It's time to change the way we think about menopause. Both medicine and popular culture fixate on menopause as a decline of women's bodies and minds?without recognizing the powerful gifts that come to us in our elder years. Nature did not create us to unravel and diminish in the prime of our lives, says Susan Willson. With Making Sense of Menopause, this renowned women's health practitioner offers a powerful guide to experiencing perimenopause and menopause as a natural gateway into the next vital, exciting, and meaningful phase of our lives. In this inspiring and highly practical guide, Willson dismantles the cultural falsehoods we've been taught about menopause and illuminates: Menopause as metamorphosis?how the changes in our bodies literally transform us into new women with essential roles to play in our culture How the biological arc of a woman's life unfolds toward menopause?and how our earliest experiences inform the menopause we will have Practical guidance for self-care?including sleep, nutrition, stress management, exercise, and social connections Sexuality and relationships?deepening our emotional bonds and expanding our capacity to give and receive pleasure Becoming the Wise Woman?stepping into the essential role of an elder in our youth-obsessed world Susan Willson has found that when women are presented with a positive, empowering perspective on menopause, something extraordinary occurs: We find that we want to do the developmental work of midlife. We want to harness the power we feel rising up as we are finally able to stand for ourselves. We want to give our gifts. With Making Sense of Menopause, this compelling author offers a much-needed guide for women making the physical, emotional, and spiritual transition to their wisdom years.