Hot and Bothered

December 1, 2022

Author of the New York Times best-selling How Not To Hate Your Husband After Kids, Dunn experienced a range of uncomfortable symptoms in her mid-forties that her doctors couldn't fathom until it was finally determined that she was experiencing perimenopause. Here she draws on interviews with menopause experts to offer women a research-based guide to a major (and perfectly natural) life transition

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 20, 2023
This astute guide by essayist Dunn (How Not to Hate Your Husband After Kids) digs into what to expect from menopause. “How is it that I never had a single conversation about a life transition that lasts for years?” Dunn asks, laying out the scientific background she wished she had known when she transitioned into menopause. She recounts scrambling to set up fans to disguise her profuse sweating from a hot flash during a Zoom interview and explains that hot flashes are likely caused by sharp drops in estrogen levels that make the brain sensitive to temperature changes and induce sweating to cool the body down. The brain, she writes, is “impacted by menopause as much as your ovaries are”; for instance, menopausal memory lapses and mood swings are caused by waning estrogen levels in the brain. Dunn explores remedies for symptoms and recommends that readers try CBD for insomnia and take a probiotic with lactobacillus to alleviate vaginal dryness. The lighthearted tone keeps things upbeat (“I’m the melting face emoji come to life,” she writes of a hot flash), and the suggestions are practical and sensible. Premenopausal and perimenopausal women will appreciate this witty and informative resource.

May 1, 2023
Menopause gets short shrift. No more. Dunn, a longtime health journalist, shares the skinny on the hot flashes, sweatiness, and moodiness that many women experience in the years surrounding their last menstrual period. Her mother "gritted through the Change." Now women are talking about the once-taboo topic. Dunn gives good health information about hormones and insomnia, but it's her candor and humor that make this guide stand out. For example, Dunn notes that other big milestones, like marriages and the birth of babies, are celebrated, but no one holds menopause showers, with "gifts like neck cream, portable fans, and vaginal lube." Dunn interviews a who's who of ob-gyns, including one doctor who sadly notes that menopause gets "the worst PR." Stop with the negative words, like "withered," "significant loss of breast volume," and "having less sex." It's a natural, normal (and long) stage of life: The average age of menopause is 51, and the average life expectancy of an American woman is 80. Here's to reacting to it, as Dunn concludes, "with a shrug."

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May 1, 2023

When best-seller Dunn (author of How Not To Hate Your Husband After Kids and the Thurber Prize for American Humor finalist Why Is My Mother Getting a Tattoo?) was in her mid-40s and first experienced hot flashes, sleep disturbances, and mood swings, she conducted research and discovered that most women and, unfortunately, most physicians, do not know much about perimenopause. The symptoms are many and varied, but hot flashes, mood swings, brain fog, and sleep disturbances are among the most common. The level of estrogen in the body drops and causes changes. Many types of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) increase the risk of breast cancer, so the author was afraid of trying HRT as a treatment. New research, however, shows that using low-dose pills and/or vaginal estrogen is helpful. Dunn cautions women not to use bioidentical drugs, which are unregulated and dangerous. The author believes that nutritional regimes such as the Mediterranean diet, along with exercise and support of family, friends, therapists, and support groups are also beneficial. The book includes humorous stories and celebrity quotes, which enliven the text. There are also notes and a list of websites and associations for further information. VERDICT This is a useful addition for consumer health collections that need an accessible, current book about perimenopause and menopause.--Barbara M. Bibel

Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.