Rating: 
Summary: Early motherhood to prevent disease?
Review: I can't judge the authors' promotion of natural (ie plant-derived) HRT, although the overheated hyped-up tone of the book does not inspire confidence. However, their promotion of early childbearing -- preferably before 20! -- and MULTIPLE childbearing is preposterous. The costs to women of having babies too early --lost education and work opportunities, hasty marriage, immature parenthood, lifelong lowered earnings -- far outweigh the modest hormonal benefits. Basically, this is another book that tells women emancipation is bad for them -- nature wants them barefoot and pregnant and breastfeeding for 15 months per child.
To read this book you'd think no woman lived past 50 unless she followed this taxing reproductive schedule. And yet, women's life expectancy in the US and other modern industrialized low-birthrate countries is the highest it's ever been, and getting higher.
Rating:
Summary: Early motherhood to prevent disease?
Review: I can't judge the authors' promotion of natural (ie plant-derived) HRT, although the overheated hyped-up tone of the book does not inspire confidence. However, their promotion of early childbearing -- preferably before 20! -- and MULTIPLE childbearing is preposterous. The costs to women of having babies too early --lost education and work opportunities, hasty marriage, immature parenthood, lifelong lowered earnings -- far outweigh the modest hormonal benefits. Basically, this is another book that tells women emancipation is bad for them -- nature wants them barefoot and pregnant and breastfeeding for 15 months per child.
To read this book you'd think no woman lived past 50 unless she followed this taxing reproductive schedule. And yet, women's life expectancy in the US and other modern industrialized low-birthrate countries is the highest it's ever been, and getting higher.
Rating: 
Summary: Between a rock and a hard place.
Review: I found this book a fascinating read, and found myself in it, too: a symptomatic perimenopausal woman dealing with breast biopsies due to calcification, hoping cancer is not found so I can go on transdermal ERT. I want my life back ! But to be able to go onto the type of hormone therapy Wiley suggest's is impossible for most of us dealing with HMO doctors and prescription plans. Try and get a doctor to prescribe you anything from a compounding pharmacy ! We largely just have to choose our hormone replcacement from the big drug company's menus and hope we pick something that does the least harm.
This book is well worth reading, though, if only for the history of how womens bodies work and what we were built for.
I was already aware that it is our diet, lack of babies and lactation, hence the fact that we have too many periods in our lifetime, that put us in danger in our menopausal years. But to put things back in their natural order would mean changing our whole culture. Still, women should be aware of the consequences of choices they make throughout their lives from using birth control to delaying childbirth and not breastfeeding and this book certainly sheds light on those issues and more.
Sadly, due to the book title, probably only women in midlife will read this book, but really every college age woman should read it. If I had known then what I know now......
Rating: 
Summary: A Must Read
Review: I loved this book! Finally a scientifically written, yet totally readable, untangling of the HRT dilemma. A theory that turns the tide on HRT and presents an alternative solution that seems so logical and obvious, it was a great relief to read it. The book points out that HRT is not dangerous in itself, it's the misuse of synthetic hormones that's mucking everything up. The author provides a strong argument for the use of natural hormones, taken in similar amounts to what would have been produced by our own systems when we were younger.
The chapters in the book that discuss the current approaches to HRT, and the Drug Companies self-serving roll in the mess we seem to now be in, is enough to make your blood run cold.
Every woman who reads Sex, Lies and Menopause will be far more prepared to make an informed decision about whether or not HRT is a right choice for them.
This book needs to be passed along to friends, family and who knows maybe I can even get my Doctor to read it.
Rating:
Summary: Book grossly misnamed and misleading.
Review: I picked up this book figuring it would be about menopause, HRT and the overuse of synthetic hormones. More than half of the book is devoted to encouraging woman to pop out their kids early. And, you had better have those kids. According to this book, if you don't give birth, you're destined to die of some form of cancer before you hit old age. Geez, what a 'positive' book. Since I'm childless and will remain so, this book is useless. I think I'll simply eat right, exercise, and avoid books like these.
Rating: 
Summary: A "sexed up" style mars this important subject
Review: I was really looking forward to reading this book, especially following the recent NIH studies repudiating HRT. The title promises "the shocking truth about hormone replacement therapy." So when I finally began to read, my disappointment was huge, as I can't imagine a more confusingly written book.Perhaps to "sex up" what was feared to be potentially "dry" scientific talk, the author unfortunately chose to use hyped-up "rock & roll" chapter titles and an excess of distracting
interior chapter headings that are almost all completely disconnected in sense from the actual text, and therefore counterproductive. Also, the author has the habit of jumping wildly between theories with tenuous links to the main subject, all the while advancing them as proofs of her positions. There is very interesting and important information here against the use of synthetic hormones, but again, it appears scattershot throughout the text, and the author's argument for the use of natural hormones is woefully incomplete! For example, the author does not include information about the use of natural hormones for women who've had hysterectomies! The word "hysterectomy" does not appear in the index. This is a serious lapse, and there are many other such lapses as well, but a list here would be way too long, and in any case, should have been the work of the author's editor before publication. Perhaps the author was rushed into turning in a manuscript that was not ready, by a publisher anxious to take advantage of the media attention to HRT. Who knows, but unfortunately, a great opportunity has been wasted.
Rating:
Summary: This book was not written soon enough!
Review: I went through menopause 3 years ago. Weight gain around my middle, hot flashes, waking up at night and then BREAST CANCER. What a shock! After learning about T.S. Wiley's research, I immediately started using bio-identical hormones from a compounding pharmacy. I cycle them just like she says in the book and I now feel great! And my cancer markers prove it!
I am buying a book for each of my daughters so that they will be informed about HRT, birth control pills, delaying childbirth and the importance of breastfeeding.
After reading this book, I know that natural hormones will give me the best chance of beating this cancer, preventing heart disease and being around to enjoy my future grandbabies!
Rating:
Summary: Best Info on Hormone Replacement, ever, period.
Review: I've read them all, and this brand new book beats 'em all. The clearest and most honest account of current trends in hormone replacement therapy. If you want information on and a serious how-to of NATURAL hormone replacement, Sex, Lies and Menopause makes it all very simple. The descriptions of past and current hormone drug therapies is enough to make you shiver. The authors will not only tell you why you should stop taking fake hormones, but make sure that you never do something so foolish ever again. The solution, is replacing ALL of the natural hormones in your body, as if you were 20-years-old again. Your risk of cancer and heart attack soar at menopause, and the solution is to reverse it. Yes, reverse menopause. Return to the levels of estrogen and progesterone of a young woman, who, by the way, is at extremely low risk for cancer and heart attack. Menopause is our first step into the grave. Should we have to suffer not only menopausal symptoms, but more chance of cancer, as well? This book turns the corner on HRT thinking, and begs you turn the page back to a time when you actually felt like a woman. This is one book you are going to make your daughters read. Our mistakes are killing us; let's not wish our daughters the same fate.
Rating:
Summary: an important work
Review: Many women, even in their 20s and 30s, are experiencing health problems related to hormonal imbalance. These include adrenal exhaustion, endometriosis, thyroid problems, mood swings, depression, etc..
I never saw the hormone connection to all this until I myself was diagnosed with breast cancer in my early 40s and started to research ways to return to health. I started the Wiley protocol and have chosen to balance my hormones rather than go with invasive forms of cancer treatment.
It's clear that cancer has a strong hormonal component. Instead of attacking my body's estrogen production with hormone blockers and aromatase inhibitors, and I am so grateful to have found the Wiley protocol to replace hormones according to a natural monthly cycle. Thank you, T. S. Wiley, for bringing this well-researched and fun-to-read book which introduces something I've not seen elsewhere: how to replace hormones in a natural cycle.
I've bought copies of "Sex, Lies and Menopause" for every oncologist I know.
Rating: 
Summary: Read "Natural Hormone Balance for Women" instead...
Review: My CNP told me to read this book (Sex, Lies and Menopause), and said we'd use its schedule (it's in an appendix at the end) for bioidentical HRT. It's a good place to start, and that schedule is probably the most useful part of the book.
I hope the authors' science is better than their history, sociology, and editing. I've found numerous instances where they contradict themselves and are flat wrong when they're describing women's social history. I don't like the gimmicky old rock-n-roll song titles for their sections. And I really don't appreciate their assertions that their book is "about biology, not politics", when their explanations of our biology can't even be separated from their speculations on women's social history and the politics of women's place in society (the whole "Lies" section is more about politics than about biology!). To use another reviewer's phrase, it's hard to sieve the "pearls" out of the "muck". They do have some interesting ideas, and some things do make sense. But I know too many healthy, vigorous old ladies who didn't do any kind of HRT to completely accept their assertion that cancer is the inevitable result of menopause. And their recurring rant about drug companies and profits from drugs (and I'm no fan of drug companies!) makes it sound like natural hormone therapy is free - which it is not. My bioidentical hormone prescriptions cost about the same as the patented drug versions.
I'm afraid that if they are sloppy about their history and sociology (not to mention plain old word usage - e.g, effect/affect, choose/chose) they're also sloppy about their science.
Natural Hormone Balance for Women, by Dr. Uzzi Reiss, has much clearer information about biology - the effects of various hormones- and how to use bioidentical hormones, with none of the political claptrap Wiley and company offer.
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