The subtitle of Bloody Hell! - Adventures in Menopause From Around The World - sums up what this book offers, which is an intersectional collection of writing about menopause. The breadth of experiences represented here - from cancer survivors whose treatment triggered early menopause, to trans men, to women from Global Majority countries and backgrounds - is refreshing and while I didn't immediately feel I could relate to some of the essays, with menopause likely just a few years away for me, I think this is a book I will return to dip into as my menopause journey begins.

I was so excited to receive an advanced copy of this essay collection, and it absolutely delivered! Even though I'm not experiencing menopause myself, I’ve long been aware of how little I knew about it. Menopause is something half the population will go through, yet it’s still surrounded by stigma and silence. I was especially curious to read stories from women, trans, and non-binary people, since most of the menopause narratives we do hear centre cis white women’s experiences.

This book tackles that silence head-on. As Mona Eltahawy writes:
"For too long, the menopause transition has been surrounded by shame and silence. Silence fuels shame. Shame perpetuates silence. Patriarchy deploys shame like a drone: it shadows you, ready to take you out any minute, exhausting you by keeping you forever aware of its presence, to the detriment of all other things that you could be investing your attention in."

The essays are raw, honest, and sometimes painful to read. People share their struggles with symptoms like rage, brain fog, and body changes - often while being dismissed by doctors. But what struck me most were the stories that broadened my perspective on who experiences menopause. One of the most powerful essays highlights the experiences of trans men and non-binary people:
"Trans folks bleed too. Nonbinary folks bleed. Trans men bleed. To bleed does not make one ‘female’ and to be female does not always make one bleed."

I loved that this book brought in a global perspective, with contributors from different countries and cultures. It shows how menopause can be shaped not just by biology, but also by race, class, gender identity, and access to healthcare. Some stories are deeply personal and brutally honest about the challenges of menopause - from hot flashes and insomnia to the loss of identity and invisibility in society. But there’s also humour, joy, and resilience.

I finished the book thinking, Why don’t more people talk about this? As one contributor says:
"Why didn’t anyone tell me what was going to happen to my mind and body? Why is this a big secret? If half the human race will spend just about half their lives in menopause, why are doctors so reluctant to talk or ignorant about this?"

This collection isn’t just for people going through menopause - it’s for anyone who wants to understand what half the population experiences and why silence around it needs to end. I found it incredibly informative, provocative, and full of heart.

4.5/5 ⭐

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

Women should start again to learn about how their body work. An informative book
Liked it . Due to health issues cannot will write a proper review at a later time
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mineA more extensive review will follow

I got this as an arc on Netgalley and it will come out in March. I recently found out I am in perimenopause and have been for years. It wasn't doctors but the Internet that helped me find this out and I'm still working through some stuff. This book helped, especially because the stories were personal and from various angles. I think that a lot of people who can experience menopause might be helped by this. It's trans inclusive.

What a book! This book really forced me to reckon with the fact that all I have ever known about the menopause are the symptoms - hot flashes, brain fog, mood swings.

This book doesn't so much ask each of the authors about their medical experience of the menopause, although that does feature in almost every story. Rather, the recurring theme is about the social and cultural experience of the menopause transition.

What does it mean to be a woman when you are no longer fertile, and society views you as useless? It was inspiring to see these people, women, trans men and other GNC individuals discover their true self and embrace it.

This book has me almost excited for what is bound to be an interesting, if challenging time of life!

okay, wow! i have a personal grudge against the "blank spot" (as M'kali-Hashiki calls it), the absence of discussion about women over thirty, because if it did not exist, i could have helped my mother better with her menopause transition. "why does pop culture depict feminity as 'nubile prepubescent' to 'hot twenties' to 'grandmahood'?"

we all know the aunty and grandma stereotypes. the lonely cat ladies, the shunned mothers, the eccentric ones always shouting from their porches. but do we know anything deeper, anything about the years before, during, and after their menopause? anything beyond symptoms of "ageing"?

informative, wise, raw, honest, and hilarious, Bloody Hell combines the perspectives of a brilliant cohort of writers from different backgrounds to raise hell with a "sledgehammer" and to shout what other women are looking for. the question of ends and new beginnings and struggles with patriarchal medical systems and gynaes, body dysmorphia, diet culture, brain fog, iron deficiency anemia, fatphobia are common, everyday experiences and they all have a place in this book.

my issue with it though was that there was no representation for stay-at-homes so it got repetitive really fast. it is distinctly missing women who don't have a paragraph-long bio because they were never given the freedom or opportunity. this is a glaring mistake that undermines the purpose of the book and discredits the claim that it features "people" from all around the world. the only ones featured are professionals. furthermore, some of the medical assumptions and endorsements were heavily generalised and should be taken with a grain of salt.

Oh my god....THIS F**KING BOOK!!!! Empowering, inspiring, honest and raw.
The essays in this book break down the secrecy and shame surrounding menopause that the patriarchy has manipulated to make us believe that we are transitioning into barren, useless, shrivelled old ladies! That this time of a woman's life is when she becomes obsolete!
This book is a must-read for all women!! Yes, the menopause can be really hard for some (most) but this book opens up the conversation, that half the population is going to go through this transition and WE ARE NOT ALONE!!!!

Firstly, a great idea. Needed and important.
Secondly, it gives voice to diverse writers.
The best part was to get to learn more about the experiences of those from different backgrounds than mine.
An honest exploration of menopause.

The collection, Bloody Hell! Adventures in Menopause from Around the World, is edited by Mona Eltahawy and brings together essays by 17 individuals about their own experiences with menopause. It is inspiring and surprisingly helpful for a non-medical collection of writing. Given the dearth of actual, useful information available on the menopause journey, though, I suppose it shouldn't be that surprising that a book of people talking about their own experiences would include useful nuggets of knowledge!

While reading these essays, I felt like each new writer was perfectly capturing my story even though I am a cis white woman in Canada and the authors are Black, Brown, Asian, trans, nonbinary, and cis people living all over the world. The menopause journey may be as individual as the people experiencing it, as Eltahawy says in the introduction, but the fear, frustration, lack of knowledge, and acceptance certainly feel universal when laid out like this.

If you have a uterus or know someone who does and are interested in the menopausal journey at all, this is a great collection of experiences as well as a list of resources as the authors are all at the forefront of reproductive and menopausal health discussions happening around the world and have written books, hosted podcasts, run workshops, and created websites and apps related to the topic. Finally, the text is punctuated with wonderful illustrations by Shyam Ghieth and based on quotations from the authors themselves. It is a cohesive, creative, and compelling piece of work that kept me reading well past my (peirimenopausally-induced) bedtime!

I was provided an advanced reader copy (ARC) by the publisher, Unbound, to review with the expectation that I would give my unbiased opinion. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to review.

A beautiful anthology of diverse voices sharing stories and experiences surrounding menopause.

I learned so much from this anthology and loved the range of voices and experiences presented. There were a few of the narratives which I found less engaging and a bit repetitive perhaps because the experiences were similar to that of the previous contributor but otherwise absolutely unputdownable.

I would highly recommend this for anyone more interested in a multi-faceted, inclusive anthology on women and people with wombs' experience of the menopause.