"The Menopause Book", is a definitive work on the subject. The book offers a "how to" approach of practical and immediate value to women anticipating or experiencing menopause as well as those around them - husbands, children, friends.

Women are more aware of their bodies now and they want to know how they function. It's not that uncommon now for my patients to ask if they can view their cervix (mouth of the womb) with a mirror during the examination.

Her patients are mostly professional women - lawyers, doctors and nurses. They are well-educated women, she infers, who openly discuss their SEI lives, menopause and other subjects pertaining to their bodies. And they purposely sought the services of a female gynecologist.

The woman hardest hit by menopause frequently is the housewife whose children are grown and leaving home. She is the person at home with no one around, even to dirty the house. As a result, "colleges are finding a resurgence of middle-aged woman returning to school, and many of these students are bored housewives seeking new outlets and possible careers.

Forty nine is statistically the most common age for menopause, according to research. A woman is going through menopause when she has gone without menstruating for a full year. Most women are between the ages of 45 to 55 years old, though it is not unheard of lo be younger or older.

Many women are under the misconception that If they have undergone a hysterectomy (surgical removal of all or part of the uterus), they will not experience menopause later in life. Only when a woman has both ovaries removed will menopause occur immediately.

Having a hysterectomy does not necessarily mean that both ovaries have been removed.

How menopausal women are treated by their gynecologists varies from patient to patient and from physician to physician. One treatment that has come under question lately is the long term use of a synthetic hormone, estrogen, to curb menopausal symptoms.

The federal government is now studying the possibility that estrogen such as the type used for menopause treatment, may produce cancer in laboratory animals. The body naturally produces its own estrogen during a woman's sexually productive years.

Trying to clear up another misconception, hormones, estrogen in particular, "don't keep you young forever." Various forms and brands of estrogen are implicated as cancer causing, and that estrogen certainly can cause cancer in rats.

The changes in hormonal levels can cause hot flashes (a rise in body temperature), flushes (the skin reddens as during blushing), perspiration, cessation of menses, and painful intercourse, and tiredness and fatigue might also 'indicate hormonal Change'

The hot flashes and flushes are controlled by one's nervous and vascular system. That's one reason why many researchers are interested in experimenting lo see if the hot flashes and flushes could be arrested by self-hypnosis.

There is also a fair amount of research going on regarding hormonal levels and physiological responses lo see it some can be documented.

Menopause has a definition - the complete cessation of menses for 12 months. It is not an illness, but a stage which is often treated medically.

Women who are active tend to have fewer difficulties during menopause. Those who exercise also feel better. Some women experience hot Hashes as young as 15 years of age and some get them past menopause. One Lowell woman in her late 50's who claims she stopped menstruating 10 years ago, said she continues t lake estrogen, saying it gives her a sense of security. She also said that her gynecologist told her estrogen will keep her bones more youthful, less apt to become brittle.

The fact that estrogen may be cancer causing in humans docs not upset her. She likened it to the warning placed on cigarette smoking, "that too can kill you," she said, "but many people who never smoked have died of cancer."

She confided that yoga lessons she has taken for the past six years have helped her get through post-menopausal years. "Yoga helps keep me young," she smiled, "the exercises have resulted in giving me better color and circulation".

An alternative to estrogen has been vitamin therapy - supplements of vitamins B and E. It does not help everyone but it docs help many women.

By women sharing information they open new doors for a tremendous potential that would allow women to take over some control of their health and bodies, rather than leaving them entirely in the hands of a doctor or drug company.

Diet is important for everyone, but especially menopausal women. Water retention is a problem for many women going through the - one suggestion is cutting down on salt intake as well as naturally salted foods.