Author Jancee Dunn Takes On Menopause 'It's Not All Doom and Gloom'

IN HER NEW BOOK THE WRITER LOOKS AT THE LOWS (CHIN HAIRS! HOT FLASHES!) AND HIGHS OF THE CHANGE: 'THIS IS THE BEST DECADE OF MY LIFE'

- EILEEN FINAN

Jancee Dunn was a 45-year-old mom of a toddler when she first began experiencing symptoms of peri menopause—a racing heartbeat, “crawlingly itchy” dry skin, night sweats so severe she was convinced she’d peed the bed. But despite her years of experience as a health reporter, the bestselling author—along with her doctors—attributed it all to stress. When she missed a few periods, she assumed she was pregnant. “I had it in my head that menopause was for older ladies,” she says, “and I was busy going to Mommy and Me classes with my young child.”

Most women reach menopause—confirmed when 12 months have elapsed without a period— between the ages of 40 and 58, but symptoms can begin years earlier. “It’s embarrassing to think of now, but I was so clueless,” says Dunn, now 57 and a columnist for The New York Times. As she began researching her new book Hot and Bothered: What No One Tells You About Menopause and How to Finally Feel Like Yourself Again, she realized she was far from the only clueless one. “Many doctors don’t get any medical training about this stuff, and reproductive medicine sort of falls off a cliff after a woman has children,” she says. “If the average [life span] is about 80, you could be in menopause for half your life, but this huge stage is all but ignored.”