Menopause does not come with an instruction manual. Fortunately The Menopause Makeover, a complete and practical resource kit, has arrived to help the 6,000 women each day in North America who join the club of hot flashes, weight gain, and low libido. Written by women for women, The Menopause Makeover takes one of the most confusing and frustrating phases and breaks menopause down into manageable chunks of information designed to help celebrate menopause rather than fear it.

Staness Jonekos wrote The Menopause Makeover when she realized that no one book successfully told women how to cope with menopause. Jonekos, an attractive and vivacious career-woman was planning for her wedding when along came menopause. As the menopausal symptoms hit with a vengeance, Jonekos needed not only information but answers as to how to deal with menopause and feel normal again.

The problem? Despite bookstore shelves groaning under the weight of a myriad of menopause volumes not one book offered practical advice. The Menopause Makeover borrows from the detailed wedding planners and gives women easy to follow steps to take control of menopause. Jonekos calls it one-stop-shopping and if there is room in the budget for just one menopause book, The Menopause Makeover is your best bet for the action that many other books cannot deliver.

The Menopause Makeover is “our wakeup call” according to Jonekos and this guide will take women on an incredible journey of self-discovery and personal growth. With this guide, women can come out of menopause stronger and wiser. As Jonekos sums up her approach to menopause, “it is the ultimate women’s liberation.”

Dr. Wendy Klein, co-author of The Menopause Makeover
The Menopause Makeover benefits from the extensive scientific research that is the foundation of this plan. Dr. Klein is an Associate Professor Emeritus of Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine as one of America’s foremost experts on women’s health. This collaborative effort ensures that the information in The Menopause Makeover dispenses with fluff and instead focuses on the most current medical information women need to know about menopause. Dr. Klein’s contributions help separate myth from reality enhancing this book’s credibility among the competition.

This makes The Menopause Makeover not only a practical resource tool but a valuable wealth of information including the latest on hormonal and alternative therapy, fitness, and nutrition in one volume for easy reference.

The Menopause Makeover
The Menopause Makeover tackles menopause in three parts. The first deals with the Eight Steps to a Complete Makeover. Each steps looks at menopause treatment, diet, exercise, beauty, emotional health, relationships and libido, spirituality, and happiness. The 8 steps are designed to take place over a 12-week period with the promise of seeing results if the plan is put into action.

The second part is the roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-to-work section. This is where readers learn how to put the plan into action and tailor the plan to their own specific needs.

Finally part three provides all the necessary tools including charts, plans, lists, calendar planners, medical forms, and recipes make keeping track of The Menopause Makeover easy and fun.

The Menopause Makeover 8 Steps, 12 Weeks
Women should note that this is not a quick fix cure for menopause or an “8 steps 12 weeks and I’m outta here” deal. Rather this plan is to change a lifetime of poor choices and habits and find new ones. This plan is work and at times some very difficult work. It is challenging to undo 40 or so years of living and thinking, and no one plan will magically transform anyone without effort. But this is where The Menopause Makeover delivers; by putting in the necessary time and energy women will see results.

After the initial 12-week period it is time to go back and work the steps again to progress even further. Not only will women survive and thrive during menopause they will also face the postmenopausal years with better health and a better attitude. As Jonekos writes throughout the book with gentle humor she reminds women that one can choose to wallow and suffer or take control and triumph. Not always easy admittedly but nothing worthwhile ever is. The best news is that now women finally have that long-overdue menopause instruction manual.

**Harlequin Enterprises Ltd. provided this review copy of The Menopause Makeover to me completely free of charge.**
The Menopause Makeover, Staness Jonekos with Wendy Klein, M.D., Harlequin Enterprises Ltd., New York, 2010, 302 pp.

Please visit www.menopausemakeover.com