Chapter One

What does it mean to be Consciously Female?

"I think that I will spend about half my life feeling like I am not myself. If you count the week or so every month before my period, when I am less than efficient, then throw in pregnancy, nursing, and recovery, and top it off with that whole perimenopause and menopause part, it really adds up. My question is-if I am not myself for so much of my life, who am I really?"

You are yourself. Every week of the month. Every month of the year. Every year of your life.

Let me show you how to embrace that reality.

Let me show you ways to work with your female physiology instead of feeling that your physiology is working against you.

Let me show you how to enjoy better health and a more fulfilling life by changing the way you take care of yourself-at every stage of womanhood, from your first menstrual periods through the last ones, and beyond.

As a woman's doctor-and as a woman-I am all too familiar with the complicated relationship we have with our well-being. We know it's important to eat right, exercise, get plenty of sleep, and so on, but we have trouble making the time. We yearn to be well yet ignore symptoms of problems. We nurture everybody else before ourselves. We depend on our strength even as we do nothing to build or maintain it. We find it easier to criticize, complain about, and obsess over our bodies than to admire, celebrate, or feel pride in them We dream about balance and rush to the next item on our to-do list.

Meanwhile, our energy levels, moods, appetites, and desires can fluctuate by the hour or the mi