Book Review

Progress in the Management of Menopause

N Engl J Med 1999; 340:487February 11, 1999

Article

Progress in the Management of Menopause
Edited by Barry G. Wren. 489 pp., illustrated. New York, Parthenon, 1997. $90. ISBN: 1-85070-799-5

The management of menopause promises to challenge patients, their families, and their physicians well into the next century. As the tidal wave of baby boomers enter their menopausal years, we anxiously await meaningful progress in this field. Clearly, we are simultaneously pursuing different approaches to effective management of the multitude of social, behavioral, and medical problems posed during this stage of life. Progress in the Management of Menopause offers an international perspective on many of these topics.

This collection of the “finest” presentations of the Eighth International Menopause Society Conference includes contributions from throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America. The chapter headings are designed to have broad appeal. The traditional topics — mechanisms of action of estrogen in cardioprotection, clinical aspects of estrogens, osteoporosis, selective estrogen-receptor modulators — are mixed with often ignored, important topics, such as ways to improve compliance in general practice and the effects of sex steroids on brain cells. There are also uniquely stimulating topics, such as the practice of menopausal medicine “under difficult conditions” (in Pakistan, the Philippines, and the former Yugoslavia), the aging of men, and the beneficial effects of soy phytoestrogens on the cardiovascular system.

The chapters are concisely written, ranging in length from four to eight pages, with updated references and simple black-and-white illustrations. The book is easily readable despite the variety of authors and reflects well the efforts of the editor to provide a virtually seamless text.

These proceedings will be of interest to obstetrician-gynecologists, family-medicine practitioners, and internists who treat and counsel women but are unable to take time from a busy office practice to attend continuing-medical-education courses on the care of menopausal women. Moreover, this book provides a global snapshot and a benchmark of the constantly evolving state of the management of menopause in the 1990s. It will aid us in understanding where we were and perhaps where we are aiming our clinical sights as we enter the next century.

David B. Seifer, M.D.
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey–Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ 08901