second or even third act! I highly recommend this book.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What I've Been Looking For!, January 4, 2007

By 

Jk Sozio (Washington DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Is it Hot in Here? Or is it me? The Complete Guide to Menopause (Paperback)

Thank you, Pat and Barbara, for this wonderful work! Finally, a comprehensive, readable, empathetic and humorous book on a very complicated and personal subject. It truly resides above all the "noise" surrounding the subject of menopause. I've had a case of analysis paralysis trying to make sense of the tomes of materials available, so I'm both thrilled and relieved to find so many answers to my questions here in one complete and comfortable source.