Book Review: Davina McCall with DR Naomi Potter 'Menopausing'

During the next few weeks and months, I’m going to be reviewing a clutch of books all around the theme of mid-life and perimenopause and menopause. Until the last five years, this area of women’s lives was woefully neglected by the book world. But recently there has been a spate of much needed non fiction, helping and advising women through what can be one of the trickiest and rockiest times in their lives.

As winner of the Overall Book of the Year at the British Book Awards in 2023, Davina and Naomi Potter’s book is undoubtedly the ur-text on menopause. It is pretty comprehensive, with dozens of diverse and inclusive case studies - from cis women to trans men to cancer survivors and people of colour. Illustrating that menopause is totally different for each person who experiences it. The book also explains the science very simply - the drop in hormones and in particular oestrogen and what can be done to mitigate the effects of this. HRT is explained clearly - the pros and the cons - mostly the pros.

It is without a doubt that this is a book that every woman/trans man/non binary person should read - preferably to prepare for perimenopause and menopause. The writing style is chatty, commercial, occasionally funny and accessible - which it needs to be to get the message across to as many people as possible. It’s the subject matter that’s important here. And I would also advise that men, if they care about women or have a woman in their lives read it too, or at least dip into it in solidarity.

What has to be said is that Davina is a total evangelist for HRT. The vast majority of this book offers case studies and chat about symptoms for which HRT, as opposed to say anti-depressants, is the answer. And nothing else will do. There is woefully little advice for those of us who are facing menopause without HRT (in my case due to an adverse reaction to it - headaches).

Yes, I am aware that for most women HRT works wonders - it did for my own Mum. But there are a considerable percentage of us that cannot take it for various reasons.

Having worked for the excellent platform Goldster - which focusses on non drug solutions to ageing (and its associated conditions) - namely nutrition, exercise and mindfulness, I felt there was not nearly enough guidance in these areas. It felt like an afterthought during the cancer chapter and at the end of the book. And even those who are on HRT need to be aware of dietary and exercise hacks to help with menopause which are not explored in this book. It’s well known for example that the Mediterranean diet is the best nutritional strategy to adopt to get through peri and menopause, but there is no mention of this.

Also very little on how to get through menopause if you have an underlying mental health condition such as depression (and at least 1 in 4 people do) - when it can be a kind of ‘double whammy’ with hormones and mental health.

This is undoubtedly an excellent book for consciousness raising about perimenopause and menopause and the benefits of HRT and should be on every woman/trans man/non binary person’s bookshelf as a coping manual. But if you have to survive menopause without HRT it’s reach is limited. And this would be my main critique.