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

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

Judith Reichman. Crown Publishers, $25 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-8129-2417-6

Female baby boomers will find herein everything they wanted (or didn't want) to know about aging: hot flashes, estrogen, progesterone, osteoporosis, bladder control and more. In a chipper voice, Reichman, an LA-based obstetrician/gynecologist and host of the PBS series Straight Talk on Menopause, issues a dire warning to her audience: mistakes of the past (e.g., drinking alcohol, smoking, multiple sex partners, improper nutrition) are catching up with them. But there's good news too: midlife is usually not too late to take charge and recover health. Readers who ignore the silly asides (""So `oy,' can we `soy' our way out of hot flashes?"") and editorial ""we"" (""we just got our period"") will find plenty of pertinent facts here. Reichman comprehensively discusses--and advocates--hormone replacement therapy. She addresses fertility problems faced by women of later childbearing age and frankly explores contraception and sexual issues for single women. Practical information (today's birth control pill, safer and weaker than yesteryear's, can reduce the risk of some cancers) is augmented by critical commentary (the female condom, which makes a ""crinkly noise,"" is ""not a pretty sight!""). Also covering heart disease, osteoporosis, autoimmune diseases and cancer, this book's strength remains its direct explanation of the medical options available to women facing midlife health decisions. (May)