The Wisdom of Menopause (4th Edition)

Auteur
Christiane Northrup, M.D., is the host of eight public television specials and the author of numerous books, including the New York Times bestsellers Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom and Goddesses Never Age. A board-certified OB/GYN, Dr. Northrup has been featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, The View, the Today show, and Good Morning America, among many others.

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Now in its third edition, the groundbreaking, New York Times bestselling classic that has challenged and inspired an entire generation of women with a dramatically new vision of midlife--and that will continue to do so for generations to come.

Dr. Christiane Northrup's #1 New York Times bestseller The Wisdom of Menopause has inspired more than a million women with a dramatically new vision of midlife. As Dr. Northrup has championed, the "change" is not simply a collection of physical symptoms to be "fixed," but a mind-body revolution that brings the greatest opportunity for growth since adolescence. The choices a woman makes now--from the quality of her relationships to the quality of her diet--have the power to secure vibrant health and well-being for the rest of her life.

Drawing on the current research and medical advances in women's health, the book includes
• a section on sex after 50--and how, if need be, you can rejuvenate your sex life
• updated mammogram guidelines--and how thermography improves breast health
• the latest on the glycemic index, optimal blood sugar levels, and ways to prevent diabetes
• dietary guidelines revealing that hidden sugar--not dietary fat--is the main culprit in heart disease, cancer, and obesity
• all you need to know about perimenopause and why it's critical to your well-being
• a vital program for ensuring pelvic health during and after menopause
• strategies to combat osteoporosis and strengthen bones for life

With this trusted resource, Dr. Christiane Northrup shows that women can make menopause a time of personal empowerment--emerging wiser, healthier, and stronger in both mind and body than ever before.

Résumé
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The Bible of middle-aged womanhood . . . a masterwork.”—The Atlantic 
 
Newly revised and updated for this fourth edition, this groundbreaking book has inspired more than a million women with a dramatically new vision of midlife—and will continue to do so for generations to come.
 
As Dr. Christiane Northrup explains, the “change” is not simply a collection of physical symptoms to be “fixed,” but a mind-body revolution that brings the greatest opportunity for growth since adolescence. The choices a woman makes now—from the quality of her relationships to the quality of her diet—have the power to secure vibrant health and well-being for the rest of her life.
 
In this fourth edition, Dr. Northrup draws on the current research and medical advances in women’s health, including:

•  Up-to-date information on hormone testing and hormone therapy, with new options and new research
•  A whole new take on losing weight and training your mind to release extra pounds
•  New insights on the relationship between thyroid, Hashimoto's Disease, and Epstein Bar Syndrome
•  New, less invasive and more effective fibroid treatments
•  Which supplements are better than botox for keeping skin looking youthful
•  How taking the supplement Pueraria mirifica can optimize many aspects of midlife health and wellness
•  Why older women don't need the HPV vaccine

With this trusted resource, Dr. Christiane Northrup shows that women can make menopause a time of personal empowerment—emerging wiser, healthier, and stronger in both mind and body than ever before.

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Menopause Puts Your Life Under a Microscope

It is no secret that relationship crises seem to go hand in hand with menopause. Usually this is attributed to the crazy-making effects of the hormonal shifts occurring in a woman’s body at this time of transition. What is rarely acknowledged or understood is that as these hormone-driven changes affect the brain, they give a woman a sharper eye for inequity and injustice, and a voice that insists on speaking up about them. In other words, they uncover hidden wisdom—and the courage to voice it. As the vision-obscuring veil created by the hormones of reproduction and one’s cultural programming begins to lift, a woman’s youthful fire and spirit are often rekindled, together with long-sublimated desires and creative drives. Midlife fuels those drives with a volcanic energy that demands an outlet.

If it does not find an outlet—if the woman remains silent for the sake of keeping the peace at home or work, or if she holds herself back from pursuing her creative urges and desires—the result is equivalent to plugging the vent on a pressure cooker: something has to give. Very often what gives is the woman’s health, and the result will be one or more of the “big three” diseases of postmenopausal women: heart disease, depression, and breast cancer. On the other hand, for those of us who choose to honor the body’s wisdom and to express what lies within us, it’s a good idea to get ready for some boat rocking, which may put long-established relationships in upheaval. Marriage is not immune to this effect.

“NOT ME, MY MARRIAGE IS FINE”

Every marriage or partnership, even a very good one, must undergo change in order to keep up with the hormone-driven rewiring of a woman’s brain during the years leading up to and including menopause. Not all marriages are able to survive these changes. Mine wasn’t, and nobody was more surprised about that than I. If this makes you want to hide your head in the sand, believe me, I do understand. But for the sake of being true to yourself and protecting your emotional and physical health in the second half of your life—likely a full forty years or more—then I submit to you that forging ahead and taking a good hard look at all aspects of your relationship (including some previously untouchable corners of your marriage) may be the only choice that will work in your best interest in the long run, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

From the standpoint of physical health, for example, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that the increase in life-threatening illnesses after midlife, which cannot be accounted for simply because of growing older, is partly rooted in the stresses and unresolved relationship problems that simmered beneath the surface during the childbearing years of a woman’s life, then bubbled up and boiled over at perimenopause, only to be damped down in the name of maintaining the status quo. The health of your significant other is also at stake. Remaining in a relationship that was tailor-made for a couple of twentysomethings without making the necessary adjustments for who you both have become at midlife can be just as big a health risk for him as it is for you.

This is not to say that your only options are divorce or heart attack. Rather, in order to bring your relationship into alignment with your rewired brain, you and your significant other must be willing to take the time and spend the energy to resolve old issues and set new ground rules for the years that lie ahead. If you can do this, then your relationship will help you to thrive in the second half of your life. If one or both of you cannot or will not, then both health and happiness may be at risk if y…