This is Mariella Frostrup's agony aunt column's best bits, as seen in the Observer

A groundbreaking, no-holds-barred guide to the menopause - that combines a passion to enlighten and inform as well as entertain - from inimitable broadcaster, writer and campaigner Mariella Frostrup and award-winning health journalist Alice Smellie.

'Essential reading for everyone' - Marian Keyes It's high time we renovated and elevated this life change. Despite the centuries of speculation and propaganda, we are not overheating or inherently cold, we are not hysterics or boiling vats of toxic poisons, we are not dried up or washed up, we are simply menopausal. It's time for us to start talking about the menopause. Cracking the Menopause, from straight-talking broadcaster Mariella Frostrup and health journalist Alice Smellie, has all the information you need, delivered with characteristic wry humour. Mariella shares her own journey...