Menopause

"In Menopause: A Midlife Passage, [questions about menopause] are considered in depth from a dazzling variety of angles. This is just the serious feminist discussion of menopause that I have been longing for. . . . its exquisite analyses renew us in our struggles to make sense of it all." —Alice Dan, Women's Review of Books

"Menopause has become a hot (with or without the flashes) topic in America. That's because a critical mass of us have reached it and are educated, aggressive, and confident enough to want to know what's happening to us, and then to talk about it. . . . Smart, useful, funny, Menopause: A Midlife Passage is a fine addition to the discussion, a healthy companion for this all-important life passage." —Susan Stamberg, Special Correspondent, National Public Radio

"Editor Callahan takes anything but a trendy approach to a very trendy topic. She's gathered essays by scholarly women who have thought through society's position on menopause and menopausal women and don't like what they see: older women denied positive portrayals in mainstream media, menopause treated by the medical establishment as if it were a disease rather than a natural occurrence, and devaluation of older women. Determined to change people's minds with their words, these women speak both powerfully and empoweringly. A must for feminist and women's health collections." —Booklist

" . . . a bold attempt to go beyond the standard medical framing of women's experience, and to contest the notion that the menopause is straightforwardly a hormonal 'deficiency disease'." —New Scientist

" . . . [an] entertaining and informative book that takes a very positive attitude toward the 'midlife passage'." —Fertility News

"This book should be required reading for all women's health care providers and anyone else doing counseling of menopausal women." —Journal of Women & Aging

Essayists from various walks of life present female-defined perspectives on menopause and the passage to new physical, social, and cultural development.