Sir, - I refer to Alison O'Connor's article "New guide for postmenopausal women" (June 29th).
Certainly, a guide that provides good information is crucial but a word of caution is in order. Canadian women faced a similar paucity of information in the early 1980s but today they are challenging the very way society views menopause, and in particular its medicalisation.
According to a study by Health Canada (1995), "The medical literature has defined menopause attitudinally as a time of decline, implying a diseased state needing treatment rather than a physiological function of ageing."
Today women are no longer willing to take advice from medical professionals without question. Furthermore, they want to view this stage of their lives as a natural process, claims Australian Marian Van Eyk McCain, author of Transformation through Menopause.
They want menopause to be a holistic experience - not a dead end or just another medical problem, but a transition in their lives through which they can hope to grow physically, emotionally and spiritually.
It's up to each woman to create her own personal definition of what menopause means for her rather than be bound too closely by predetermined medical or cultural definitions. - Yours, etc., Dr Ruth Dempsey,
Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.