Dr. Susan Love's Hormone Book: Making Informed Choices about Menopause by Susan M. Love, Karen Lindsey

Product Details

Synopsis

With clarity and compassion, Dr. Love emphasizes that menopause is not a disease that needs to be cured; it's a natural life stage. She tells you what you need to know about coping with symptoms and addressing concerns about osteoporosis, heart disease, breast cancer, endometrial cancer, and more. And she walks you through every option for the short and long term: lifestyle changes (diet, exercise, and stress management), alternatives (including herbs and homeopathic remedies), other medications, and a thorough discussion of the pros and cons of hormones. An in-depth questionnaire on your personal health risks and lifestyle preferences will help you put it all together to make choices that fit your unique needs - choices Dr. Love encourages you to reconsider as your life situation changes. Also included are guidelines for finding the right health care professional, a resource guide of helpful books, newsletters, and organizations, and more.

Annotation

"...an accessible reference addressing the side effects of menopause, possible treatments, and health concerns that may arise years later."

Publishers Weekly

For the menopausal or perimenopausal woman confused by conflicting opinions regarding hormone replacement therapy, Love (Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book) cuts through the maze of contradictory data to provide information without hype or pedantry. In her information-dense volume, Love lists symptoms from hot flashes and mood swings to migraine headaches and memory lapses, explaining that many may simply be signs of normal aging, not menopause. Also discussed are osteoporosis, heart disease, breast cancer and endometrial cancer; risk factors and how they can be mitigated are outlined. She explains the many alternatives to hormone replacement, including lifestyle changes (diet, exercise, stress reduction), homeopathic remedies, vitamin treatments, acupuncture and herbs, as well as the sometimes necessary drugs and surgery. In spite of all that is reported regarding treatment for menopause and related conditions, there remains, says Love, no definitive, or "gold standard," research on hormones and postmenopausal women. The first such study, the Women's Health Initiative, is going on now but will not yield results until 2008. In the meantime, what should a woman do? "You make your own rules, and you reexamine them as you get more information and your needs change." Women seeking counsel that respects their concerns and allows them to make choices they feel safe with will find Love's reassuring, no-nonsense approach exactly what the doctor ordered. (Feb.)

Biography

Dr. Susan Love, M.D., is coauthor with Karen Lindsey of Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book, called "the bible" for breast care by The New York Times. She is a breast surgeon and an adjunct associate professor of clinical surgery at UCLA and director of the Santa Barbara Breast Cancer Institute. She was a member of the Medical Advisory Committee of the Women's Health Initiative, helping to guide the largest study ever on postmenopausal women in this country.

Karen Lindsey is the author of Divorced, Beheaded, Survived: A Feminist Interpretation of the Wives of Henry VIII.