| Introduction  Sue:
Kathryn Petras, noted author and popular health consultant, has written a book
that has changed women's lives.  In
her book, The Premature
Menopause Book, Kathy works to dispel the ever- present myths
surrounding women and menopause. Menopause is typically seen in women who are age 50 and
older.
But there are literally thousands of women in their
thirties and even late twenties who find themselves in the throes of menopause. As Kathy
has written " they fast forward from 29 to 59". This devastating health
challenge is not merely physical; the hot flashes, mood swings, troubles sleeping etc. but
delivers a harsh emotional blow.
 When Kathy
discovered that she was menopausal and in her thirties, she searched for a book, a
resource to help her understand what her body was going through. She did not find such a
book; so she wrote it herself.
The Premature
Menopause Book is a brilliant and compelling guidebook for any woman
dealing with the impact of an early menopause. Kathy has used incredible sensitivity
coupled with the latest scientific information to help women not only "get
through" this difficult point in their lives, but to become renewed and reclaim their
lives.
Sue:
Thanks Kathy for chatting with me today.
Your book The Premature
Menopause Book is the only one like it out on the bookshelves. I read a
lot of books dealing with perimenopause and menopause and I have never met anything like
your book. It's tremendous.
Kathy, your own personal premature menopause story
is so poignant yet you have found so many women in your shoes. I admire your
determination and zeal in helping women get this valuable information. What has been the
biggest challenge for you after hearing that you were in premature menopause?
Kathy:
There actually were so many challenges! I think, initially, the biggest challenge
was finding out more about this condition. There are so many of us -- millions, actually
-- who go through menopause years
before we ever expected it, whether naturally (as I did), surgically, or due to cancer
treatments. Yet there seems to be so little information about it. Even many doctors I saw
admitted they weren't used to seeing a young woman in menopause. That was most upsetting,
as you can imagine. You feel very alone, as if you are the only woman in the world dealing
with premature menopause.
So I kept looking for more information.
I was reading material aimed at older women, yet entering menopause in my 30s, I
felt so different from those women in their 50s. My emotional and physical concerns were
different than theirs. The books and articles I read talked about things like
"dealing with the empty nest syndrome" and I hadn't even begun having a family!
I felt like I had fast-forwarded from my 30s to my 50s. I was busy worrying about things
like osteoporosis and hormone therapy, while other women my age were thinking about having
children. It was such a difficult transition -- and I think it was all the more hard
because so little attention has been paid to premature menopause, other than lumping women
like me in with older women.
The more I read, the more I realized that I was
right
-- it IS a different transition.
In fact, that's why I wrote my book. It was the book I was hoping to find when I
was first diagnosed, to answer all those questions I had. We younger woman face a
different set of emotional and physical challenges than older women. It's not easy, to be
sure....but we can handle them, if we know what to expect, the options open to us, and the
fact that we're not alone in dealing with this unexpected change in our lives.
Sue:
Early menopause or premature ovarian failure holds a number of very important
psychological, emotional, and health concerns. Of these three areas can you tell us the
toughest aspect of each of them?
See the answer
 Health Concerns
 newly revised for 2000!
Could It
Be...Perimenopause?
by Steven R.
Goldstein, Laurie
Ashner
 
 see the interview with Dr
Goldstein
In clear, supportive prose, Goldstein offers no-baloney advice. "Today's
perimenopausal women has neither the time nor the patience to go through four to fifteen
years of symptoms without relief," he says. He fully delineates the roles of various
hormones, how to determine if you're in perimenopause or not, as well as how to treat the
various symptoms to gain control over your life.
Meet the author
Miriam E.
Nelson, Ph.D.
author of:
"Strong Women, Strong Bones"
hosted by Sue Spataro, RN, BSN
  
Osteoporosis affects over 50% of all women and is responsible for thousands of deaths from
hip fractures every year. In fact, osteoporosis kills more women every year than
breast cancer. Strong Women Strong Bones is the most comprehensive and thorough book
for good bone health. Her book is not only meant for older women but for younger
ones as well. It is the bone that we make while we are younger that will help us keep bone
mass as we grow older. In this interview she discusses: When is the right time for the
test?; Bone Loss in Teeth; Osteoporosis Medications; Exercise & Osteoporosis; and a
FREE Book Excerpt: Chapter 5: Putting Your Bones to the Test"
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