| |
| |
List of Figures | |
| |
| |
Acknowledgments | |
| |
| |
Introduction: The Journey Begins | |
| |
| |
Midlife: Redefining Creativity and Home | |
| |
| |
Why I'm Writing a Menopause Book Now | |
| |
| |
Blazing a New Trail | |
| |
| |
| |
Menopause Puts Your Life Under a Microscope | |
| |
| |
"Not Me, My Marriage Is Fine" | |
| |
| |
The Childbearing Years: Balancing Personal and Professional Lives | |
| |
| |
Why Marriages Must Change at Midlife | |
| |
| |
My Personal Fibroid Story: The Final Chapter | |
| |
| |
Feeling the Joy of Co-creative Partnership | |
| |
| |
The Forces That Change the Goose Also Change the Gander | |
| |
| |
Real Menopause Hits | |
| |
| |
My Marriage Goes Bankrupt | |
| |
| |
Armadillo Medicine: The Power of Vulnerability | |
| |
| |
Celebrating the Past While Creating a New Future | |
| |
| |
| |
The Brain Catches Fire at Menopause | |
| |
| |
Our Cultural Inheritance | |
| |
| |
Our Brains Catch Fire at Menopause | |
| |
| |
Learning to Recognize and Heed Our Wake-Up Calls | |
| |
| |
Is It Me or Is It My Hormones? Debunking the Myth of Raging Hormones | |
| |
| |
The Multiple Roles of Your "Reproductive" Hormones | |
| |
| |
Embracing the Message Behind Our Menopausal Anger | |
| |
| |
Emotions, Hormones, and Your Health | |
| |
| |
How Our Midlife Brains and Bodies Are Set Up to Heal Our Past | |
| |
| |
Finding a Larger Meaning | |
| |
| |
| |
Coming Home to Yourself: From Dependence to Healthy Autonomy | |
| |
| |
The Empty-Nest Syndrome | |
| |
| |
Boomerang Babies | |
| |
| |
Powerful Feelings, Powerful Healing | |
| |
| |
Caring for Ourselves, Caring for Others: Finding the Balance | |
| |
| |
Hitting Pay Dirt: Getting Clear About Money at Midlife | |
| |
| |
Coming Home to Yourself | |
| |
| |
Vocational Awakening at Midlife | |
| |
| |
A Road Map for Navigating Unknown Territory | |
| |
| |
| |
This Can't Be Menopause, Can It? The Physical Foundation of the Change | |
| |
| |
What Is Happening in Your Body: Hormonal Changes | |
| |
| |
Perimenopause Is a Normal Process, Not a Disease | |
| |
| |
The Three Types of Menopause | |
| |
| |
Perimenopause and Hormonal Levels | |
| |
| |
Is There a Test I Can Take? | |
| |
| |
Menopause and Thyroid Function | |
| |
| |
Menopause and Adrenal Function | |
| |
| |
What to Expect in Your Transition | |
| |
| |
| |
Hormone Replacement: An Individual Choice | |
| |
| |
A Brief History of Hormone Replacement | |
| |
| |
Bioidentical Hormones: Nature's Ideal Design | |
| |
| |
A Hormone Primer: Essential Information Every Woman Should Know | |
| |
| |
How to Decide Whether or Not to Take Hormones | |
| |
| |
A Dusting of Hormones | |
| |
| |
How Long Should You Stay on Hormones? | |
| |
| |
| |
Foods and Supplements to Support the Change | |
| |
| |
Basic Principles of Herbal Therapy at Menopause | |
| |
| |
Menopausal Healing Foods | |
| |
| |
Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture for Menopause | |
| |
| |
Start Somewhere | |
| |
| |
| |
The Menopause Food Plan: A Program to Balance Your Hormones and Prevent Middle-Age Spread | |
| |
| |
Making Peace (Once Again) with My Weight | |
| |
| |
Six Steps to Midlife Weight Control | |
| |
| |
The Hormone-Balancing Food Plan | |
| |
| |
Optimizing Midlife Digestion | |
| |
| |
The Final Frontier: Accepting Our Bodies | |
| |
| |
| |
Creating Pelvic Health and Power | |
| |
| |
What Is Yours, What Is Mine, What Is Ours? Reclaiming Our Boundaries | |
| |
| |
Hormonal Imbalance: Fuel to the Fire | |
| |
| |
Menstrual Cramps and Pelvic Pain | |
| |
| |
Heavy Bleeding | |
| |
| |
Fibroids | |
| |
| |
An Empowered Approach to Surgery or Invasive Procedures | |
| |
| |
Strengthen Your Urinary Health and Pelvic Floor Muscles | |
| |
| |
| |
Sex and Menopause: Myths and Reality | |
| |
| |
The Anatomy of Desire | |
| |
| |
Sexuality at Menopause: Our Cultural Inheritance | |
| |
| |
Menopause Is a Time to Redefine and Update Our Relationships | |
| |
| |
Hormone Levels Are Only One Part of Libido | |
| |
| |
Secondary Libidinal Support: Estrogen and Progesterone | |
| |
| |
Testosterone: The Hormone of Desire? | |
| |
| |
Aids to Lubrication | |
| |
| |
Telling the Truth | |
| |
| |
Ten Steps to Rekindling Libido | |
| |
| |
| |
Nurturing Your Brain: Sleep, Depression, and Memory | |
| |
| |
Enhancing Midlife Sleep | |
| |
| |
Depression: An Opportunity for Growth | |
| |
| |
Memory Loss at Menopause: Is This Alzheimer's? | |
| |
| |
Estrogen and Alzheimer's | |
| |
| |
Nonhormonal Ways to Protect Your Brain | |
| |
| |
Maximizing Midlife Wisdom | |
| |
| |
| |
From Rosebud to Rose Hip: Cultivating Midlife Beauty | |
| |
| |
Making Peace with Your Changing Skin | |
| |
| |
Preventing or Treating Wrinkles | |
| |
| |
Midlife Acne | |
| |
| |
Rosacea | |
| |
| |
Hair in the Wrong Places | |
| |
| |
When Good Skin Care Isn't Enough: Deciding on Cosmetic Procedures | |
| |
| |
Varicose Veins | |
| |
| |
| |
Standing Tall for Life: Building Healthy Bones | |
| |
| |
Osteoporosis: The Scope of the Problem | |
| |
| |
We're Designed for Lifetime Sturdiness | |
| |
| |
How Healthy Bone Is Made | |
| |
| |
Are You at Risk for Osteoporosis? | |
| |
| |
Measuring Bone Density | |
| |
| |
Bone-Building Program | |
| |
| |
What About Bone-Building Drugs? | |
| |
| |
Get Strong | |
| |
| |
Healing Your Fitness Past | |
| |
| |
The Sunlight-Bone Health Connection | |
| |
| |
Shore Up Your Earth Connection with Plant Medicine | |
| |
| |
| |
Creating Breast Health | |
| |
| |
Our Cultural Inheritance: Nurturing and Self-Sacrifice | |
| |
| |
The Emotional Anatomy of Breast Cancer | |
| |
| |
Lifestyle and Breast Health | |
| |
| |
Eating for Breast Health | |
| |
| |
Breast Cancer Screening | |
| |
| |
Putting Breast Cancer Risk in Perspective | |
| |
| |
The Breast Cancer Gene: Should You Be Tested? | |
| |
| |
The Effect of HRT on Breast Health | |
| |
| |
Bioidentical Hormones and Cancer Risk | |
| |
| |
The Tamoxifen Dilemma | |
| |
| |
| |
Living with Heart, Passion, and Joy: How to Listen to and Love Your Midlife Heart | |
| |
| |
The Heart Has Its Say at Menopause: My Personal Story | |
| |
| |
Cardiovascular Disease: When the Flow of Life Is Blocked | |
| |
| |
Palpitations: Your Heart's Wake-Up Call | |
| |
| |
Gender Bias and Heart Disease: Our Cultural Inheritance | |
| |
| |
Arteriosclerosis: Reducing Your Risk | |
| |
| |
Carbohydrates, Sugar, and Heart Health: What Every Woman Should Know | |
| |
| |
Cardioprotective Supplements | |
| |
| |
Foods for Heart Health | |
| |
| |
What About Aspirin? | |
| |
| |
Get Moving! | |
| |
| |
The Heart-Estrogen Link: What's Really Going On? | |
| |
| |
How to Love and Respect Your Midlife Heart | |
| |
| |
The Heart-Opening Effect of Pets | |
| |
| |
The Intellect Is Certain It Knows, but the Heart Always Wins | |
| |
| |
Epilogue: The Calm After the Storm | |
| |
| |
Resources | |
| |
| |
Notes | |
| |
| |
Index | |
| |
| |
About the Author | |