Every woman who manages to live a fairly long life will have transitions to make in that life. One of the things we must face is menopause. Now we can either do it sullen and crying or we can strike back and use our sense of humor to help us get through this most natural time of life.

While I passed that threshold many years ago I still own one of the books that my daughters gave me to help me take a comical look at the changes that were going on with me.

Menopaws (The Silent Meow) was written by Martha Sacks and illustrated by Jack E. Davis. It is a very tongue in cheek look at the changes that happen, using cats as the main cartoon characters to present the dilemma and the solution.

While the text of this book is interesting and funny, it is the cats, acting and dressed like a human that really holds the giggle factor.

Each page has the cats in sepia tone cartoon style with exaggerated activities that had me looking at the pages for quite a while.

Things like seeing a distraught cat, walking upright in a short belted dress with matching hat pass by construction workers who are not paying a bit of attention to her. The text says: Perceived loss of femininity. The opposite page shows an upright cat dressed in blue sexy bra, panties, garter belt and nylons and putting on red lipstick. The text says: New lingerie.

This book is divided in to three sections. The first section is The Body Ahh yes, menopause can do some strange things to the body. This section takes a whimsical look at the symptom and the remedy.

On the left side of the page is the Symptom, then on the right side is the Remedy:

Weight gain – Acceptance
Decreased sexual desire – Younger boyfriend
Increased sexual desire – Younger boyfriend

The second section is Your Mind and uses the strategies of a Difficulty / Strategy. This section addresses things like:

Impatience – Yoga
Irritability – Relaxation techniques
Mood Swings – Better Communication

Of course all of these use the cartoon cats to dramatically demonstrate each of these strategies. Again all are humorous and make a point at the same time.

The third section is Our Lifestyle and uses a Problem / Solution format to help us through this wonderful time of life. Thing like:

Boredom – New Hobbies
Pointless Perfectionism – Search out new role models
Obsession with youthful appearance – Boycott mass media

On the page with the boycott mass media we see a thin cat in high heel boots and a crowd around her holding up banners with such things as Scrawny sucks and Eat, Dammit. Just love these small pearls of advice.

This is a fun book for any woman who has gone through menopause (Menopaws) or any woman who will be entering into this new time in her life. I’m thinking it may be time for me to pass this one down to my oldest daughter….she has so much to look forward to!


Nuts & Bolts

Menopaws (The Silent Meow) was published by Ten Speed Press in 1995.

This book has 64 pages of hilarity and 4 pages of bibliography of other books about menopause. There are some excellent reading suggestions both serious and humorous as well.

ISBN: 0898157803

This book is my 5th entry in the Resurrecting the Oldies Write-Off sponsored by msmorvay

It is also #32 in the 50 Reviews by Halloween Write-Off sponsored by CopeSullivan.




Recommended: Yes