Review: The Upgrade

Title: The Upgrade

Author: Louann Brizendine, MD

Publisher: 19th April 2022 by Rodale Inc.

Pages: 304 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: nonfiction, health, womens, science, psychology

My Rating: 4.5 cups

Synopsis:

The New York Times bestselling author of The Female Brain explains how a woman's brain changes for the better in midlife, reframing the patriarchal term menopause and inspiring women to unlock their full potential.

When Louann Brizendine published The Female Brain, it was a game-changer for its profound scientific understanding of how women think, communicate, and feel. Now, Brizendine uses her unique ability of making science approachable to offer an empowering vision of the years in a woman's life that have too often been ignored or misunderstood and creates a positive new framework for this life stage. She never uses the words perimenopause or menopause, with their suggestions of obsolescence. She guides women to become more of who they are and who they want to be in the second half of life.

After analyzing the latest research, Brizendine has found that in midlife the inclination to cater to the needs of others relaxes, allowing women to become more centered while retaining their gifts of perception. The change in ratio of estrogen to testosterone makes women more direct and able to speak out. There's also a drop in anxiety that allows the female brain to flip its attentional style from multitasking to focusing on one thing at a time. The upgraded female brain is centered, direct, validated, focused, fearless, expansive, and free. 

In this sweeping look at the second half of life, Brizendine dives deep into the microscopic workings of your mitochondria one moment and zooms out to the bigger picture--family, relationships, identity--the next. With clear prescriptive advice, she also offers specific ways women can fend off dementia; increase longevity, well-being, and sexuality; and find their best selves at this stage of life. Ultimately, The Upgrade amounts to a celebration of how women step into their power and an entirely new--and radically positive--understanding of aging.

My Thoughts

‘By the time you reach your late forties or fifties, you’ve been through a mountain of experience. You’ve traversed the turbulent teens, when you were trying to figure out who you were; the unpredictable twenties, as you struggled to find your way in the world; the buckle-down thirties, when you were trying to implement your life plan; and the juggling forties, when you were living the life you’d made for yourself - for better or worse. What’s next? This is the big unanswered question.’

This was the book I needed to read. Dr. Brizendine shares much here to reassure and educate women, assisting them as they enter the second half of their life. There is science, recommendations, personal and professional stories about menopause/transition, or as called herein, The Upgrade. I found this book to be beneficial on so many levels and reassuring as women face circumstances that are definitely challenging. 

‘The Upgrade is about the path to becoming your best deep self - okay, maybe it’s a bit grandiose, but if not now, when? In the second half of my life, I want to upgrade my skills and improve my willingness to take responsibility for doing so. I want to develop my enthusiasm, patience, humility, commitment, and determination to make the most of this life transition’

Dr. Brizendine thoroughly investigates how this transition impacts women’s lives and paints a positive and rather liberating view on how this change can work for you. It ranges not only from hormonal facts but, what I found enlightening, is the social and personal aspects that not only validate your feelings but encourage and empower you to set your own boundaries to achieve a truer sense of self. 

‘… as I entered the second half of life myself and started to feel the invisibility reserved uniquely for women of a certain age, something inside me rebelled. I could feel a new power, a new clarity, a laser-like sense of purpose emerging in this phase.’

This book was inspiring with the guidance offered and personally, knocked down some figurative boundaries that I had unknowingly erected.  Yes, there is plenty of science but this is accompanied with steps to help reset your life after the upgrade. 

‘In the Upgrade, that game is over. And with it comes a new beginning, with new rules and a survival imperative that drives a new sense of purpose … I am here to signal to your brain that you are just getting started in becoming who you’re meant to be.’

This is such an important book for all women to read. Dr. Brizendine explains how a woman’s brain is essentially rewired during this period and when we can get in tune with that, it opens proverbial doors on clarity and purpose to living a fulfilled second half of your life. You can pick and choose sections that are most relevant or pertinent to you - HRT, exercise, sleep, ageing, mindset etc - and I found it to be rather liberating, powerful and celebratory of how women can truly embrace their best self to successfully make the most of the latter half of their life. 

‘… the liberation is amazing. Just think back over all the times you wished you’d said no, the times of feeling buried under the mountain of “yeses,” the mountain of regrets over not saying no. It’s time to push back on demands. It can change the way we live the second half of our lives.’

One of my main takeaways from this read is that each person's journey is unique and to trust your intuition, listening to your body. This book validated how I am feeling, the journey I am on and it made me feel complete. I highly recommend this read to all women, not only those in transition to the ‘upgrade’ but seeing as conversations still seem to be few and far between, this book contains the words you may need to hear. 

‘I want time for walks, for thinking, for rest, for reevaluating life, priorities, choices. If I am growing consciously into a better person, I can be better for everyone. If I can find peace and happiness, that will make a difference to others around me. It took a long time to understand, to really deeply get that my happiness is not selfish - it’s a contribution to the happiness of others. I don’t mean that small thing of being satisfied. I mean the big happiness that comes when you drop your worries about looks, clothes, money, possessions. When you can embrace life’s joys and its scary uncertainties.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.