Customer Reviews

The Secret Pleasures of Menopause

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I'm a Northrup fan because of her classic, The Wisdom of Menopause, which is a truly useful and amazingly thorough book - - and because Northrup has women's best interests at heart. However, this book was a disappointment. it's well written ... but just a "yawn" to quote another reviewer. I bought it on name recognition. If a newcomer to the women's health and wellness scene had written this book, I have my doubts it would have been published. Hay House, I'm disappointed. Having said all of this ... the book is a light and quick (very light, very quick) read, and Northrup does give women permission to feel good. I suppose some women will find that liberating. Having given myself this permission long ago, the book didn't live up to my expectations.

I found this book a great change from Dr. Northrup's other books, which I have read over and over again. It took me reading this one twice to see its magnificence. It combines ancient simple philosophy with modern science to transform our bodies at the deepest level via our chemistry and biology all done through positive thinking! Dr. Nothrup teamed up with the Noble Prize winning M.D, Dr. Murad and Dr. Edward A. Taub, using their biological theory of the free radical gas in our bodies called Nitric Oxide and how it can transform us on an upward cycle by focusing on pleasure and positive life force energy to create more and more nitric oxide. This is a very healthy free radical just as there is good and bad cholesterol. I found this simple yet profound book exactly what I needed to here. We all do tend to favor negative energy and compete for who has it the hardest, which is destroying our health by depleting our nitric oxide levels. By focusing on the positive and learning to love and accept ourselves we can transform our lives with an abundance of powerful good feelings, joy and hope. It's a new approach to the power of positive thinking with science by Medical Doctors, who won a Nobel Prize for their efforts, to back it up!

I feel very empowered to acheive optimal health through these new theories. I already eat with nutritional excellent from the book, "Eat To Live" by Joel Furham, M.D. and I am at my ideal weight. I exericise a lot and take many suppilmental vitamins and yet I have high blood pressure and suffer from anxiety. Just after reading this book and finding faith in it's words, I feel so much better and I even got my sex-drive back! This is a short easy book to read and I highly recommend it to everyone, not just women.

I wanted to like this book, I really did. But I found it lacking in many ways. There just wasn't a lot of good information that I didn't already know, and in some sections it just wasn't clear. I didn't come away from it with a feeling that I had learned much that was new or exciting. I know this isn't what I expected, because the book is advertised as a "breakthrough" but it certainly was not a breakthrough for me. I thought the author was just re-hashing old information from her previous books which were more informative than this one. I'm sorry to say, but I just wouldn't waste your time or money on this book. Overall, I just feel that she didn't put a lot into this book and it is disappointing. Normally I don't write negative reviews, but I have to agree with some of the other writers who say that this book is a letdown.

I am perplexed by Northrop's book. In chapter 2, she claims that prolactin is "the hormone of bonding" and that it "makes you feel bonded to the person (or people) you're interacting with at the time." My husband and I have been tracking research on the hormones related to mating neurochemistry for years. Researchers agree that oxytocin, not prolactin, is the "bonding hormone."

We think Northrop's right that the pleasurable feelings from connecting with others are very healthful, but oxytocin, not prolactin, is probably the reason. Indeed, prolactin (which rises after orgasm in both men and woman) may be more closely related to unpleasant mood swings. For example, men with high prolactin levels sometimes report low libido, headaches, erectile dysfunction, and anxiety. Women report similar symptoms. In one study, three quarters of women with unexplained high prolactin levels were suffering from depression, anxiety, and hostility.

This brings me to Northrop's indirect suggestion that masturbation is an ideal source of good feelings for women because of the short-term changes it produces in the body (endorphins and nitric oxide). Unfortunately, masturbation doesn't connect us with others. It's a solo performance. And, although sexologists aren't yet acknowledging it, there seem to be very real differences between masturbation and intercourse. The two are not interchangeable. Consider this woman's experience:

"It has been a year since my husband's death and I decided to see if I was still capable of orgasm. (My husband was very sick for several years before his death, so it has been a while.) The very next morning I woke up slightly depressed. Each night I masturbated again, trying to shorten the time to climax. Each morning I woke up a bit more depressed. After a couple of weeks of this I made the connection, and stopped. The depression is now completely gone, but I'm still horny from all that masturbating. (I wasn't at all horny before starting to masturbate.) I think that climaxing with a loved one is very different from climaxing with empty lips and vagina."

Her experience has actually been borne out by research that links women's masturbation with greater depression and relationship dissatisfaction--as well as less physical pleasure. In other words, those who masturbated more, showed more depression and dissatisfaction. It would be nice if orgasm were indeed a cure all, but if it were, heavy porn users would be the happiest people on the planet, and men would have been outliving women for centuries instead of the reverse.

The Secret Pleasures of Menopause is different from Dr. Northrup's last three manifestos: Wisdom of Menopause, Women's Bodies and Mother-Daughter Wisdom....which, by the way, are all great reference books for women. This new book weighs in at just 166 pages but is packed with a plethora of information for women of all ages. In a nut shell, this book is a prescription for expressing positive sexuality during menopause...thus the title The Secret Pleasures of Menopause. I admire Dr. Northrup for laying out a direct "plan of action" for self-cultivation. As a woman in perimenopause I found the book uplifting and relevant and quite frankly even younger women could learn a thing or two from this book. Great read!

This book has my vote as a must read for woman of ANY age as it sets them up for a juicy post 50-something life and debunks old ways of thinking about the second half of life. Dr. Northrup skillfully blends her depth of medical knowledge with her vision of creating ways to access a life of pleasure-filled sexuality. If you want to stay stuck in old dried up ways of thinking about a glorious part of life, then you won't enjoy it. If you seek pleasure, you will love this book.

The book is full of self help tips that are actually beneficial to women of all age groups. Honestly, I wish I would have read this book ten years ago. "The Secret Pleasures of Menopause" is rich with advice that helps women embrace their femininity from a mind/body/spirit perspective.

The book is well rounded, full of positive affirmations, provides a vast array of diet and lifestyle tips, and explains how to optimize your body's own production of nitric oxide, a biochemical made infamous by the Viagra industry.

I was disappointed because the book didn't really have much new that I didn't already know. Was hoping for more juice based on the title!

However, I did glean some interesting info on nitric oxide, so will be quoting her in my next book. Apparently this stuff really helps with orgasms. She also give info on how to increase it. There is an entire chapter on that, which did make the book worthwhile for me.

There is also a chapter on "7 keys that will open the door to wonderful sexuality and sensuality after menopause" which basically entail old-idea things like lingerie, music, bubble baths, affirmations, and g-spot stimulation. She claims that post menopausal women are most active when they find a new partner. But for those of us who are happily married, she suggests BEING the new partner, reinventing yourself.

this book is a waste of money and seems to me to be a blantant exercise in "lets get some more money by manipluating hot-flashed women"...not to mention that Dr. Northrop looks like a Stepford Wife on the cover. As a Southern Maine resident and a patient at Dr. Northrup's practice, Women to Women, for many years in the 90's, I have relied on her work, especially Women's Bodies Women's Wisdom and The Wisdom of Menopause...But, this book, together with the accompanying journal and play book (another way to manipulate tourtured women into spending more money) are a slap in the face. Dr. Northrup, keep your advice clear, relavant and supportive and, please, for get about the junk. That's not what us 50-somthings need.

This book could have been an inspiring short (and I mean short) article. How many ways can you say the same thing? If you'r emotionally or spiritually based, you'll probably love it. If you're not, here I'll save you some money: Make friends with yourself, eat right, exercise, have a good day inspite of everything, get laid. Don't get me wrong, I think that's great advice, but it doesn't fill a whole book. So what's the rest of the book? Blah blah blah blah blah.