Books
The books we'd lend to a friend
The books on perimenopause and menopause our team and members keep coming back to. Grouped by topic, with one line on why this one. Nothing here is sponsored or affiliate-linked. If a recommendation stops holding up, it comes off.
Jump to a shelf
- Start here — the lay of the land
- Hormones, MHT, and the prescribing conversation
- Menopause after a hormone-sensitive cancer
- Training, strength, and the changing body
- Food, nutrition, and the changing appetite
- Culture, meaning, and not feeling like a problem to be solved
- Why women's health is the way it is
- Menopause at work — for you and for employers
- When it's the specific thing in front of you
- Andropause and men's midlife hormones
- Endo, adeno, fibroids, cysts and PCOS/PMOS
Start here — the lay of the land
If you're new to all of this, these four give you the vocabulary, the history of why menopause care is the way it is, and an honest read on what changed after the WHI.
- Book
The Menopause Manifesto
by Dr. Jen Gunter
The clearest single book on the biology, written by a gynaecologist who refuses to dress it up. Good first read.
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Estrogen Matters
by Dr. Avrum Bluming and Dr. Carol Tavris
Why a generation lost twenty years of MHT after the WHI, told carefully. Pair it with the cancer-risk page on this site.
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What Fresh Hell Is This?
by Heather Corinna
Anatomy-not-identity, queer- and trans-aware, and one of the only menopause books that doesn't assume you're a cis married mother.
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MenoWars: Why menopause's moment has gone horribly wrong, and how you can navigate your way through it
by Fiona Clark
A journalist's sharp, evidence-based look at how menopause became a battleground — from medical misogyny to TikTok misinformation. Useful context for why the conversation feels so noisy.
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Making Menopause Matter: The Essential Guide
by Diane Danzebrink
Written by the psychotherapist behind the UK #MakeMenopauseMatter campaign, after her own surgical menopause. Practical on symptoms and treatment, and unusually good on how to ask for better care at work and at the doctor's office.
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Hormones, MHT, and the prescribing conversation
When you want to understand the actual drugs — body-identical estradiol, micronized progesterone, testosterone, the synthetics — before the appointment.
- Book
The New Menopause
by Dr. Mary Claire Haver
Practical, prescription-aware, and useful as a translator between what you're feeling and what to ask for.
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The Perimenopause Revolution
by Dr. Mary Claire Haver
Haver's follow-up to The New Menopause, focused squarely on the perimenopause years — the symptoms most often dismissed as 'too early' to be hormonal, and the conversations worth having with a doctor or specialist now rather than at 52.
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Menopause after a hormone-sensitive cancer
Menopause that arrives because of cancer treatment, or that has to be navigated after a hormone-sensitive diagnosis, is a different conversation.
Training, strength, and the changing body
When the cardio that used to work stops working and the standard fitness advice was built on twenty-year-old men.
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Next Level
by Dr. Stacy Sims and Selene Yeager
Strength, fueling, and recovery written specifically for the perimenopausal body. The most-cited title in our member chats.
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Unbreakable: A Woman's Guide to Aging with Power
by Dr. Vonda Wright
An orthopedic surgeon on bone, muscle and the musculoskeletal side of menopause, the part most menopause books skip. Good if your first sign was aching joints or a strength drop rather than hot flashes.
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Fitness After 40
by Dr. Vonda Wright
The training companion to Unbreakable. Second edition, built around strength, balance and flexibility for a body past forty rather than a twenty-year-old athlete's.
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New Moves in Menopause
by Dr. Maria Luque
A fitness-first guide to midlife — strength, mobility, and what to actually do in the gym when the old routine stops working. Practical, no nonsense, doable.
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Food, nutrition, and the changing appetite
When the way you ate in your thirties stops fitting the body you're in now, and you want a plain-English read on protein, fibre, and the perimenopause weight conversation.
Culture, meaning, and not feeling like a problem to be solved
Some weeks you don't need another protocol. You need to read someone who treats this stage as a transition, not a deficiency.
- Book
Hagitude
by Sharon Blackie
The cultural-and-mythological read. Not a self-help book; a re-imagining of the second half.
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Hot and Bothered
by Jancee Dunn
Funny, honest, journalistic. Good when you want to feel less alone without committing to a clinical text.
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Midlife Matters: Feel Empowered and Confident Every Step of the Way
by Katie Taylor
Takes midlife as the whole picture rather than a symptom list: ageing parents, teenagers, work, money and identity alongside the hormones. Good when the menopause books feel too narrow for what your year actually looks like.
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Genderqueer Menopause
by Lasara Firefox Allen, MSW · North Atlantic Books
Written for trans, non-binary, genderfluid and gender-non-conforming readers by a menopause educator and doula who's genderqueer themselves. Prompts and self-advocacy tools sit next to lifestyle and prescription options, and it takes apart the binary story most menopause writing leans on. Out Jan 13, 2026 from North Atlantic Books, 256 pages. Pair it with What Fresh Hell Is This? if the usual books have never quite fit.
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Why women's health is the way it is
Two books that zoom out from individual symptoms to the structural reason care has been thin: who funds the research, who builds the products, and who gets ignored. Helpful context for why your appointment can feel like an argument.
- Book
Undervalued to Unavoidable: Women's Health as Infrastructure
by Marissa Fayer
Pre-order, out June 2026. The case for treating women's health as economic infrastructure rather than a niche category — written by a 25-year medtech operator, aimed at the boardroom but useful for any reader who's wondered why the system feels so slow.
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The Billion Dollar Blindspot
by Maryann Selfe
How women's health became one of the most under-researched, under-invested categories in medicine — and where that's finally starting to change. Less clinical than the others on this shelf; more the why-behind-the-why.
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Menopause at work — for you and for employers
Two reads that treat menopause as a workplace issue, not just a personal one: practical for anyone working through symptoms, and useful for the HR leads and managers building support. Pair them with the free templates in the work toolkit.
- Book
M-Power: A menopause action plan for organizations
by Laura Haycock
The most HR-practical of the set — written for employers, with a step-by-step plan for building menopause support into how an organization actually runs. Hand it to whoever owns people policy.
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Working Through Menopause
by Dr. Mache Seibel and Dr. Sharon Seibel
Frames menopause as a work-related health issue, not just a private one — with the case for why supporting employees through it retains talent. Good for the business argument as well as the human one.
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When it's the specific thing in front of you
Books we keep handing to members when one particular symptom is the thing wrecking the week — rage, sleep apnea, pelvic prolapse, jaw clenching, sudden histamine reactions. Each one is the best single read we've found on that thing; pair with the relevant symptom guide on this site.
- Book
Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger
by Soraya Chemaly
Not a menopause book, but the most articulate book on women's anger as a legitimate response — not a personality flaw. Read alongside the rage guide so the biology doesn't get used to dismiss the load.
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The Sleep Solution: Why Your Sleep Is Broken and How to Fix It
by W. Chris Winter, MD
The clearest single read on disordered sleep, including apnea, by a neurologist who actually treats it. Useful before you go in for a sleep study or a CPAP conversation.
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Heal Pelvic Pain
by Amy Stein, DPT
Pelvic floor PT's practical handbook — prolapse, pain, leaking, the whole picture. The exercises and self-assessment work; the framing treats your pelvic floor as a muscle group, not a mystery.
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Floored: A Woman's Guide to Pelvic Floor Health at Every Age and Stage
by Sara Reardon, DPT
The newest general-audience pelvic floor book, written by a pelvic health physiotherapist who spends a lot of her time undoing bad kegel advice. Strong on what changes at menopause and when training isn't the answer.
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The Pelvic Floor Bible
by Jane Simpson
Short, blunt and very readable on bladder and bowel symptoms — the ones people put up with for a decade before mentioning them. A good book to leave lying around.
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When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress
by Gabor Maté, MD
The book to read if your jaw won't unclench and your shoulders are at your ears. Maté on why the body holds what the mind won't — useful for TMJ, tendinopathies, the whole nervous-system-load picture.
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Hormone Intelligence
by Dr. Aviva Romm
Functional-medicine framework for the symptoms most GPs don't have time for — histamine reactions, body-odor changes, weird new allergies in midlife. Useful menu of things to try; read with our 'what to track' sections so you don't end up on twelve supplements at once.
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Pain Free: A Revolutionary Method for Stopping Chronic Pain
by Pete Egoscue
Postural-load approach to the foot, knee, hip, and tendon pain that turns up in perimenopause. Not the only model, but the e-cises are free, doable at home, and give plantar fasciitis sufferers something to actually try this week.
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The Whole-Body Microbiome
by B. Brett Finlay and Jessica M. Finlay
Microbiome biology for non-scientists. Useful background for the symptoms that suddenly involve the gut, skin or smell — histamine reactions, body-odor changes, eczema in midlife.
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The Vagina Bible: The Vulva and the Vagina — Separating the Myth from the Medicine
by Dr. Jen Gunter
The reference book for everything below the belt — discharge, itching, GSM, pain, and the products marketed at all of it. Gunter takes apart the wellness claims with the actual evidence, so you walk into the appointment knowing what's real. Pair with our GSM and vaginal dryness guides.
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The Lichen Sclerosus Handbook
by Dr Jill Krapf and Dr Andrew Goldstein
There's not much honest writing on LS for patients. The Centers for Vulvovaginal Disorders team's patient resources are the best place we've found to start — read alongside our LS guide before your first vulval clinic appointment.
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The Bedroom Gap: Rewrite the Rules and Roles of Sex in Midlife
by Dr. Maria Sophocles
A menopause-literate gynaecologist's roadmap for midlife sex: what changes physically (GSM, libido, arousal), what changes relationally, and how to talk about it with a partner and a doctor without flinching.
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Sex Without Pain: A Self-Treatment Guide To The Sex Life You Deserve
by Dr. Heather Jeffcoat, DPT
A pelvic health physiotherapist's home program for painful sex, vaginismus and vestibular pain. Step-by-step, and useful in the months you're waiting for a pelvic floor appointment. Read with our painful sex and GSM guides.
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When Sex Hurts: Understanding and Healing Pelvic Pain
by Dr. Andrew Goldstein, Dr. Caroline Pukall, Dr. Irwin Goldstein and Dr. Jill Krapf
The reference book on vulvar and pelvic pain, by the clinicians and researchers who define the categories. Explains why hormone-driven, muscle-driven and nerve-driven pain need completely different treatment.
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Pelvic Organ Prolapse: The Silent Epidemic
by Sherrie Palm
Written by the founder of the Association for Pelvic Organ Prolapse Support, from her own diagnosis. Names how common prolapse is and how rarely anyone warns you it can arrive with the estrogen drop.
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Prolapse Exercises Inside Out
by Michelle Kenway, physiotherapist
The practical companion: what to lift, how to exercise, and which everyday movements load a prolapse. Written by an Australian pelvic floor physio, with pictures rather than theory.
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Mind Over Bladder: A Step-by-Step Guide to Achieving Continence
by Dr. Jill Maura Rabin, Gail Stein and Dr. Danielle O'Shaughnessy
A urogynaecologist on bladder retraining, urgency and leaking, with humour. The book for the symptom people quietly plan their day around instead of mentioning.
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Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers
by Robert M. Sapolsky
The definitive plain-language book on what stress hormones actually do to a body over years. Read it before you buy anything with 'cortisol' on the label — pair with our cortisol page.
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Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
by Emily Nagoski, PhD and Amelia Nagoski, DMA
The distinction that changes things: dealing with the stressor and completing the stress cycle are two different jobs, and midlife women are usually only doing the first. Good companion to the 3 a.m.-waking guide.
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Andropause and men's midlife hormones
Midlife rarely happens to only one person in a household. This is the shelf we point partners and men to — whether the question is age-related testosterone or how to be useful through a partner's perimenopause. Read the clinician-written book alongside the mainstream guidelines on /research so you get both the symptom-led and the cautious-trial view.
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Burning Up, Frozen Out: The Practical Guide to Perimenopause — For Men
by Joe Warner with Rob Kemp
Out March 2026, and billed as the first practical perimenopause guide written for men — how hormones actually change, what symptoms look like from the outside, and what useful support looks like without making it about you. Written with input from Dr Louise Newson, Dr Stacy Sims and Dr Kelly Casperson, so it stays grounded. The one to hand a partner, or a male manager, who wants to understand rather than fix.
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Androgen Deficiency in the Adult Male: Causes, Diagnosis and Treatment (2nd ed.)
by Professor Malcolm Carruthers
Clinician-written reference that argues age-related androgen deficiency is under-recognized and treatable. More symptom-led than the trial literature; Carruthers runs a men's health clinic, so pair with the ACP, European Academy of Andrology, and Italian SIAMS/SIE guidelines on /research?category=andropause rather than reading it alone. Companion to our /andropause explainer.
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Endo, adeno, fibroids, cysts and PCOS/PMOS
The five overlapping conditions that keep showing up in midlife bleeding, pelvic pain, anemia and hysterectomy conversations. These are the books we hand people who have been told 'wait it out' one too many times. Pair each with the matching guide on this site — /symptoms-info/endometriosis, /adenomyosis, /fibroids, /ovarian-cysts, /pcos-perimenopause — and the sources on /evidence/fibroids and /evidence/pcos.
- Book
Beating Endo: How to Reclaim Your Life from Endometriosis
by Iris Kerin Orbuch, MD and Amy Stein, DPT
An excision surgeon and a pelvic-floor PT write together — which is exactly the multidisciplinary framing endo actually needs. Names why suppressing bleeds isn't the same as treating disease, and what a proper surgical assessment involves.
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The Doctor Will See You Now: Recognizing and Treating Endometriosis
by Tamer Seckin, MD
One of the New York excision surgeons who helped push endometriosis into the mainstream conversation. Written for patients: what a diagnostic laparoscopy actually looks for, why ablation and excision aren't the same procedure, and how to vet a surgeon.
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Ask Me About My Uterus: A Quest to Make Doctors Believe in Women's Pain
by Abby Norman
The memoir every woman handed 'anxiety' or 'just periods' should read. Norman's endometriosis story is the story — the delay, the disbelief, the language you learn to use to be taken seriously. Not clinical, essential.
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The Fibroid Fix: What Every Woman Needs to Know
by Dr. Bruce McLucas
Uterine artery embolization pioneer's plain-language book — useful because most women only hear about hysterectomy or myomectomy first. Bring it as a counterweight when a surgeon has already picked the answer.
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Ain't I A Woman?: The Sojourner Truth Project on Black Women, Fibroids and Medical Racism
by Various (see also Linda Villarosa, Under the Skin)
Fibroids hit Black women earlier, larger and more symptomatically than white women, and the research funding has followed white pain. Villarosa's Under the Skin gives the systemic context; the Sojourner Truth writing gives the specifics on gynaecological racism. Read both.
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8 Steps to Reverse Your PCOS
by Fiona McCulloch, ND
The title oversells it — PCOS is managed, not reversed — but the content is unusually careful with the evidence for a naturopathic text. Useful for the metabolic, insulin-resistance and androgen conversations that most GP appointments don't have time for — pair with our /evidence/pcos sources rather than reading it as the whole story.
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A Woman's Guide to PCOS
by Dr. Samuel S. Thatcher
A reproductive endocrinologist's classic patient text. Older, but still one of the clearest reads on why PCOS is an endocrine and metabolic condition — not a fertility problem that resolves — and why the conversation has to continue into perimenopause.
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