Menopause, Me and You

The Sound of Women Pausing

Ellen Cole, Esther D Rothblum, Ann M Voda

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781560239116
• eBook ISBN: 9781317765943
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Gynecology, Obstetrics & Midwifery

Menopause, Me and You will help you put menopause in proper perspective--as a normal and natural developmental process in the lives of women, not as a disorder or state that causes disease. This informative book gives you self-monitoring tools for collecting information and monitoring changes in your body during menopause. These tools will also help you understand the dynamics of the change process. A guideline as to how to best use this information when interacting with care providers--especially those who view menopause as a disorder to be treated--is also included.Menopause, Me and You is filled with information-gathering tools, scientific facts, and stories from the true "experts" on menopause--the women themselves who have experienced or are experiencing menopause. In chapter after chapter, you'll gain valuable information for viewing menopause from a woman-centered perspective. Specifically, the book includes:

• detailed information on conception and fertilization, reconceptualizing these events from a woman-centered, feminist perspective
• a description and reconceptualization of the menstrual cycle and menstruation, providing the knowledge base--the physiological, endrocrinological, and biochemical mechanisms that regulate the menstrual cycle and menstruation--to understand menopause as the closure of menstrual life and not the end of life
• a journey into the steroid hormone target cell--shows, at a scientific level, that women were genetically programmed to end the production of reproductive hormones
• a description and clarification of some of the terms used to describe menopause
• common menopausal changes and diseases attributed to being estrogen-deficient
• tools for gathering information, for "discovering knowledge," about yourself--a menstrual calendar card, hot flash body diagrams, a basal body temperature record, a body composition record, a menstrual bleeding scale, and factors to consider when choosing a care providerThe women who share their experiences in Menopause, Me and You represent women at various stages of menopause. They describe for you what they are feeling as well as what it means to be a mid-life woman at the closure of reproductive life; they celebrate the end of menstruation but curse the changes--including mood swings, hot flashes, and vaginal/bleeding changes--they are experiencing. These changes are normal and expected, however, and need to be understood in that context. They are not symptoms of disease or an excuse for care providers to instantly prescribe hormones or drugs. With the information in Menopause, Me and You, women nearing or experiencing menopause, health care providers, such as nurses, health educators, and physicians, and counselors will better understand how women view this transition and come to accept it as another normal, necessary, and beautiful process in the lives of women.

Index

Abbott Laboratories, 339

Abraham, Guy, 27

Aging. See also Menopause

reaction to, 124

vs. menopause, 133, 138

Alcohol and osteoporosis, 302

Aldosterone, 105. See also Hormones

Alendronate sodium. See Fosamax

Alzheimer’s Disease, 291

Amenorrhea, 67, 68. See also Menstruation

and long-term oral contraceptive use, 89

and osteoporosis risk, 68

and protection from breast cancer, 276

American Cancer Society, 299, 278

American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 121

American Gynecological Society, 48

American Heart Association, 268

American Journal of Nursing, 20

American Medical Association, 350

American Nurses Association, 350

American Psychiatric Association (APA), 101, 110

American Woman, The, 1996–97, 295

Anatomy, 6. See also Biology, as destiny

Androgens

and hair growth, 290

and sexual response, 289–290

Andrology, 211

Androstenedione, role in postmenopausal estrogen synthesis, 226

Anemia, 217

Ann’s advice. See Bleeding; breast cancer; heart disease; hot flash

Anorexia nervosa, 68

as contraceptive, 68

Antioxidants. See Beta carotene, as antioxidant; vitamin C; vitamin E

Apoptosis, 279, 282

Aristotle, 40, 95

theory of women as imperfect, 109

Ashton, Carol, 159

Athena Institute for Women’s Wellness Research, 28

Atwood, Margaret, 51

Baby boomers, 247

Barrett-Connor, E., 121, 254, 257

Bart, Pauline, 124

Basal body temperature. See Record keeping

Bellergal, 178, 181

Bergkvist, L.H., 284

Berman, Edgar, 100

Beta carotene, as antioxidant, 269

Beyene, Yewoubdar, 12, 124, 277

Biological deficit model, 226

Biology, as desti...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction and Purpose
• SECTION I. PREPARING FOR THE JOURNEY
• SECTION II. THE MENSTRUAL CYCLE
• SECTION III. MENOPAUSE: THE CLOSURE OF MENSTRUAL LIFE
• SECTION IV. KEEPING RECORDS AND KEEPING IN TOUCH
• Bibliography
• Index