I'm too young for menopause, but I'm old enough to have friends who have reached it (or the condition that precedes it called perimenopause). Every so often I'll hear a joke about hot flashes, but I can't yet relate. Or I'll hear the term bioidentical hormones, but the only thing I know about that topic is that Suzanne Somers is way into them.

Then I read Mia Lundin's book Female Brain Gone Insane: An Emergency Guide for Women Who Feel Like They are Falling Apart. After becoming a nurse practitioner, she opened a private practice in California specializing in female hormone imbalances (she struggled through her own issues after she gave birth to her second child and suffered postpartum depression).

Instead of treating her patients with synthetic hormones, she explains why she believes bioidentical hormones are a better solution (they are compounds that have the exact same molecular structure as hormones produced in the human body). 

If your female brain feels like it's going insane (intense anxiety, frequent crying spells, irritability, etc.), the author suggests taking a close look at your hormone levels and neurotransmitters (chemicals that relay messages between a neuron and another cell).

Her book walks readers through "steps to sanity" and takes an in-depth look at how bioidentical hormones, nutritional foods, and supplements might help. The final chapters are devoted to adrenal health and thyroid function.

I hope my transition to menopause goes so darn smoothly I don't need a single med, natural or synthetic. But I'm tucking the book on my shelf for future reference. Just in case.

Female Brain Gone Insane: An Emergency Guide for Women Who Feel Like They Are Falling Apart by Mia Lundin (HCI Books, $14.95).