Introduction
Menopause... the change. As John Lee, M.D., states in his book, What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause: "Every adult woman in North America and other industrialized countries knows what those words refer to: the the change of life that occurs with menopause. Those who have entered into menopause know it by their own experience; others know the experience of their mothers, an older sister, or a friend. They have heard the stories of the hot flashes and night sweats, the mood swings, the vaginal dryness, and the sagging breasts and fatter hips. They vow (and pray) to somehow never let it happen that way to them. They fear the loss of sexual enjoyment that menopause may portend. They see older women shrunken and bent with osteoporosis, and cannot visit an older friend in a nursing home without some dread that this may be their destiny, too.

"They also know from other older women, who are vigorous and full of life, that this deterioration is not universal with all women. What, they wonder, makes the difference and what can be done to remain vital and healthy?"

With thirty million menopausal women in North America and some twenty million baby-boomer women on the brink of menopause, it is no small wonder this is a major topic of discussion.