Menopause Awareness Month is Here

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Every health category gets its month to become a star. Each week of each month, there's a date on the calendar for just about everything.

No doubt you already know that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and that February is Heart Awareness Month. But did you know that there's a week in April dedicated to Root Canal Awareness and that May is Older Americans Month? (I didn't either)

So, what's up for September?

Menopause Awareness.

Okay, we're all aware of it, some of us more painfully and unwillingly than others.

Some of us love it – seeing it as an opportunity to free ourselves of pesky concerns like PMS, birth control, bleeding, acne, bloating, mood swings and weight gain.

Some of us hate it – seeing it as a signal that our bodies are changing and assaulting us with new concerns like bleeding, acne, bloating mood swings and weight gain.

WAIT…

Everything old is…new again?

I wasn't one of the lucky ones (like my sister) who had nary a hot flash. I swore off anything heavier than a t-shirt, even on the most frigid winter days. Hubby loved the fact that instead of always complaining that I was freezing, I complained of being hot all the time. He was delirious over the fact that he could blast the AC in the summer and keep the heat at a bare minimum in the winter. I bid farewell to my sweaters and heavy winter coats and packed them away for an undetermined period of time (the hot flashes hitched themselves to me like bedbugs.After about four years, some are finally beginning to see the light of day.)

Staness Jonekos and Dr. Wendy Klein have written a book to sum it all up, “The Menopause Makeover." It's a guide to help you through this oft-times confusing and uncomfortable transition; a user-friendly sourcebook that helps understand what is going on in your body before menopause even hits. There's diet, exercise and beauty advice, information on alternative therapies for those of us who don't want to go the HRT route and even a guide to dressing for your body type.

Consider co-author Staness a friend who can give you some darn good, practical and useful insight. She'll even do one better – she'll be joining Midlife Matters this month as a guest blogger, where she'll be writing a series of posts on the subject.

You may also want to read:

Menopause and Your Changing Body

Eating Healthy at Midlife