oMenopause has become a hot (with or without the flashes) topic in America. ThatOs because a critical mass of us have reached it and are educated, aggressive, and confident enough to want to know whatOs 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.O NSusan Stamberg, Special Correspondent, National Public Radio Most women anticipate menopause with fear and dread. Yet few know or understand othe change.O It is that ignorance and lack of information that Menopause: A Midlife Passage attempts to redress. This transitional phase presents a woman with numerous choices and opportunities for the future. The contributors to Menopause reflect and offer differing perspectives on menopause and the position of women in midlife: social scientists discuss cultural and personal perspectives; health care specialists explain and discuss the physiology of menopause, the medicalization of a natural process, and disagreements regarding hormone replacement therapy; a visual artist interprets womenOs experience of menopause; a screenwriter and film critic discusses filmic representations of midlife women; social analysts and theorists examine moral and policy questions raised by menopause. This volume provides women with a female-defined perspective on menopause and the passage to new physical, social, and cultural development.

Table of Contents:
FOREWORD BY CAROLYN S. BRATT ACKNOWLEDGMENTS INTRODUCTION BY JOAN C CALLAHAN PART ONE CULTURAL CONSTRUCTIONS, POLICY, AND PRACTICE Women, Film, and the Midlife SophieOs Choice: Sink or Sousatzka?: Jean Kozlowski Meno-Boomers and Moral Guardians: An Exploration of the Cultural Construction of Menopause Joy Webster Barbre Metaphors of Menopause: The Metalanguage of Menopause Research Geri L. Dickson Heresy in the Female Body: The Rhetorics of Menopause Jacquelyn N. Zita Who Needs a Menopause Policy?: Jill Rips Selfish Genes and Maternal Myths: A Look at Postmenopausal Pregnancy Patricia Smith PART TWO THE HORMONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY DEBATE Disease or Development: WomenOs Perceptions of Menopause and the Need for Hormone Replacement Therapy Mary Lou Logothetis Making a Reasoned Choice about Hormone Replacement Therapy: Susan R. Johnson and Kristi J. Ferguson The False Promises of Hormone Replacement Therapy and Current Dilemmas: Kathleen I. Macpherson A Journey to the Center of the Cell: Understanding the Physiology and Endocrinology of Menopause Ann M. Voda Medical Decision Making: Issues Concerning Menopause Rosalind Ekman Ladd AFTERWORD: Creating a Visual Image of Menopause: The Hot Flash Fan Ann Stewart Anderson SELECTED INTERDISCIPLINARY BIBLIOGRAPHY ON MENOPAUSE Jill Rips CONTRIBUTORS INDEX