I'm Too Young to Get Old:: Health Care for Women After Forty - Hardcover

Reichman, Judith

9780812924176: I'm Too Young to Get Old:: Health Care for Women After Forty

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0812924177 ISBN 13: 9780812924176

Publisher: Crown, 1996

If you're a woman over forty, you probably have questions and concerns about your health. Unlike your mother or grandmother, you do not want to go passively (or silently) through the next half of your life.

"No one seems to care about out forty-something contraceptive needs. Pregnancy is the last thing I want at this point. What are my options?"

"If I take the Pill and I'm over forty, am I at increased risk for cancer?"

Or:

"I know I've put it off, but I'm ready now, and I want to be pregnant--yesterday!" What are my chances--and the risks involved?"

"I'm going through menopause, and I'm not sure I like the idea of taking hormone replacement therapy for the rest of my life. How do I know if it's right for me? What other choices do I have?"

"I'm too busy to consult a score of specialists to keep on the 'proper' health track. Is there a single checklist I can follow so I know what tests to take and when?"

In I'm Too Young to Get Old, renowned gynecologist Judith Reichman, M.D., creator of two acclaimed PBS series on menopause and health, gives women over forty the information they need to make their health care choices.

Yes, we need to know what happens to our hormones, but that doesn't mean we should be defined in terms of our reproductive system. As Dr. Reichman writes: "My patients have matured with me, and most of us are now over forty. Many have struggled with their health as they aged, while other seemed to mature with vibrancy, pleasure, and an increasing appreciation of their lives. What explains these differences? We traverse a complicated passage: our hormones fluctuate, and so do our moods, body temperatures, and sleep patterns. We have to make choices about birth control, then hormone control. We should be concerned about cancer prevention and detection, heart disease, osteoporosis, joint problems, and thyroid problems. We want to control our weight and our wrinkles. And in the midst of all this, we are taking care of aging parents, aging children, or dealing with our mates' midlife problems (both physical and psychological) or possibly going through divorce, getting back in the job market, or leaving it, and wondering how we reached forty so fast."

Dr. Reichman addresses all these concerns and more with clarity and wit. She tackles subjects often given short shrift: avoiding hysterectomy, coping with urinary incontinence, exploring sexuality from forty to ninety (see the chapter on "Sex, Hormones, and Rock 'n' Roll"), preparing for a health second half of life despite our abuses of the first half, and more.
Written in a warm, accessible style and laced with the humorous perspective of someone who's gone through this stage of life herself, I'm Too Young to Get Old has all the authoritative, up-to-date information you need to take control of your future health.

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Review:

Reichman is a renowned gynecologist and frequent contributor to the Today show. Here she discusses in friendly "girlfriend" language the issues that confuse and worry women ages 40 and older. The book starts with asubject that women in this age range usually don't concern themselves with--contraception--and includes some shocking statistics (half of all pregnancies in women older than 40 are unintended; the abortion rate in this age group is only second to that of teenagers). Reichman explains the pros and cons of different forms of contraception, including the mini-pill and surgical options; she omits natural family planning, but she does include 10 methods that are in development and awaiting government approval.

For women having difficulties becoming pregnant, Reichman details a dozen tests that hopeful couples can use to pinpoint the problem; the stages of the procedures, costs, and potential complications are included in down-to-earth, nonintimidating language. The true value of this book, though, are Reichman's answers to scores of questions that nervous patients might be too upset or too afraid to ask--or might not even consider--as well as those that physicians might forget to address or lack time to fully explain.

The chapters on menopause and cancer, and the lucid and lengthy explanations of risk factors, treatments, and side effects, are the most useful parts of the book. Who knew, for example, that living at altitudes above 10,000 feet can cause menopause to begin as much as two years earlier than normal? Reichman also includes clear explanations of--and prevention tactics for--scary health problems that commonly affect women in this age group, including bladder-control problems, heart disease, and osteoporosis.

For those women who have trouble communicating with their physicians, Reichman will provide much-needed answers and advice.

From the Back Cover:

"If we want better health care for women, we have demand it. We need to start by taking care of ourselves. I'm Too Young to Get Old is the thinking woman's guide to better health for the better half of our lives."
---Senator Dianne Feinstein

"Rich in wisdom and wit."
---Chattanooga Times

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