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What Fresh Hell Is This?: Perimenopause, Menopause, Other Indignities, and You by Heather Corinna
elizelizeliz's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 stars rounded down.
as a 43-year-old with a uterus, perimenopause is something i have been working to learn about for several years, mostly through conversations with other queer friends who are my age or older. many formal menopause resources are very intensely gendered and implicitly (or explicitly) heterosexist, which has not felt like something that works for me. and since i am (thankfully!) amennhoreic because of my iud, the "you'll know you're in perimenopause when your periods get weird" isn't sufficient info. until 5 years ago, i didn't even really understand the difference between perimenopause and menopause! as a sex educator, i am always interested in new ways to understand bodies and their shifting experiences.
ANYWAY all that to say i am an easy target for this book. i learned a lot from it--less about the how-to-treat-perimenopause part, and more about the what it can look like, history of it, shifting my frame about it. did you know you can get new allergies in perimenopause? i didn't! and i had an anaphylactic reaction to a totally new food last week so it seems like key information! there were a lot of moments like that--where pieces really came together for me. and the hope of giving even less f's as time goes by was a constantly hopeful theme.
as a longtime fan of scarleteen, i am grateful to have heather corinna in this new life chapter! their voice, knowledge, and queer feminist approach are exactly what i want to walk me forward.
as a 43-year-old with a uterus, perimenopause is something i have been working to learn about for several years, mostly through conversations with other queer friends who are my age or older. many formal menopause resources are very intensely gendered and implicitly (or explicitly) heterosexist, which has not felt like something that works for me. and since i am (thankfully!) amennhoreic because of my iud, the "you'll know you're in perimenopause when your periods get weird" isn't sufficient info. until 5 years ago, i didn't even really understand the difference between perimenopause and menopause! as a sex educator, i am always interested in new ways to understand bodies and their shifting experiences.
ANYWAY all that to say i am an easy target for this book. i learned a lot from it--less about the how-to-treat-perimenopause part, and more about the what it can look like, history of it, shifting my frame about it. did you know you can get new allergies in perimenopause? i didn't! and i had an anaphylactic reaction to a totally new food last week so it seems like key information! there were a lot of moments like that--where pieces really came together for me. and the hope of giving even less f's as time goes by was a constantly hopeful theme.
as a longtime fan of scarleteen, i am grateful to have heather corinna in this new life chapter! their voice, knowledge, and queer feminist approach are exactly what i want to walk me forward.
debi_g's review against another edition
This is a fairly hefty book with many, many chapters. It’s even formatted in columns so that more info fits on each page.
The “take what you need” manner in which information is presented helps to speed the reading process.
The writer confides in us readers, which is often helpful and occasionally a bit much. The voice took me a bit to acclimate to, and then I quite enjoyed it.
Overall, I feel better for having read it. (And man-oh-man is that a good and necessary improvement!)
The “take what you need” manner in which information is presented helps to speed the reading process.
The writer confides in us readers, which is often helpful and occasionally a bit much. The voice took me a bit to acclimate to, and then I quite enjoyed it.
Overall, I feel better for having read it. (And man-oh-man is that a good and necessary improvement!)
dcmr's review against another edition
4.0
Smart, funny, full of empathy & information.
This new book has been universally praised, and for good reason (and GoodRead-ers offer much more thorough and insightful reviews than I).
Best book I've read on menopause (sadly, there's a short list of good books on this topic, and includes the hilarious and too-true memoir "Madwoman in the Volvo.")
This new book has been universally praised, and for good reason (and GoodRead-ers offer much more thorough and insightful reviews than I).
Best book I've read on menopause (sadly, there's a short list of good books on this topic, and includes the hilarious and too-true memoir "Madwoman in the Volvo.")
glitterbomb47's review against another edition
2.0
Took me forever to read because the prose is almost unreadable. This book is chock full of convoluted sentences with way too many clauses. I didn’t vibe with the author’s humor at all.
juliana_aldous's review against another edition
4.0
No one prepares you for perimenopause. I mean, sort of. You hear tales of hot flashes, mood swings, brain fog, and maybe you have someone in your life, a friend who is a few years ahead of you, or your mother’s “change” was discussed in hushed whispers. But there are still many mysteries about perimenopause and the mystery can disarm you like puberty, except at least with puberty you had a Judy Blume book and a public education class. And the pain of it is that everyone’s experience is slightly different. I had thought I was fairly done with it until I had what I know now is referred to as flooding. It is exactly what it sounds like.
What is this? Do fibroids burst? Do I have cancer? I called my OB/GYN and went in. She ran some tests and it wasn’t cancer, and while this doctor knew everything about my reproductive system and birthing, I didn’t feel the same level of competence with this new situation. She put me on birth control for a few months to see if it would straighten out. I didn’t even find much on the Internet, except for advice to give myself the excuse to stay on the couch a few days.
So I turned to What Fresh Hell is This? Perimenopause, menopause, other Indignities, and You by Heather Corinna a new book coming out this June. The author, while not a doctor, does have street cred having been an educator in the field of sexuality. There were parts of the book I felt were useful, a section on flooding was included, and there were some questions I had answered. Sometimes I had to pass through a lot of content to get my particular questions answered. The book tries to be all things to all people—there is a fair amount dedicated to the trans experience and a lot on the history of menopausal malpractice by the patriarchy. There isn’t a lot out there, but my hormones have made my patience thin and I want answers to MY questions. Some of the solutions also seem “in the now”, but that may be because this field is rapidly changing.
Again, my experience will be different from yours, so you may find answers to your particular situation with this book.
BTW—an excellent title for the book, because with each new experience of perimenopause, you will be asking yourself exactly What Fresh Hell is This?
What is this? Do fibroids burst? Do I have cancer? I called my OB/GYN and went in. She ran some tests and it wasn’t cancer, and while this doctor knew everything about my reproductive system and birthing, I didn’t feel the same level of competence with this new situation. She put me on birth control for a few months to see if it would straighten out. I didn’t even find much on the Internet, except for advice to give myself the excuse to stay on the couch a few days.
So I turned to What Fresh Hell is This? Perimenopause, menopause, other Indignities, and You by Heather Corinna a new book coming out this June. The author, while not a doctor, does have street cred having been an educator in the field of sexuality. There were parts of the book I felt were useful, a section on flooding was included, and there were some questions I had answered. Sometimes I had to pass through a lot of content to get my particular questions answered. The book tries to be all things to all people—there is a fair amount dedicated to the trans experience and a lot on the history of menopausal malpractice by the patriarchy. There isn’t a lot out there, but my hormones have made my patience thin and I want answers to MY questions. Some of the solutions also seem “in the now”, but that may be because this field is rapidly changing.
Again, my experience will be different from yours, so you may find answers to your particular situation with this book.
BTW—an excellent title for the book, because with each new experience of perimenopause, you will be asking yourself exactly What Fresh Hell is This?
lizzy_22's review against another edition
3.0
A useful resource for the fuckery women go through before, during and after menopause. I didn't read it straight through but picked the topics that were applicable to me and my interests/concerns. There is a lot of info in here and it's very well researched. Funny thing the Gyn I used to go to is quoted several times in the book! Recommend!
lneff514's review against another edition
4.0
Appreciated the snark and "let's just be real" tone in this book. The most helpful portion of the book for me was the section called "Bodies, Skin, and Looks". I felt like I came away with renewed conviction to enjoy getting older. I want to have gratitude for my body as she is... taking good care of her. It such a helpful section for those of us who can sometimes buy in to culture's idea of beauty and that we should (must!) pursue everlasting youth. Pish posh.
kricketa's review against another edition
4.0
While I am not yet in this stage of life, I hope to be eventually, and wanted to be prepared. I'd never even heard the term perimenopause until the year 2020 (when I, a woman in her 30s, heard it for the very first time on a podcast while painting my bathroom during lockdown) which I think says a lot about how much people with eggs and ovaries get told about their bodies. So I was glad to see several books on the topic being published. It still took me a couple months to get through because some of the information was a little bit difficult to digest- the very long lists of uncomfortable body sensations did not make for peaceful bedtime reading. I liked the illustrations and wished there were more illustrations. I am glad to have this information, even if it is a little bit alarming ("literally anything can happen to your body for an unknown amount of time!!"), and I'm sure I'll be referencing it again in the future.