Customer Reviews

Menopause Before 40: Coping with Premature Ovarian Failure

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

 

 

Karin Banerd explains at the beginning of this book that premature menopause can occur naturally, as a result of a full or partial hysterectomy, or as a result of radiation or chemotherapy treatment. When Banerd realized that she was experiencing premature ovarian failure naturally (her body began the process before she was 35), the lack of information and support for women in her situation left her feeling isolated and lost. Her desire to fill this gap in women's health literature prompted her to write this book.

Menopause Before 40 is full of useful information. Banerd provides practical advice on how to identify and cope with the symptoms of early menopause. She includes a clear, thoughtful discussion on the pros and cons of various hormone replacement therapies (HRTs), and identifies the benefits and risks of some alternative approaches to alleviating menopausal symptoms. A list of web resources (which includes both Canadian and US sites), an extensive bibliography, and a good index are also provided.

But what makes this book unique is Banerd's courageous, deeply personal account of her own experience with early menopause. She describes the physical, emotional, and mental highs and lows that she experienced, and how they affected every aspect of her life, including her marriage, her work, and her sense of self. She tells the story of this tumultuous period in her life with unflinching honesty. It's all here - the frustration of trying to find doctors who would listen to her (at least one flatly refused to believe that a woman of her age could be menopausal), the devastating bouts of depression, the havoc wreaked on her sex life, and her struggles to fulfill her roles as employee, wife, and mother. Banerd tells her story calmly and matter-of-factly, but her descriptions of these experiences are heartrending.

Menopause Before 40 is an excellent resource for women who are, or suspect they are, experiencing early menopause. Karin Banerd makes the sometimes complex material interesting and easy to understand. This book will also be of interest to anyone, male or female, who wants to gain a deeper understanding of the impact that early menopause has on the women who experience it and those around them.

If you suffer from premature ovarian failure, and are going through early menopause as a result, you'll find this book validates every single thought, emotion, physical feeling and sense of personal chaos you may be going through. I sure did! I want to thank the author for being so candid. I have read material on POF on the internet, and think this book should be required reading.

Karin Banerd's book is a most useful guide for all women who find themselves in the bewildering predicament of experiencing early menopause. Karin provides the reader with a most touching account of her long and painful journey to discovery, search for solutions and finally coping with this potentially health-threatening condition.

Karin's description of her poignant experiences as well as the wealth of well-researched material on all aspects of early menopause, including HRT, will no doubt be of great support to other women and their partners who find themselves in the same difficult situation. Her courage in telling her personal story will, I think, be appreciated by patients and doctors alike.

Moreover, Karin delivers this information from the point of view of the patient, not the medical practitioner.

While I think it is very courageous of the author to share her feelings and experiences in such detail - this book is not at all what I was looking for, nor is it helpful to someone going through POF at the age of 27 who has no children.

I am not underestimating the devastating effects of depression (which can certainly be affected by hormones) but I was not looking to read a book on how a woman felt about her antidepressants or how sorry she felt for herself. I am looking for hope and for overcoming such feelings, not wallowing in them. And as insensitive as this may seem, I also feel like the author is awfully whiny about her inability to have a sixth child. For those of us mourning the loss of our fertility and any hope of having a family, it feels like a giant slap in the face. This book made me feel worse about my condition, not better.

I skimmed through section one because I couldn't bear to listen to her whine anymore, and I am loathe to read further. I will push on but so far feel this is a colossal waste of my money. Agreed with the other one-star reviewer: maybe it is my medical background, but this book did nothing for me.

In short - if you are in your teens or twenties and have no children; if you are coping with the loss of your womanhood before it even begins; this is NOT the POF book for you.

As a woman who has been dx with POF I was looking forward to reading this highly recommended (by amazon reviewers) book. Overall I was disappointed with the book... perhaps it's my medical background or perhaps I just don't enjoy the overly explicit details regarding the author's personal traumas. I'm sure for some readers the author's personal musings about her severe depression and personal drama may be comforting in that "I'm not alone" sort of way but if you're looking for a positive perspective on how to cope with POF this is not the book to consider.

It was a shock when I was diagnosed with an extreme case of Premature Ovarian Insufficiency (POI) at age 28. No one expects to be going through a process that is, in effect, menopause at so young an age. One of the ways that I have regained at very least the illusion of control over my life and body is by reading as much as possible about POI. It has also helped to read the experiences of other women who have endured a similar shock and gone through similar, ongoing medical issues. In an ideal world, I'd be able to form a support group with other women going through similar experiences, but POI, especially POI as extreme as mine has been, is pretty rare.

In general, the best and most thorough book that I've found about POI has been "The Premature Menopause Book" by Kathryn Petras. It addresses the broad spectrum of medical and psychological issues that women with POI go through. As an introduction to the experience of POI, I would recommend it before "Menopause Before 40", particularly if you are also coping with infertility. The author of "Menopause Before 40" had already had four or five (I don't remember how many.. I read it a few months ago) children before going through POI. I'm not proud of this, but I resented her for it. Infertility is an central part of the psychological experience of POI for many of us, and Karin Barin's extensive account of her own experiences with POI do not make it as central (even though she did have one extremely negative experience where she went in for surgery and the surgeon changed course partway through, deciding on a course of surgery that would make Barin completely infertile without even consulting her first. Bad medical establishment! Bad practice!).

It is possible that "Menopause Before 40" contains more current medical information than "The Premature Menopause Book", because "Menopause Before 40" is dated 2006 while "The Premature Menopause Book" is from 1999. (On that same line of reasoning, I wouldn't recommend "Before Your Time: The Early Menopause Survival Guide" either. Even though it came out most recently (2010), its descriptions of medical issues and treatments are too brief to be of use.) However, I'm not a doctor, so I'm not the best judge of that.

Premature Ovarian Insufficiency can come with a lot of medical complications. Here is where "Menopause Before 40" shines, as a tale of perseverance through medical appointments and hormonal changes. One of the problems with POI is that doctors don't necessarily know what the best course of treatment for any given patient will be, and often a local physician don't know much about treating POI because it is so rare. It can be necessary to go to a few different doctors, sometimes traveling out of your geographic area, in order to find treatments that balance you out. And it takes time, often months, to evaluate whether a course of treatment will be effective. If you are looking to hear a lot of voices of women who have gone through POI, I'd recommend "Faces of POI: Learning and Living with Premature Ovarian Failure" by the International POI Support Group. But if you are looking to hear in depth about one woman's long slog through the medical establishment* to get her POI satisfactorily treated, I would recommend this book.

*She was dealing with the Canadian medical establishment, not the United States'. If you are looking for a guide to navigating the United States' medical establishment, know that the Canadian system is different.

Karin Banerd's "Menopause before 40 Coping with Premature Ovarian Failure" is an excellent primer for ALL women undergoing menopause - not just those before 40. It is well written and researched with each chapter flowing seamlessly into the next one. I would recommend it as a very good read not only for the above reasons, but because the author draws on her personal experiences to make this not only informative, but interesting. I look forward to an updated version with the hope that the author will have the time to do one.

For about the last 2 years I've been experiencing bizarre symptoms for a woman my age (32). My doctor didn't know what to do with me. She sent me for referrals, and they were stumped. When I told them that it felt like I was going through menopause, they told me I was crazy, far too young. FINALLY after numerous blood tests, it came back that I was indeed in menopause. I found Karin Banerd's book here on amazon and I was so happy to have found this resource. She tells her own story of going into menopause at age 35. I took this book to my doctor and she agreed that it's a wonderful book. Thank you Karin Banerd, for having the courage to tell your story and to help so many women who are just being told they are crazy!