Grumpy Old Menopause - Carol E. Wyer

For women of a certain age -- and I count myself among them -- the so-called "change of life" can be no laughing matter.  Hot flashes are just the start. Later on, menopause brings us such joys as an increased risk of heart disease and osteoporosis, to say nothing of mood swings to rival the teenage years -- at a time in life where at least some of us are dealing with actual teenagers.

And the medical profession, by way of helping us through it (as if women haven't been going through menopause for centuries without clinical assistance) and -- let's be honest -- in an effort to monetize yet another "ailment", offered us hormone replacement therapy. Except that the therapy turned out to be worse for our health than the symptoms it was supposed to alleviate.

Yeah. We could use a bit of humor about now.

Enter this book. Wyer wrote Grumpy Old Menopause as a companion volume to her How Not to Murder Your Grumpy -- a self-help book for women whose husbands had retired and were at loose ends (many of which loose ends were their wives' last nerves). That book was an A-to-Z list of activities for your "grumpy" so he would get out from underfoot and leave you alone.

Grumpy Old Menopause follows the same A-to-Z format, except the entries here include much useful advice about coping with menopause -- everything from herbal remedies to exercise to activities to take your mind off your changing body (raising alpacas, anyone?). And she includes a number of jokes to lighten the mood, at least one of which made me laugh out loud. No, I won't tell you which one it was! Go read the book!

One caveat: Grumpy Old Menopause is aimed at the UK book market, so some of the slang terms might be unfamiliar to American readers. (Suck it up, honey. They have to parse our slang often enough.) But for us women of a certain age, it's worth the trouble.

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Notes: Wyer is my fellow contributing author at indiesunlimited.com. Publication date is November 25, 2013. I received an ARC of this book in return for an honest review.