I'm tempted to give this book a failing grade -- its "top 10" list of reasons why hormone therapy may be a good choice for you has 12 items in it -- but that wouldn't be fair. It deserves a C-plus, which seems to me a better grade than most dummies get.
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Menopause
Dummies: As uneven as readers' mental state. Pun alert: Know the "shape urine."
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Marcia Jones will be online Tuesday, Feb. 8, at 2 p.m. ET to take your questions about women's health and the various stages of menopause and how it can affect your body, your emotions, and your libido.
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Maureen Miller Pelletier, M.D., and Deborah Romaine. (AlphaBooks, 2000, 335 pp, $16.95)
You'd have to be a complete idiot to buy this book, and I plead guilty. I was too caught up in the title bout between dummies and idiots to check the publication date on either one. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Menopause was published more than four years ago, two years before the release of early data from the mega Women's Health Initiative study, which turned a lot of conventional thinking about hormone replacement therapy on its head. I skipped the 36 dated pages on the hormone question.
Turns out I should have skipped a lot more. This book starts with the annoying traits of books for idiots -- cutesy drawings, idiotic quizzes, and boxes with headings like "Embracing Change" -- then heaps on tons of clichés and new-agey goofs.
Call me cynical (and an idiot), but I'm not that interested in "channeling the energy power of menopause" or "going with the flow of your ovarian chi." I just want the flow to end.
And I really don't want to hear stuff like, "It has often been said that beginnings and endings are one and the same. . . . Such is the cycle of life." Or this: "Aging is inevitable, and we can't change that."
I give this book credit for recognizing that ours "is the first generation for which menopause is truly a marker of midlife, not the alarm of impending demise." And for this tidbit: "While life expectancy has nearly doubled over the last 100 years, the average age of menopause has remained relatively the same." Interesting.
I even liked this metaphor: "In some respects, menopause hits your brain like rush hour hits Los Angeles. Everything moves along fine, and then all of a sudden there's more traffic than the network can handle."
But the occasional good stuff is followed and swallowed by the truly idiotic. Do we need "exercises" to improve our left-brain function ("match and fold your socks") or suggestions on how to clear your head ("draw a miniature labyrinth that you can trace with your finger")?
