Zest for Life: lesbians' experiences of menopause

Abstract

Zest for Life draws on lesbians' experiences of menopause to highlight how lesbians, particularly at midlife, are invisibilised in society at large. Many writers and researchers have critically analysed the medical construction of menopause, yet even they fail to ask whether the issues are the same for lesbians. Zest for Life includes the voices of lesbians who tell us that despite lesbian invisibility and homophobia, many are resisting current standards that exclude them. The experiences of these women challenge negative, stereotypical views of menopause and add a new positive dimension to the presently narrow and medicalised view of women at midlife. An important uplifting book both for lesbians and heterosexual women as well as health professionals which shows that menopause need not be a time of despair.