What You Need to Know About the Perimenopause and Menopause

(Gifted review) How can it be something that every biological woman goes through, (as well as some trans men and non binary people)  yet so little is known about it? We are talking half the population. It’s huge. And it isn’t just the inadequate amount of research that is worrying, but that there aren’t nearly enough conversations happening. For too long the menopause has been talked about in hushed voices or joked about. Yet it is quite literally a life changing time and many women struggle with debilitating changes. Changes that can make women feel forced to leave their jobs, changes that can break down relationships and make women feel they don’t want to live any longer. Often because they don’t know what is happening to them, why or what help is available.

There have been several famous voices encouraging a conversation about the menopause in recent years, but arguably the biggest impact has been by Davina McCall who shook thousands of women’s lives with her TV programme Sex, Myths and Menopause in 2021. She has continued to be a “menopause warrior” and her Menopausing book released in 2022 helped hundreds of thousands more women to understand what is happening to them and the options. This book has now been updated and Menopausing New Edition includes the latest research and information on the perimenopause, menopause and afterwards.


Menopausing: New Edition Review

The cover of Menopausing new edition by Davina McCall and Dr Naomi Potter
   Review of the 2024 Edition of Menopausing by Davina McCall with Dr Naomi Potter


I love Davina McCall. She is funny, motivating and so full of energy and passion. I watched her give a keynote speech at a conference in 2016 and thought she was brilliant, friendly and lovely. As I read through the introduction to the updated edition of Menopausing it made me realise that actually for a while she wasn’t really like that, or at least that she didn’t feel like that on the inside. For years she struggled with perimenopause symptoms. Not recognising the cause, but knowing that something was wrong and that she didn’t feel like her. This makes me sad, but also kind of grateful because she took the challenges she had then and has made a difference so that more people are talking openly about the menopause than ever before. 

While reading Menopausing New Edition Davina’s enthusiasm and energy comes across in her writing. It’s like you are sitting in a coffee shop having a chat and she’s your personal cheerleader telling you why you are feeling how you are and what can be done about it. Davina offers support and comfort, but also hope.

The book isn’t just the menopause world according to Davina though. It’s filled with short stories collected from others about what they experienced. There is medical input too, primarily from Dr Naomi Potter who the books were written with.

Through the latest research and people’s experiences Menopausing explains what the perimenopause and menopause are and the signs you might be in them. Davina is a big champion of HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) and strongly recommends it for most people struggling with perimenopausal and perimenopause symptoms. There is a chapter which demystifies and answers common questions about this treatment (including why it has a bad reputation), but if you can’t or don’t want to take it other ways to help manage and relieve symptoms are discussed too. The book also covers early menopause and cancer and the menopause. Finally the book encourages readers to help spread the message and shares the details of many people who are doing just that. 

If we keep building the conversations and understanding no woman will go months (let alone years) wondering if she is getting dementia or why her sex drive has vanished, where the crazy mood swings have come from or even (and I’ll say this quietly because it’s easily the hardest symptom to talk about) why their lady bits are so dry. No woman should go to the GP with symptoms of the menopause and be prescribed antidepressants without first offering or at least discussing HRT. One day the information out there, prescription options and even doctor's knowledge will catch up with the science and what women actually need. 

Read this book, get your friends, husbands and even children to read this book, get the knowledge and help bring about a change to ‘the change’.


The New Edition of Menopausing is published by HQ and released 10th October 2024. Available from Harper Collins and all the normal book selling places.

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