A Menopausal Memoir Letters from Another Climate

Anne Herrmann awoke from surgery for endometriosis and discovered that, without consulting her, her physician had given her -- a woman in her mid-thirties-a hysterectomy. Thrust into instant menopause, she found herself, without warning, in a body that was not her own. In A Menopausal Memoir, she examines her journey through loss, recovery, and healing; the connection between precipitated menopause, mourning, and memory; the instability of sexual identity; structures of storytelling; and the category of experience within feminist theory.

A Menopausal Memoir interweaves the past and the present -- memories with current emotions. Hermann addresses the experience of induced menopause from the point of view of someone who is not a straight, married mother, but rather a feminist scholar who has thought about the relationship between the female body and the meanings attached to it.

The only extended, first-person narrative about menopause, A Menopausal Memoir: Letters from Another Climate explores the connection between menopause, mourning, and memory through nine fictional letters written to different addressees. The letters explain the author’s own experience of having a hysterectomy (without her permission) during surgery for endometriosis and being thrown into instant menopause. Herrmann expresses her experiences differently in each letter based on the recipient’s gender, sexual identity, and age, revealing the complexities of accepting menopause. Psychotherapists, psychologists, physicians, medical students, academics, and those interested in women’s health and women’s studies will receive insight into one woman’s experience and will learn how our bodies mold our sexual identity and shape many aspects of our lives.Writing these letters from the point of view of a scholar engaged in personal narrative but not in the familiar narrative of a woman married with children, Herrmann examines her journey of loss, recovery, and healing through feminist theory. The letters in A Menopausal Memoir reveal many other issues, including: the relationship between the female body and the meanings attached to it the different ways women tell their stories about difficult experiences negotiating the relationship between growing older and sexual identity the body’s response(s) to the loss of organs that form/inform its history the connection between body, identity, and disease A highly personal, yet theoretical, approach to the experience of menopause, A Menopausal Memoir explores how changes in the body affect your sexual identity, your relationships, and your feelings as a woman.

Contents Letter to the Reader: Mourning and Memory Letter to My Mother Letter to an (Ex) Lover Letter to a College Friend Letter to My Father Letter to a Gay Man Letter to (Two) Young Women Letter to my (God) Mother Letter to Myself Bibliographic Essay

Ellen Cole