Hot Flushes, Cold Science

For over two thousand years, attitudes to the menopause have created dread, shame and confusion. This meticulously researched and always entertaining book traces the history of 'the change of life' from its appearance in classical texts, to the medical literature of the 18th century, to up-to-the-minute contemporary clinical approaches. Its progression from natural phenomenon to full-blown pathological condition from the 1700s led to bizarre treatments and often dangerous surgery, and formalized a misogyny which lingers in the treatment of menopausal women today.Louise Foxcroft delves into the archives, the boudoir and the Gladstone bag to reveal the elements that formed the menopause myth: chauvinism, collusion, trial, error and secrecy. She challenges us to rethink absurd assumptions that have persisted through history - that sex stops at the menopause, or that aging should be feared. This story belongs to everybody, certainly to every woman. It redresses the myths and captures the truths about menopause in a powerful, taboo-shattering history.

ISBN 1847080669   DEWEY edition DC22 ISBN13 9781847080660 (What's this?)   Pages 336 Publisher Granta Books   Published in London Imprint Granta Books   Height (mm) 234 Format Paperback   Width (mm) 153 Publication date 02 Mar 2009   Academic level General DEWEY 612.665

1		The Modern Menopause		1
2		Bad Blood and Beasts		36
3		Their Nature Explained		76
4		On the Borderland of Pathology		100
5		Knives and Asylums		139
6		Sex, Science and Sensibility		182
7		A Question of 'Male Menopause'		204
8		Finding a Voice		230
9		Fear or Freedom		263
		List of Illustrations		278
		Notes		281
		Bibliography		311
		Index		321

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