Menopause and the Mind: The Complete Guide to Coping with Memory Loss, Foggy Thinking, Verbal Confusion, and Other Cognitive Effects of Perimenopause and Menopause [Hardcover]

Claire L. Warga Ph.D. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 23, 1999

"Menopause and the Mind" gives every woman the survival kit she needs to manage the thinking and memory symptoms -- long overlooked by the medical establishment -- that accompany the onset of perimenopause and menopause. As early as their late thirties, many women begin to experience a range of startling changes in the way they speak, remember, drink, and navigate. Sometimes, these changes begin with occasional "slips of the tongue." Other times, a former champion speller realizes that she's isn't so sure how to spell "potato" or "forty," or an organization maven loses track of her appointments. Some women find they can't remember the name of their oldest friend, or how to turn on the computer. Others put the shampoo bottle in the refrigerator instead of the shower caddy, or forget where they are going "en route" to the supermarket they've shopped at for years. These symptoms occur with greater frequency as women enter their forties, fifties, and beyond, but often they are chalked up to stress or age. However, repeated lapses in memory and recurrences of foggy thinking can be terrifying, causing some women to wonder, "What's happening to me? Could this be early Alzheimer's Disease?"

Neuropsychologist Claire Warga provides the first scientific explanation for this common "hormonal misconnection" syndrome. Drawing upon recent brain and clinical research, she shows that forgetfulness, malapropisms, and lost concentration are not manifestations of dementia or senility; instead, they result from the depletion of estrogen in the brain cells of women as they enter perimenopause and menopause. Armed with this knowledge, Warga offers women a breakthrough plan for regaining control andconfidence in their minds.

Warga explains in clear, simple language the cutting-edge science that underlies the "hormonal misconnection" syndrome. Research shows that a decrease in estrogen -- which begins with the onset of perimenopause at about age 35 -- produces detectable changes in the parts of the brain having to do with memory and attention, and can affect multiple neurotransmitter systems. There is also evidence that estrogen loss impacts verbal memory and learning. Yet remarkably, the medical establishment has failed tot use this research to help the millions of perimenopausal and menopausal women who suffer from speech, memory, attention, or cognitive/behavioral symptoms. Most doctors know a good deal about the physical and emotional symptoms of menopause, but little about how it affects the brain. Claire Warga fills this vacuum and provides every woman with the information she needs to take care of herself on her own and in consultation with her doctor.

"Menopause and the Mind" includes a wide range of real-life stories -- such as the menopausal woman who was misdiagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic -- that illustrate how different women have coped with their "hormonal misconnection" symptoms. Warga explains the full range of thinking, speech, short- and long-term memory, behavior, spatial, and time sense symptoms in extensive detail, complete with an array of examples. Most important are a self-screening test and symptom chart that every woman can use to understand the extent of her symptoms and accurately assess her condition, with or without her ob/gyn. Women can also make practical use of Warga's detailed guide to treatment options, which include estrogen therapy,dietary and behavioral changes, and techniques for improving memory.

Women today live longer and are more active than ever before. "Menopause and the Mind" ensures that every woman can live without embarrassment or fear that she is "losing it" as she grows older. With Claire Warga's roadmap of the relationship between estrogen and the brain, women can develop the practical coping tools they need to lead happy and productive lives.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Has this happened to you? A name that was on the tip of your tongue suddenly disappears from memory. You mean to say one word, and another pops out. You put your car keys down and have no idea where they are a minute later. You search for something and discover it's in plain sight in front of you. Your mind feels foggy. If you're approaching menopause, your brain may be reacting normally to estrogen loss, according to neuropsychologist and researcher Claire Warga in Menopause and the Mind. She immodestly names this condition WHMS: Warga's Hormonal Misconnection Syndrome. Warga gives tools for assessing, understanding, speaking about, and getting competent help for your symptoms. She presents case studies, discusses why this condition is often overlooked, explains the research on estrogen and the brain, and presents options for improving your brain power and reversing WHMS using hormone replacement therapy or nonhormonal approaches. She includes a comprehensive screening test and recommends that you take the results to your doctor. In fact, you might want to take the whole book to your doctor, because a recurring theme in this book is that medical professionals tend to miss, disregard, or misdiagnose these symptoms. --Joan Price

From Publishers Weekly

The author of the much-discussed 1997 New York magazine article "Estrogen and the Brain" aims to bring public and professional attention to a decade of new research on the link between hormonal change and lapses in the cognitive faculties of women in the years leading up to and during menopause. Citing studies that relate declining estrogen levels to a range of "slips" in memory, speech, thinking, attention span and sense of time and space, Warga makes a fascinating argument for the biological, even evolutionary basis of such behaviorsAin men as well as women. An advocate of hormone replacement therapy to reverse these symptoms, Warga, a Ph.D. in neuropsychology, is highly skilled at making science accessible to the general reader. The book's emphasis, however, is on identifying and establishing a medical syndrome the author calls WHMS, for Warga's Hormonal Misconnection Syndrome, that she contends is separate from the physical symptoms associated with menopause. Readers, especially women from 35 to 60, who have experienced frustrating and sometimes frightening "senior moments" may welcome the book, but they should understand that less than a quarter of it deals with treatment and coping strategies. For those unable or unwilling to take synthetic hormones, there are helpful suggestions about estrogen "mimics," including serotonin boosters, exercise and a dietary regimen that includes moderate amounts of sugar and caffeine.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Free Press (April 23, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684854562
• ISBN-13: 978-0684854564
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,124,054 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!, September 26, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Menopause and the Mind : The Complete Guide to Coping with the Cognitive Effects of Perimenopause and Menopause - Including Memory Loss, Foggy Thinking and Verbal Slips (Paperback)

Dr. Warga's book, Menopause and the Mind, does women an enormous favor in presenting frontline research on estrogen and the brain as those familiar with this research area know. Every year, the scientific literature on estrogen's known effects on the brain (and the effects on the brain of estrogen loss), has grown more massive but women have mainly been left out of the loop on it over the last ten years.

Anyone with internet access can judge its size for themselves by logging onto the excellent PUBMED site on any search engine - it accesses the full scientific and medical literature in the National Library of Medicine. Anyone can punch in "estrogen AND the brain" on this site and read actual abstracts (or just titles) of the thousands of articles that now document the effects of estrogen on the brain - predominantly beneficial effects - in humans and in animals. In the year 2000 alone, hundreds of new studies documenting this association have been reported.

As a baby boomer, I am aging today and need to know what options I have to weigh until the ideal studies come out over the decades to come.

I found Dr. Warga's synthesis of this material a wonderful, clear and easy read and more than fair-minded. I feel she bent over backwards in the book to warn off women, who for personal reasons, shouldn't take estrogen. In the book, she's far from dogmatic in pushing estrogen on everyone for the mind changes she describes. I thought I was going crazy or had early, early Alzheimer's disease before I read about the symptoms of the WHM Syndrome and read what could reverse it.

By studying the many effects estrogen has been found to have in the brain, she's been able to offer women who can't or won't take estrogen, rational arguments - and the research evidence - for alternative factors besides estrogen that can help women experiencing memory, speech, and attention changes. I would never have known that estrogen affects glucose metabolism - the fuel of the brain - and that sugar can help memory.

Many of us know that women's health research needs have been given short shrift for too long. It's great to know that someone at least cares enough about women to be clueing us in to what does exist and the choices we have open to us.

Grateful

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book saved my life!, July 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Menopause and the Mind: The Complete Guide to Coping with Memory Loss, Foggy Thinking, Verbal Confusion, and Other Cognitive Effects of Perimenopause and Menopause (Hardcover)

Wow! I'm 47 and was convinced I had early onset Alzheimer's because 3 or 4 times a day, I find myself using bizarrely wrong words ("wishbone" instead of "washcloth"; "plane" instead of "phone"). Dr. Warga's is the first book to point out how very, very common this is for women in perimenopause (pre-menopause) and that it doesn't get worse -- in fact, these symptoms usually stop when you've achieved actual menopause (because, as I understand it, it's not the estrogen loss that causes this syndrome, it's the wildly fluctuating estrogen levels of perimenopause that cause it). If you're a pre-menopausal woman who is experiencing mental fog, forgetfulness, word misusage, etc., you HAVE to read this book. It will allay your fears about Alzheimer's, etc. It has literally saved my life and my sanity! Thank you, thank you, Dr. Warga, for writing this groundbreaking book.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars LIVING AGAIN!!!, April 7, 2001

By 

Angela DeFraites (New Orleans, Louisiana USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Menopause and the Mind: The Complete Guide to Coping with Memory Loss, Foggy Thinking, Verbal Confusion, and Other Cognitive Effects of Perimenopause and Menopause (Hardcover)

I am 50 yrs. old, and am a 5 yr Breast Cancer survivor. I had a mastectomy and 6 mos.of chemotherapy.My breast cancer was "estrogen"related, but it was also non-invasive, caught very early.With the help of God, I have overcome all obstacles.I also chose reconstructive surgery.Having had chemotherapy,I became menopausal. My quality of life changed drastically,I felt like I was just existing. I enjoyed nothing, nor wanted to be sociable anymore. I felt like I had no emotions.I became very insecure,irritable and negative. I KNEW something was wrong, but I was determined not to accept it as"just getting old".After all my LIFE was just beginning again. I started seeing a Psychiatrist, and went to the library and read Dr.Claire Wargasbook, Menopause and the Mind. All the emotions I had been feeling were in her book! I RAN to my oncologist & gynocoligist.Aftersome blood work, I was recommended by BOTH to get on the estrogen.My whole life has changed in a matter of days,I elected the Estradial patch with progesterone.Within days (2) I felt alert,active and Alive again. I am starting to feel feminine, and wanting to be around people. Suffice to say, at the second session with the Psychiatrist,she told me I did not need to return, my whole outlook had changed! I cannot express the change of positive emotions I have experienced. Instead of existing I am living. Because I am "high risk"so they say, I will continue to be monitered carefully, This has been my decision after researching data on estrogen and the mind, as opposed to estrogen and breastcancer. PLEASE READ DR. CLAIRE WARGA'S BOOK about Menopause and the Mind, IT CHANGED MY LIFE!!!