Hot Flushes, Cold Science: A History Of The Modern Menopause

by Louise Foxcroft

For over two thousand years, attitudes to the menopause have created dread, shame and confusion. This meticulously researched and always entertaining book traces the history of 'the change of life' from its appearance in classical texts, via the medical literature of the eighteenth century, to up-to-the-minute contemporary clinical approaches. Its progression from natural phenomenon to full-blown pathological condition from the 1700s led to bizarre treatments and often dangerous surgery, and formalized a misogyny which lingers in the treatment of menopausal women today. Louise Foxcroft delves into the archives, the boudoir and the Gladstone bag to reveal the elements that formed the menopause chauvinism, collusion, trial, error and secrecy. She challenges us to rethink absurd assumptions that have persisted through history - that sex stops at the menopause, or that ageing should be feared. It redresses the myths and captures the truths about menopause.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Womens

350 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 2009

About the author

Louise Foxcroft read History at the University of Cambridge as a mature student in the early 1990s. In 2007 she published an academic title, The Making of Addiction: The ‘use and abuse’ of opium in nineteenth-century Britain (Ashgate), which developed the research of her PhD thesis. This was followed by her first general book, Hot Flushes, Cold Science: A History of the Modern Menopause (Granta, 2009) which ranked as Amazon’s No.1 History of Medicine title for some weeks. Broadly as Medical Historian, she has specialised in medical perceptions of the human body and at the way these are related to present day, personal, human experience - this makes for some really in-depth questions and analyses, not to mention the absurdities, of how we live our lives now.

An occasional supervisor at the University of Cambridge, Louise Foxcroft has also written for The London Review of Books, The Guardian, New Humanist, Erotic Review, Daily Mail and The Times, and has been a guest on several BBC Radio programmes.

As a Non-Alcoholic Trustee on the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous GB since 2006 she has been working on AA literature, and speaking at conferences and press events, both national and international.

Reviews

[Robert Day · Rating 3 out of 5]

By the end of the intro and chapter one I get that the author is trying to say two things: menopause is not so bad (and here is the evidence) and menopause does not cause all kinds of nastiness (loss of bone density, vaginal dryness, madness, hot flushes, libido fluctuations, depression etc.), but that these things just happens at about the same time.

By the end of the book, the message is pretty much the same, except that the author has bunged in a lot more evidence.

On the up side - these conclusions are good and life confirming and, as such, they should be a basic part of everyone's education - male, female or any combination thereof.

On the down side - there is waaay too much supporting evidence to wade through to get to this simple conclusion.

By evidence, I mean that the author seems to have read many, many books about attitudes to menopause over the last 2 or 3 thousand years and she has picked out the parts that support her argument. And that is my main problem - she has cherry picked. She quotes a lot of stuff that supports her thesis, but very little that opposes it. And while her material is (I assume) directly quoted from her literature, it seems to be only one side of a story (menopausal women have had a rough deal from the 'establishment').

I accept that if someone wants to grind an axe, they will pick out the tools that facilitate that exercise. But, for me, I would love to see a deeper dive into this matter, one that looks at all sides of the story, one that takes in the triumphs of human spirit and literature, not just one that affirms the baser side of humanity's nature.

So, the overall message (for me (except the book is not for me - there is only one chapter about menopause in men)) is: "don't worry about it so much - be free to coincide with yourself."

I put down the book, smiled wearily, wrote this review, and stopped thinking about it; but I am changed.

If anyone were to ask me now about menopause, my reply to them would be brighter and lighter than it would have been before reading this tome.

Yay for tomes!

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well considered and well put together book on how women's bodies have been viewed over the ages. The view that women's bodies do not appear to match up to men's has resulted in a "diseased" view of the normal changes in the bodies of women. Louise Foxcroft explores the importance of recognising that many of the so called symptoms of menopause may either be due to the natural ageing process or are a social construction, primarily propagated by men. The hot flushes are indeed a symptom of menopause and I for one am grateful to be alive today and not at a time when I could have been bled, institutionalised or had my reproductive organs removed. A must read for women of all ages

[Charlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a medical and social history encapsulating the rise of the scientific medical profession in the West (whose practitioners were almost exclusively male) and its interaction with a very taboo ridden society, to create a medicalisation of a natural part of female ageing, the menopause.

When a society believes that older women are partially dead because they are no longer fertile (they are useless and pointless and purposeless), then the rise of a science that thinks itself able to cure anything sounds like it would be a boon. The resulting mayhem and barbarity is by turns revolting, fascinating and darkly humerous.

The book bowls along fairly smartly and is not a difficult read. A small niggle was that Foxcroft seemed to repeat herself quite a bit. Each phase in the development of the science is given a different chapter, but the social situation may still be quite similar. It is none the less restated.

She is quite exercised about the poor treatment of large numbers of women because of the times they lived in and is a strong proponent of letting nature take its course quietly and without intervention in most cases.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worth a read if you're interested in the topic.

[Lesley]

Read for review purposes