This image is the cover for the book The Menopause Lady

The Menopause Lady

This memoir is about life, love, facing breast cancer with its challenges and change. Nancy begins this story with segments from her life that helped form her into the woman she is today. As a nurse practitioner with a specialty in menopause for the past 25 years, she knew she was about to face a tumultuous battle. Blindsided by the diagnosis of breast cancer, she had turned to her journal for guidance and calm. Hormone therapy had been a lifeline to her health and sanity for many years, but now she had to reconcile with the thought of letting go of her estrogen patch. As she gradually reduced the size of the patch while awaiting surgery, symptoms she had experienced years before crept back with a vengeance - hot flashes, night sweats, insomnia, brain fog, irritability, mood swings. The incredible shifts overwhelmed her, she felt as if her life was falling apart. She could still help her patients, but unfortunately not help herself. Suddenly finding herself in a patient role, she knew she needed to speak up and to be heard. Thus began her process of research, seeking out and speaking with experts in the menopause field about hormones after breast cancer, daring to question medical professionals, and ultimately finding her voice. Finally, after doing her homework, journaling extensively and assuming personal responsibility for her future health, she returned to her beloved estrogen. It was not an easy path.

Nancy Siskowic

At age fifty one Nancy Siskowic earned her Master’s Degree as a Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, and two years later completed studies to become a Women’s Health Care Nurse Practitioner. For the past 27 years her primary work has been providing hormone consults to mid-life/menopausal women, as well as practicing as a psychotherapist. Her background includes being a Mind/Body Educator with the Deepak Chopra Center for Well Being, and possessing a Certificate in the Art of Spiritual Direction from Loyola Marymount University, CA. She has lectured extensively nationally and locally on menopause, was a guest on GMA’s 1996 menopause special, and on Lifetime Cable Chanel ‘New Attitudes’ special on peri-mesopause April 1999. Her article “Hot Flash! Hormonal Alchemy During the Menopause Transition” was published in PRESENCE, the International Journal of Spiritual Direction in December, 2008. In June 2017 she was diagnosed with breast cancer. That journey, plus her return to hormone therapy provides the stimulus for this memoir.