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A review by riotsquirrrl
What Fresh Hell Is This?: Perimenopause, Menopause, Other Indignities, and You by Heather Corinna
4.0
I admit that I got this book because I was hoping for some more concrete information on hormone use as a nonbinary person, only to find it a bit thin on the ground, at least in terms of the explicit content. But perhaps I am expecting too much from a book that tries to be a lot of things to a lot of different people.
Ultimately the section on hormones ended up being useful as an intro to the subject, although I don't have any concrete answers as to what I'm going to do. Probably a lot more talking with my endocrinologist, which is what the author suggests anyway. (There's a fair amount of hand-waving of how one should see one's health care practitioner for some sections, which is good in that this book can't provide the up to date info a medical practitioner can, and on the other hand allows the author to avoid getting too into the nitty gritty.)
I'm definitely keeping this book on my shelf as a reference as there's a lot of specific discussion for specific symptoms, and I haven't yet crossed that Rubicon. The format definitely makes it less of a book to read all the way through. Although really I wish the author had put the last chapter first because I think it's the most helpful thing structurally. The last chapter is all about how everyone the author talked about feels better post-menopause than they felt even before menopause. And I think that's what I needed more from a book like this right now than I do the specific advice on the process.
This is a book that is trying to cater to many different kinds of marginalizations, from financial to racial to gender minorities, which I think waters down the usefulness for specific groups. As in, while the author talks extensively about disabilities, especially their own disabilities, I think that a more focused book might be better for dealing with what people with physical disabilities or autism or adhd need during the process. Or a book about how to do menopause when broke might be more helpful. But I suppose that's the problem with any book meant to be a broad overview of a subject, as this book is.
And while I definitely found the author's imput about their own experience to be helpful at times, I think I could do without about a third of it. Like I'm not reading this book because I want to know the author's story, I'm reading it because there literally is nothing else out there about the subject for trans people.
Ultimately I think this book is useful because of its explicit feminist message that menopause can be an opportunity to reexamine one's relationship with others and with caretaking and can be an opportunity to focus on one's own needs instead, and the body will explicitly try to enforce this even if one would rather it didn't. Also menopause represents the opportunity to let go of societal beauty and body expectations, but it doesn't mean that people are relegated to involuntary celibacy because of going through menopause.
Ultimately the section on hormones ended up being useful as an intro to the subject, although I don't have any concrete answers as to what I'm going to do. Probably a lot more talking with my endocrinologist, which is what the author suggests anyway. (There's a fair amount of hand-waving of how one should see one's health care practitioner for some sections, which is good in that this book can't provide the up to date info a medical practitioner can, and on the other hand allows the author to avoid getting too into the nitty gritty.)
I'm definitely keeping this book on my shelf as a reference as there's a lot of specific discussion for specific symptoms, and I haven't yet crossed that Rubicon. The format definitely makes it less of a book to read all the way through. Although really I wish the author had put the last chapter first because I think it's the most helpful thing structurally. The last chapter is all about how everyone the author talked about feels better post-menopause than they felt even before menopause. And I think that's what I needed more from a book like this right now than I do the specific advice on the process.
This is a book that is trying to cater to many different kinds of marginalizations, from financial to racial to gender minorities, which I think waters down the usefulness for specific groups. As in, while the author talks extensively about disabilities, especially their own disabilities, I think that a more focused book might be better for dealing with what people with physical disabilities or autism or adhd need during the process. Or a book about how to do menopause when broke might be more helpful. But I suppose that's the problem with any book meant to be a broad overview of a subject, as this book is.
And while I definitely found the author's imput about their own experience to be helpful at times, I think I could do without about a third of it. Like I'm not reading this book because I want to know the author's story, I'm reading it because there literally is nothing else out there about the subject for trans people.
Ultimately I think this book is useful because of its explicit feminist message that menopause can be an opportunity to reexamine one's relationship with others and with caretaking and can be an opportunity to focus on one's own needs instead, and the body will explicitly try to enforce this even if one would rather it didn't. Also menopause represents the opportunity to let go of societal beauty and body expectations, but it doesn't mean that people are relegated to involuntary celibacy because of going through menopause.