Rebecca Booth - The Venus Week: Discover the Powerful Secret of Your Cycle...at Any Age (Revised Edition)

Special Smashwords Edition

discover the powerful secret of
your cycle at any age

by

Rebecca Booth, M.D.

THE VENUS WEEK

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Copyright 2014 Rebecca Booth, M.D. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical without the express written permission of the author. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials.

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The names and identifying details of patients associated with the events described in this book have been changed.

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Cover designed by Da Capo Press

Cover art: Copyright Corbis/42-18631939/Mina Chapman

Published by Telemachus Press, LLC at Smashwords

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http://www.thevenusweek.com

Cataloging-in-Publication data for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

First edition 2008 by Da Capo Press

ISBN: 978-1-940745-68-8 (eBook)

ISBN: 978-1-940745-69-5 (Paperback)

Version 2014.08.27

To Evelyn,

whose beautiful Venus was the envy of us all

I AM FOREVER GRATEFUL to the women in my life who have served as the inspiration for this book. I have been fortunate enough to be surrounded by incredible women from the moment I was born. Surely this ignited my ambition to serve the many mothers, daughters, sisters, wives, aunts, grandmothers, great-grandmothers, and godmothers I am fortunate enough to call my patients. Thank you for sharing your stories with me.

I now know that a project like this is never complete without enormous amounts of help, and my team has been a constant source of energy and support. Thanks so much to my extraordinary sisters: Cecil Booth, who has been my companion, constant navigator, and inspirational creative director on every aspect of this book, and Lady Booth Olson, whose talents and aura amaze all who know her, for her encouragement and passion for the project. Thank you Debra Goldstein, my incredible agent extraordinaire, and writer Billie Fitzpatrick, whose skilled organization made the project Venus package complete.

Heartfelt thanks to the publisher of our 1st edition, Da Capo Lifelong, whose enthusiasm helped ignite this process with lightning speed, and to my editor, Katie McHugh, who with her wise and thoughtful spirit added interest and attention to detail.

Much gratitude to Steve Jackson and his team with Telemachus Press for their patience and guidance with this second edition. Special thanks to Stephanie Kunz for her ultra-sharp editing eye.

Kudos to Rex Lagerstrom, M.D., for his beautiful illustrations and his honest excitement for the concept. And thanks for the graphic assistance of my sister-in-law, Toriann Perkey, who has let me know the book has helped her as a young mother.

I was fortunate to be a lucky debutante in the publishing arena thanks to the advice of Richard Sarnoff and the interest of Amy Hertz, who sent me to my amazing agent. Thank you Marnie Cochran for getting it right from the start, helping to ensure our confidence in the project. Further encouragement came from our New York contingent of early Venus adopters including the wise counsel and enthusiasm of Judith Bookbinder, Nancy Berger Cardone, and the talented Roy Teeluck.

On the home front I could not have pulled this offwith my hardworking husband, two teenagers, a new dog, a very demanding day job as a fulltime gynecologistwithout an amazing support system. Thanks and love to my patient husband, Steve, and my beloved children, Patrick and Michelle, who have had to share me with so much competition over the past few years. Loads of love to my kid sister, Elizabeth Booth, who came running all the way from the beaches of North Carolina to rescue me for the first deadline. My children are begging for more Liz; when will you come back?

Thank you sweet Andrea Wcisel, for your hard work and supporteven trying out my cooking tips, editing, filing, graphic designing, researching, and running my kids all over town! Also, gracias to Jackie, Margo, and Amanda for your excitement about the upcoming launch; youve kept my house running and cozy even as I repeatedly slinked back to the office behind the big lighted screen.

For my partner and dear friend, Lori Warren, M.D., whose Venus is an inspiration: Thank you for your ear and support throughout, and to your husband Marty for sending Cecil and me to Richard in the first place. A big thanks to all of my friends and family; including my terrific dad, and brothers: Wayne, and Josh, who have allowed me to disappear for a year or so, knowing that I will return and try to make it up to everyone when I can come up for air.

Credit should go also to the amazing partners in my practice, Women First of Louisville, for their continued mission to help women in our community maximize their health. Each of you incredibly accomplished women has successfully served as role models in the effort to find balance between family and profession. And to our employees whose excitement about the book has kept me going, especially Kim Aldridge, my assistant of fourteen years, who always knows why I take a five-minute catnap every midday with my head on my desk.

Thank you Dr. Speroff. Your incredible gift of the textbook: Clinical Gynecologic Reproductive Endocrinology is a feat of biblical proportion. In it is every bit of information that one could use to help understand the complexity of a womans hormonal health. As I reread the latest edition authored with Dr. Fritz, I was astounded by the increase in pertinent scientific information since my initial training with a much earlier edition twenty-three years agodown to the last detail of molecular biology.

Thank you Karen Wallace for your patient transcription of my dictated ramblings four years ago as I walked the sidewalks of South Beach forming this concept and to Dina Burshteyn at the Baptist Hospital East medical library for extracting article after article so expedientlyeven the ones in German and French! Also thanks to my favorite pharmacist, Alan Simon, who carefully considered and guided me to many of the recommended supplements in this book.

Gratitude to Dr. Jane Vance, now Kentuckys poet laureate, for encouraging me to write despite my pre-med curriculum all those years ago at the University of Kentucky. Also to Judy Holtman, M.D., who was the first real woman physician who made me believe having it all was possible, albeit