Every now and again, a women’s book comes along that promises to change our thinking forever. In the Sixties it was Helen Gurley Brown’s Sex and the Single Girl; in the early Seventies,Germaine Greer’s The Female Eunuch hit the spot, and later on, Marilyn French’s The Women’s Room got us all talking about why we put up with bad treatment from men. Now it is the turn of Jill Shaw Ruddock to shake us all up and ask new questions about our lives.
Her book, The Second Half of Your Life.is about the menopause and after. At this point, you may yawn and say: oh no, not again. Haven’t there been a million books about the menopause and growing old gracefully (or disgracefully)? Why should I clutter up my shelves with yet one more? Well, you should certainly read this one. Because in common with all the best life-changing books, the author’s startling message transmits itself from the page with a kind of electricity. Read the article (PDF, 140kb)
Peri-menopausal and postmenopausal women who took the antidepressant medication escitalopram – brand name Lexapro® – experienced a reduction in the frequency and severity of hot flashes as compared to women who received placebo according to a new study led by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. The study was published in the January 19th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
“Our findings suggest that among healthy women who were not depressed or anxious, a 10 to 20 milligram dose of escitalopram – which is well below the dosage level for psychiatric use – provides a nonhormonal, off-label option that is effective and well-tolerated in the management of menopausal hot flashes,” said Ellen W. Freeman, PhD, Penn research professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and principal investigator of the national, multi-site study. [continue reading…]
Sleep disruption is the most common and severe symptom reported by middle-aged women when their periods change and they start moving into the menopause, according to a study in the April issue of the UK-based Journal of Clinical Nursing. [continue reading…]
