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Did you know that by 2030, the world population of menopausal and postmenopausal women is projected to increase to 1.2 billion?
Yet, despite its universal impact, reliable, accessible information about the menopause can be hard to find.
That’s why books written by experts about the menopause can be such a game-changer.
Whether you're looking to better understand your symptoms, explore treatment options or simply feel less alone, the right book can offer clarity, compassion, and actionable advice.
With more women and healthcare professionals raising awareness, the shelves are now stocked with empowering reads that tackle menopause head-on—covering everything from hormone replacement therapy to holistic approaches.
Top Picks for Menopause Books
To help you navigate the sea of options, I’ve curated a list of the 12 best books on menopause.
Each one brings unique insights, practical tips, and personal stories designed to educate and empower.
No matter where you are on your journey—perimenopause, menopause, or post-menopause—you’ll find a book here to meet your needs.
These must-read menopause books promise to leave you feeling informed, inspired, and ready to take charge of your health and well-being. Let's dive in!
Written by TV presenter Davina McCall and menopause expert Dr. Naomi Potter, Menopausing challenges the stigma surrounding menopause.
This groundbreaking book offers a candid mix of personal anecdotes and evidence-based advice.
With sections on symptoms, treatment options like HRT, and how to navigate relationships during menopause, this book helps women reclaim their health and confidence during this life stage.
For too long, women have had to keep quiet about the menopause – its onset, its symptoms, its treatments – and what it means for us.
Menopausing will build an empowered, supportive community to break this terrible silence once and for all.
By exploring and explaining the science, debunking damaging myths, and smashing the taboos around the perimenopause and menopause, this book will equip women to make the most informed decisions about their health… and their lives.
Menopausing will also celebrate the sharing of stories, enabling women to feel less alone and more understood, and talk openly and positively about menopause.
No more scaremongering: just evidence-based info
No shame: real women, real menopause stories, real empathy, real community
Honest, no-holds-barred advice: Dry vagina? Zero sex drive? Hair loss? We’ve got it covered
The start of a movement: to get everyone talking about the menopause in every home, GP surgery and workspace
Dr. Louise Newson’s guide is an essential read for anyone navigating perimenopause or menopause.
Packed with medical expertise and practical advice, it covers everything from symptom management to lifestyle tips and HRT options.
Written in an accessible style, this book is an invaluable resource for understanding the science behind menopause.
Dr Louise Newson is fast becoming the leading medical expert on hormone health.
This revised and expanded edition of her bestselling book has all the information and advice you need to understand the impact of low hormone levels on your perimenopause symptoms as well as on your future health post-menopause.
There's an up-to-date guide to HRT doses, how to deal with HRT availability fluctuations, new research on testosterone and its benefits beyond libido boosting and startling findings on how low hormones can increase our propensity towards addictive behaviours, including intake of alcohol.
New interviews with experts including Dr Lisa Mosconi discuss pertinent questions such as whether HRT can reduce the risk of dementia, and new case studies from Newson Health reveal essential research on how hormone imbalance can impact the neurodivergent brain.
With the gender pay gap highlighting inequality in the workplace and women's pension pots diminished, it is vitally important that the frightening stats showing almost 60% of women have taken time off work or reduced their hours due to menopause symptoms are broadcast far and wide.
This book will empower and inform you to improve your own menopause care as well as understand the bigger societal issues that have been ignored for far too long.
Navigating Your Path Through Hormonal Change with Purpose, Power and the Facts
Menopause is inevitable. Suffering through it is not.
This is the empowering approach that pioneering women’s health advocate Dr Mary Claire Haver takes for women in the midst of hormonal change in The New Menopause.
A comprehensive, authoritative book of science-backed information and lived experience, it covers every woman's needs, including:
Changes in your appearance and sleep patterns, neurological, musculoskeletal, psychological and sexual issues, and a comprehensive A-to-Z toolkit of science-backed options for coping with symptoms.
What to do to mediate the risks associated with your body's natural drop in oestrogen production, including for diabetes, dementia, Alzheimer’s, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease and weight gain.
How to advocate for yourself and prepare for visits to the doctor, including questions to ask and how to insist on whole-life care.
The very latest research on the benefits and side effects of hormone replacement therapy.
Arming women with the power to secure vibrant health and well-being for the rest of their lives, The New Menopause is sure to become the bible of midlife wellness for present and future generations.
Kate Rowe-Ham shares her personal journey and practical strategies to help women navigate menopause with positivity.
This book emphasises movement, self-care, mindset shifts and building a support system, making it a perfect choice for women looking for an empowering approach to midlife changes.
In Owning Your Menopause, Kate Rowe-Ham proves it's possible to become fitter, calmer and stronger during menopause.
Supported by her own personal menopause story and her experience as a personal trainer, Kate tells you everything you need to know to change your life for the better.
Understanding and empowering, Kate's positive voice will transform your attitude to exercise with habit-changing strategies to help you feel the benefits.
Kate provides fitness plans - that really work - for all levels, as well as advice for every aspect of your life from alcohol and sugar consumption to mindfulness.
Owning Your Menopause also includes a 30-day fitness plan complete with menu suggestions, movement goals and links to online videos.
This is not just another menopause book - this is your life manual.
Karen Newby’s book focuses on balancing hormones naturally through nutrition.
Backed by science, it’s packed with and practical nutrition and lifestyle tips for managing symptoms like hot flushes and mood swings.
A revised and updated edition offers a complete one-stop guide to the perimenopause and menopause.
Covering everything from recognising symptoms to managing relationships and understanding which treatments really work, this new edition contains updated research, expert advice and useful tips from author, Karen Newby.
Everything you need to know about achieving nutritional balance to support flagging vitality and celebrate the potential of your midlife.
Are you tired all the time? Suffer with mood swings? Do you have stubborn weight gain especially around the middle? Are you dealing with brain fog? Is disturbed sleep making you feel exhausted?
The Natural Menopause Method is a nutritional guide to address these and many other common menopause symptoms; helping readers to navigate the biological and social challenges of midlife through the healing lens of food.
Exploring topics from HRT to tackling hot flushes as well as self-help and lifestyle tips, this book provides practical advice on recognising and troubleshooting symptoms in order to understand what foods and supplements can really work for us.
Registered Nutritionist and lifestyle coach Karen Newby has over 10 years’ experience coaching women through the midlife, empowering clients to embrace life’s natural changes and feel reinvigorated, stronger, happier and healthier.
Karen is a huge believer in the transformative effect that food can have on alleviating the symptoms of the menopause and her realistic, easily-integrated guidance on sleep, stress, energy, hormone balance (and even a 14-day cleanse) accompanied by her fresh and friendly approach will be your companion through the years before, during and after the menopause.
Dr. Mosconi dives into the science of how menopause affects cognitive function, memory, and mental health.
This book is a must-read for anyone experiencing brain fog or memory issues, offering strategies to keep your brain sharp through nutrition, lifestyle changes, and mental exercises.
Menopause and perimenopause are still baffling to most doctors, leaving patients exasperated as they grapple with symptoms ranging from hot flashes to insomnia to brain fog.
As a leading neuroscientist and women's brain health specialist, Dr Mosconi unravels these mysteries by revealing how menopause doesn't just impact the ovaries - it's a hormonal show in which the brain takes centre stage.
The decline of the hormone estrogen during menopause influences everything from body temperature to mood to memory, potentially paving the way for cognitive decline later in life.
To conquer these challenges successfully, Dr. Mosconi brings us the latest approaches - explaining the role of cutting-edge hormone replacement therapies like 'designer estrogens,' hormonal contraception and key lifestyle changes encompassing diet, exercise and self-care.
Best of all, Dr Mosconi dispels the myth that menopause signifies an end, demonstrating that it's actually a transition.
Contrary to popular belief, if we know how to take care of ourselves during menopause, we can emerge with a renewed, enhanced brain - ushering in a meaningful and vibrant new chapter of life.
7. Making Menopause Matter: The Essential Guide to What You Need to Know and Why by Diane Danzebrink
Diane Danzebrink combines personal advocacy with actionable advice to empower women to demand better care and understanding.
This book is both a guide and a call to action, encouraging readers to join the campaign for improved menopause support in healthcare and workplaces.
In recent years, the conversation around menopause has opened up; most of us understand what menopause means, and that it can be more than a few hot flushes and periods stopping.
But do we really know why menopause matters?
Menopause will directly affect approximately half the world's population, and will indirectly affect the other half, too.
There is a huge diversity of experiences that can potentially impact both short- and long-term physical, cognitive and emotional health and wellbeing, careers, relationships, families, friendships and finances.
How do you, your mother, your sister, your friends or your partner get the help and support that they need in all aspects of their lives, throughout the menopause transition and beyond?
Diane's book can answer that - and so much more.
Diane Danzebrink was one of the first people to campaign for better menopause education, care, and support.
Her work has been critical in ensuring that menopause is now part of the RSE curriculum in schools in England, and to the way in which menopause is no longer seen as a shameful or trivial experience.
Her book, Making Menopause Matter, guides us through all aspects of the menopause landscape; it reminds us not only of what menopause is - its scope, nature and potential impact - but also why it is important that we continue to call for access to support for all, enhanced understanding, and an acceptance that menopause is an individual experience.
While it may not be a seamless transition, menopause does offer an important opportunity when the right help and support is in place.
Diane's wise, compassionate writing offers practical advice along with deeper insights into how we can better support ourselves and those we know and love when their lives are impacted by menopause.
Part manifesto, a little memoir, plenty of self-help and ultimately a call to arms for society, public health and individuals alike, Making Menopause Matter should be required reading for all.
The perimenopause (the time leading up to the menopause) is often misunderstood.
For some women, it lasts a few months; for others it consumes the best part of a decade.
This transitional period can be a time of emotional turmoil, shifting priorities and physical changes: from hot flushes, insomnia, low mood and anxiety, to itchy skin, thinning hair, weight gain and loss of libido . . . to name just a few!
Millions of women in their thirties and forties go through this without even realising they are perimenopausal. It's time they take back control.
In The Perimenopause Solution, Dr Shahzadi Harper, a medical doctor specialising in women's health and Emma Bardwell, a registered nutritionist, provide a blueprint to help women find a new balance in this important phase of their lives, so they can be prepared, not scared.
Akin to getting two expert consultations in one, this holistic and accessible guide combines practical, no-nonsense information on the physical and mental changes to expect, with powerful advice on managing symptoms and nutrition, as what you eat during the perimenopause can dramatically affect your experience of it.
Expert-led and forward-thinking in its approach, The Perimenopause Solution will not just help you survive the journey towards the menopause - it will let you thrive.
Celebrated GP Dr Nighat Arif brings women's health to the forefront in this extensive guidebook designed to help everyone better understand each of the three key stages of a woman's life: the puberty years, the fertility years and the peri/menopausal years.
Every step of the way, Dr Nighat will help you get to know the female body by explaining what is normal, what to expect, how to care for yourself and when to seek help.
This book tackles many important topics: from the help available for people with conditions like endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome to the symptoms of heart disease to look out for in women.
The Knowledge is for everyone - and this book encompasses all experiences, including the perspectives of women of colour, people of all abilities and cultures, and the transgender community to ensure that all groups affected by female health concerns are a part of vital conversations.
This is a life-saving book for all genders, ages and communities.
From the young preteen hoping to understand their first period, to the couple experiencing fertility issues, to the single father raising teenage daughters, to the person unknowingly experiencing early signs of gynaecological cancer: this book is an indispensable asset for us all.
Dr Annice Mukherjee went through the menopause at just 41 following a breast cancer diagnosis, and she is also a top UK hormone specialist with nearly 30 years of experience.
In this book she combines her medical expertise and personal experience to develop an essential menopause toolkit offering balanced, practical and comprehensive advice designed for our modern world.
The author has used her unique holistic system to help thousands of women look better, feel younger and enjoy an improved quality of life in the long term. This book includes her lifestyle toolkit - which every woman can start implementing straight away to improve symptoms - as well as science based advice on the treatment options when self-management is not enough.
It demystifies the big questions, including:
- Managing the menopause at work
- How things change in the decades after the menopause
- What happens if you have a medically induced menopause
- When to consider hormone therapies and alternatives to HRT
The ultimate guide to taking control, rebalancing your body for the better and successfully maintaining optimum health through and beyond menopause.
An eye-opening, no-holds-barred guide to the perimenopause and menopause written by campaigner, journalist and documentary-maker Kate Muir.
Everything You Need to Know About the Menopause (and were too afraid to ask) is the thinking woman’s guide to the menopause, bringing you answers to all those questions that have been hidden behind a veneer of misplaced shame, bad science and centuries of patriarchy.
· What’s the perimenopause and when will it strike? (It’s sooner than you think)
· What’s happening to my body – and my mind?
· Why can’t I stop thinking about sex in perimenopause?
· How do I get my sex drive back after menopause?
· How do I look after my body and brain when my hormones disappear?
Kate draws on interviews with the leading medical experts in the field, interlaced with her own tumultuous journey through the menopause and the personal stories of women from all walks of life, sharing their varied experiences and hard-earned wisdom.
Kate also questions why the current medical establishment is getting the menopause so wrong, as she debunks the myths that surround hormone replacement therapy and exposes the sloppy science and hysterical headlines that have had a negative impact on women’s health for the last twenty years.
It’s essential that we understand the biology of our own bodies during this critical period that will define the latter half of our lives. With the help of a panel of doctors, scientists and health experts, Kate unpacks the science behind hormones and ageing, and takes a close look at the different options available for treating both body and mind during the profound changes that take us into midlife and beyond.
What she discovers is that both symptoms and treatment are far more extensive and diverse than we might expect.
The menopause is the whole package, and the treatment needs to be too, with impacts as wide ranging as preventing Alzheimer’s, boosting sex drive and protecting mental health.
This ground-breaking guide is a social, cultural and scientific exploration into a criminally overlooked and under-discussed phenomenon that will affect one billion of us by 2025.
And it is a manifesto for change, calling for equality in healthcare and an entirely new approach to women’s health.
In A Better Second Half, Liz Earle shows us how to future-proof our health in midlife and beyond using evidence-based techniques, ideas and wisdom accumulated over her years of experience in the wellbeing arena.
We all know that midlife women are often hit the hardest of all health-wise, sandwiched between bringing up our families, juggling work and caring for ailing parents, and it is all too easy to lose sight of ourselves.
But whatever stage or age you are there is hope and many ways to take back control of your health - physical, mental and emotional - and make yourself a priority rather than bottom of the to-do list.
Liz Earle sorts the fads from the fiction in wellbeing and breaks through the noise that surrounds all the online advice that can overwhelm us.
She has taken this mission to heart with her empowering new book A BETTER SECOND HALF.
Part a retrospective of her life and part a brilliant, distillation of self-help, Liz puts forward what we need to do to live well and age well through midlife and beyond.
Never shy of making her body a testing lab for new discoveries, Liz shares important information on the gut-brain axis, nutri-genomics, the efficacy of high intensity weight training, the pros and cons of low carb diets, biohacking techniques and much, much more.
Liz Earle is one of the most-trusted voices in wellbeing today and here she shares her hard-won wisdom, practical advice and know-how that can turn the tide on those feelings of dejection and can have us heading into our second halves full of vigour and hope to live longer and better.
Summary
Navigating menopause can feel overwhelming, but these 12 books provide the tools, insights, and support to make the journey more manageable and empowering.
From expert medical advice to personal stories, each book on this list offers a unique perspective, ensuring there’s something for everyone.
Whether you’re curious about HRT, natural remedies, or just want to feel seen and understood, these resources can guide you every step of the way.
Have you read any of these books, or do you have a favourite menopause resource to recommend?
Share your thoughts in the comments below! If you know someone who could benefit from this list, don’t forget to share it with them.
And if you're looking for menopause gift ideas, check out my blog '30 Must-Have Menopause Gifts'
Or if you’re looking for a menopause specialist who can give you encouragement and support, my 1:1 coaching sessions are available on an individual basis or part of my 12-week programme. Find out more here.
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