REVIEWS

Managing menopause is easier with a sense of humour

Menopause Means Never Having to Say You’re Chilly by: Cathy Hamilton Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2007 ISBN-13: 978-0-7407-6861-3

When a woman goes through menopause, the whole family goes through it as well. So everyone needs a sense of humour to get through.

Menopause is serious business, but if you cannot laugh at yourself or at least allow others around you to laugh at your expense, then at some point, you will end up with a bunch of people under one roof that will be ready to explode.

This is the distinguishing mark of Cathy Hamilton’s new book. Hamilton, a founder and editor of BoomerGirl.com, makes you laugh about menopause. And many of us need to laugh.

According to the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada, there are currently four million Canadian women who are now or have in the past, reached menopause. There were 40 million women suffering from menopause in 2003 and there will be 60 million women suffering by 2010. Oy. God help the rest of the population.

There was a time during my life when my mother was going through menopause, my father was going through mid-life crisis, my brother was going through puberty, and my identical twin sister and I were going through hell!

The hot flashes were the real kicker. My mother would turn down the thermostat because she was always hot, my father would turn it up because he was always cold, and our own internal thermostat was so whacked, we all thought we were going to go crazy. How long does this madness continue? Well, my mother is 67 and she is still having the hot flashes. I had no idea what she went through until my twin and I had been diagnosed with perimenopause. You could melt ice with the heat a woman generates. Who the hell turned up the heater!

Besides hot flashes other symptoms include insomnia, memory loss, bladder upset. While writing about menopause, Hamilton infuses humour with the symptoms. There are ample funny lines which will leave you in stitches. Here are some:

“Menopause means ….trading the fear of pregnancy for the greater fear of a man with a Viagra prescription...”

“Menopause means…going from hysterical laughter to a flood of tears, all in the time it takes to cycle through a traffic light.”

“Menopause means…living in fear that every sneeze,cough, hiccup will cause you to pee in your pants.”

If you’re sweltering in your living room and the rest of your family is complaining about the cold, then pick up this book. You’ll still be hot, but at least you’ll be smiling.